Laboratory Technician Schools

Find The Laboratory Technician Schools To Start Your Career

Interested in training to become a medical lab technician? Are laboratory technician schools accessible in your area? A medical laboratory technologist needs intensive training to qualify for work because you deal with biological specimens, perform tests on body fluids, cells and tissues. The work is both technical and scientific and you need sustained interest and commitment to succeed in any laboratory technician schools or this profession.

Lab tech job description

Your main responsibility as a medical technician is to carry out laboratory testing and ensure the specimen's integrity. Remember, these are what you work with to determine disease, its extent and causes. You are under the direct supervision of medical laboratory scientists, pathologists and other professionals in the field of biology.

You must have an extensive knowledge of techniques, instruments and procedures that will produce the quality results for proper diagnosis and eventual treatment. Specializations in this profession include chemistry, cytology, virology, hematology, immunology, microbiology and blood banking.

Technology has made it easier to perform testing, although manual testing may still be required in certain cases, when you analyze tissues, cells and fluids like blood. Your job as clinical lab technician or medical lab assistant is to search for microorganisms, like bacteria and parasites, that cause disease or check the chemical content that lead to a breakdown of bodily functions.

Training required

Formal education is necessary because of the scientific and technical nature of the job. It's like being a detective, working with laboratory findings then applying basic scientific principles in order to identify diseases.

The minimum required is an associate degree in medical technology that is offered in laboratory technician schools for two years. It involves both classroom instruction, laboratory classes and externship for practical training. The coursework usually includes chemistry, microbiology, microscopy, immunology, pathology and laboratory mathematics.

Where to find schools

There are many laboratory technician schools all over America. In fact, in all 52 states. The state of Texas leads the pack with 51 schools. Coming in second place is Illinois with 35 of such schools, mostly community colleges or technical and vocational schools.

New York and North Carolina each have 33 clinical laboratory technician schools. In New York, six colleges offer associate degrees, three, bachelor degrees, and 12 each with masters and doctorate programs. The six schools are located in Middleton, Garden City, Buffalo, Bronx, Poughkeepsie and Binghamton.

Ohio has 30 schools, Pennsylvania, 29 and Georgia, 21. California is way behind with only 11 medical laboratory technician schools. Seven of these schools offer associate degree programs: Cabrillo, De Anza, Hartnell, Mt. San Antonio, El Camino and Saddleback Colleges and Argosy University, which also offers the program online. There are two of each with masters and doctorate programs.

Since career advancement opportunities are plenty for this profession, many of the schools thought it wise to offer post-graduate degrees, although rare are the institutions that have multiple degree programs.

The medical laboratory technician salary entry level positions don't pay lower than $28,000 even with less than a year of experience so it can be a very rewarding career. If you want to boost your salary, get certified. Or better yet, do extensive externship to gain more hands-on experience to give you added advantage when finally applying for work.

If it's a possible career option for you, better start scouting for the best laboratory technician schools to get your ready.

Medical Laboratory Technician Salary >