Learning and Utilization of Generic Skills by Practitioners in the Field of Clinical Laboratory Science/Medical Technology

Clinical Laboratory Science, Spring 2006 by Guiles, H Jesse, Ward-Cook, Kory

The responses were analyzed in terms of the frequencies of ways in which the skills were learned and how much they were used. Three major chi-square analyses were performed: 1) CLS/MTS learning the skills vs. using the skills in their current, ITF jobs. 2) Being a NAACLS or Other BS/BA major vs. using the skills in the ITF jobs and 3) Being a NAACLS or Other BS/BA major vs. initially learning the skills as a student or OTJ. Statistical analyses were done using the JMP (SAS Institute, Gary NC) statistical program. Significance between groups was defined as (p≤ 0.05) for each generic skill.

RESULTS

Various demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 2. Of the 429 participants answering the questions regarding job titles, 70% (299) reported they were staff technologists, 13% (n = 55) managers, five percent (n = 23) supervisors and 12% (n = 52) held "other" job titles. The frequencies for using the generic skills in the CLS/MT ITF jobs are shown in Figure 1. Most of the skills were reported as being utilized frequently or sometimes by approximately 90% or more of the respondents. However, participation in research, technical writing, and utilization studies were reported as being used rarely or never by the majority of the respondents. Furthermore, supervision and teaching were almost as likely to be used or not used by the respondents.

The frequencies for learning the skills as a student or OTJ for the entire sample group are depicted in Table 3. Learning the skills initially as a student generally showed higher percentages, with some exceptions: supervision, teaching and technical writing had higher or equal reported frequencies for being developed OTJ as opposed to being initially learned as a student. A sizable percentage (≥ 25%) of graduates coming from both NAACLS BS and Other BS/BA programs reported never learning research, teaching, technical writing, utilization studies and supervision.

Table 4 presents the frequencies of learning the skills according to type of degree. The frequencies for learning the skills as students were consistently higher for NAACLS BS graduates than Other BS/BA graduates. Conversely, the frequencies for developing the skills OTJ were consistently higher for the Other BS/BA graduates than NAACLS BS graduates. Note that in this dichotomy, the frequencies for never learning certain skills are consistent with that of the overall sample (Table 2) for both NAACLS BS and Other BS/BA graduates.

With the exception of learning computer skills (χ^sup 2^ = 8.060 p = 0.0178), chi square analyses showed no significant differences between NAACLS BS vs. Other BS/BA graduates in either using or learning the generic skills. However, when comparing learning vs. using the skills for the entire sample group, several significant differences were observed (Table 5).

DISCUSSION

The study is a short encapsulation regarding the perception of the utilization and learning of certain generic skills by CLS/MT professionals in their eighth year of practice post certification. These type of skills rank high in the hierarchy of learning and application by MT/CLS educators and employers alike,2-9 and are embedded in the competencies for CLS/MTs as described in the new NAACLS "Standards of Accredited Educational Programs for the Clinical laboratory Scientist/Medical Technologist".10 Results, however, did not totally parallel those reported in a previous study of MTS/ CLS who had LTE.1