MLSA are a disgrace

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119112905#Comment_119112905

I wanted to be a BMS but, as you know, they tightened criteria. I was annoyed at the time but I got employment abroad and got to travel so it worked out quite nicely in the end.

But yeah, 21 year old me would have had your hand off for a nice government lab job for life.

Martina1991

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119112905#Comment_119112905

To work as a medical scientist in a hospital laboratory you need to have the relevant qualification. You also need CORU state registration to practice.

Other science degrees, while varied and useful in other areas, is not a qualification to practice as a medical scientist.

Other science degrees can be quite specific to one area, particularly in the final year. To work as a medical scientist you need knowledge in all areas of laboratory medicine; Clinical Chemistry, Haematology, Blood Transfusion, Medical Microbiology, Histopathology and more. You need to understand and interpret results from the other departments to understand what is going on with each patient, what results require further investigation, what other tests my be needed.

Other degrees like radiography, physiotherapy, nursing etc are qualifications. Medical science is the exact same.

Just because someone did a science degree, doesn't mean they're qualified to work in a specific profession.

This isn't the union or academy being pedantic or tight with requirements. This is to protect the patient that every medical scientist is qualified and trained to the same standard.

There are plenty of graduates from the 3 degree courses. The problem is the poor conditions, morale and burnout that cause staff to leave the profession when they're in it.

BrianD3

So, to sum up, as per Martina1991's posts, the current CAO points for med lab science are 517-590 (517 is about a top 25% LC and 590 about top 5%) And for that very decent LC, the starting salary for a medical scientist is 34.4k, less than that for other health professionals. And here's what you can expect to deal with:

"poor conditions, morale and burnout that cause staff to leave the profession when they're in it"

"profession was threatened with outsourcing, redundancies and further pay cuts"

"told big satellite labs will be set up around the country where all GP samples will be processed. The hospital labs will be downsized and people will be out of a job"

"Fear and intimidation"

"will have to wait another 8-10 years for a shot at promotion when the next person is due to retire"

"lack of permanent contract"

"Staff shortages are in every grade"

"chronic staff retention issues"

This is clearly bad - but other science grads who don't have the all important specific degree, CORU legal requirement and unionised PS employment have it worse. As I already stated, I know science grads who returned to college to study med lab science because of the rubbish career prospects with more general degrees in chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry etc. None of them regretted that decision. Others went down the rabbit hole of PhD, short term postdoc contracts and forced emigration. Others got the hell out of science as soon as they could afford to retrain for an actual career which was anything from plumbing to accounting. Oh yeah, during the financial crisis I interviewed science PhDs (with postdoc experience) for unpaid Jobbridge "jobs" and had to reject them because there were more applicants than "jobs".

The points made by me and others in the other thread are only strengthened by what is coming out about medical science in this one.