An entry-level MS degree in clinical laboratory science: Is it time?

Clinical Laboratory Science, Summer 2002 by Beck, Susan J, Doig, Kathy

Respondents from institutions of all sizes were included in the study. Over half (55.9%) of the managers indicated that they were in laboratories performing fewer than 500,001 tests per year. Most educators were from institutions performing over 1,000,000 tests per year (42.9%) or they indicated that this question was not applicable to them (37.6%).

The survey question on primary job function verified that the populations chosen for this study did represent targeted groups of educators, managers, and practitioners. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents to the survey of CLS program directors indicated that their primary job function was "educator". Over 95% of the surveys sent to CLMA members were returned by respondents who listed their job function as supervisor, administrator, or director. Most of the respondents in the practitioner survey (55.4%) listed CLS/MT as their primary job function. Respondents in the practitioner group also included some supervisors and administrators (22%) and educators (10. 1%).

The majority of the managers (60.2%) and practitioners (68.5%) indicated that a BS degree was their highest degree. Respondents in the educator group had the highest percent of MS degrees (54.6%) and doctorates (28.8%). The educator group was also the oldest group of respondents with 79.8% reporting that they had over 20 years of paid experience. The practitioner group was younger than the educator and manager groups, with 50% of practitioners indicating that they had fewer than 20 years of experience.

The 556 students who responded to the survey were distributed across all geographic regions. Forty-three percent (43.7%) of the students had a high school diploma before entering their CLS program and 19.7% had an associate degree on program entry. Over one-third of students (35.4%) entered a CLS program with a BS degree and 1.3% had an MS degree. Fifty-six percent of the student respondents were from university-based programs and 42.2% were from hospital-- based CLS programs. A few students (1.4%) indicated that they were from other types of programs and they described these programs as entry-level MS program (5), advanced MS program (1), reference laboratory (1), and non-profit community foundation (1).

Student specific responses

Students' views on the benefits of an entry-level MS CLS program and their concerns about this type of program are shown in Table 2. The students' greatest concerns were that there would be no gain in salary and no difference in job opportunities for the entry-level MS degree. Benefits that would encourage students to enroll in an entry-level MS CLS program were better job opportunities and higher salaries.

Approximately one third (30.5%) of the students indicated that they would have been very interested in an entry-level MS in CLS when they were considering a CLS program and 18.7% indicated that they would have had no interest in this type of program. Half of the students (50.5%) said they would have been somewhat interested in an entry-level MS in CLS.