Lab Technician

bleh!

I was just wondering, what sort of degree do you need to have to be a lab technician in a hospital? You know those people who grow cultures, check samples and stuff? How's the job like? The salary? Making some really late CAO decisions here, need some help!

A Neurotic

At a guess, Biomedical Science or maybe Human Health and Disease, one of those kind of courses?

Ange1Pho3nix

You need a degree in Biomedical Sciences and then to complete a year of training to get your Certificate of Competence, some courses include this while others don't. I can't comment much on salary etc as I have only just qualified and not done my year training but the course is very heavy going with alot of lectures and material to read, aslong as you have a sound knowledge of sciences there should be no problems.

Any questions about the course, just ask.

bleh!

Thanks for the replies. I was just thinking about the job itself. Would it be stressful? What kind of hours would you be looking at per week? Nearly no patient contact, isn't it? The pay isn't so bad too, is it?

ORLY?

http://www.amls.ie/membership

The easiest way is to do the course at one of the ITs because the required practical training is built in and the degrees are specifically on the approved list.

mad al

If you want to be a Medical Laboratory Scientist (medical diagnostic scientist) then you need to have a degree in Biomedical science which is accredited by the Academy of Medical Laboratory Scientists (AMLS). The only courses in Ireland which are accredited are Biomedical Sciences in DIT, UCC/CIT and Medical Science in GMIT. If you study Biomedical Science in the other third level institutions you are mainly qualified for research.

I have just commenced my second year of Biomedical Sciences in DIT. This course is not only accredited by the AMLS but also by the London equivalent which allows us to also work as MLS anywhere in the Common Wealth of Nations. In the third year of the course you spend your time in a designated hospital where you have a year of unpaid work placement. In this year you experience all the Med lab specialties. These include haematology, biochemistry, pathology, cytology, microbiology, blood transfusion science and Immunology. Also during this year you return to the college every 5 weeks for a exam and when you return from your placement around march you have to complete some practicals over a number of weeks. There is also an oral debrief with some of the academic staff I believe. Fourth year is focused on the two specialties you decide to major and minor in.

We were just informed this week that there are very few jobs at present in this area which is a situation that has not really occurred before. However 4 years is a long time and even if there are no jobs the accreditation of the course will allow us to work abroad.

The course is pretty busy. First year has a lot of irrelevant and boring modules but in second year these mainly disappear. We have a lot of labs and very long days in college this year especially, with 9 am to 8:30pm days not being out of the ordinary. Thats also before study. We were told before that as you work your way up the ladder from a junior MLS to a senior one the salary becomes generous and if you make it to a lab manager 100 grand a year is average. Also night shift work is well paid.

What is great about the course is you can go and work in hospitals or private diagnostic companies the day you graduate and if that is not for you then you can work in research and pharmaceuticals etc.

If you have any the questions send me a message.