JEDilworth wrote:
> What Larry said is true. However, I must take issue with the word
> "technician." A technologist has more training than a technician: MT's
> (medical technologists) have a four year degree and/or a year of
> laboratory internship that covers all areas of the clinical laboratory.
> We then take a national registry examination. ASCP is the registry that
> the majority of techs in the U.S. have, although there are others.
>>http://tinyurl.com/5k4uky - This is the ASCP site that shows the
> different levels of laboratory workers
>> Most microbiology departments in the U.S. employ MT's as the work is
> considered complex. The level of complexity of lab work requires
> different levels of training.
>> Physicians do NOT work in the lab, except on the TV series "House." Do
> not confuse TV with real life :-(.
>> Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
> Microbiology
>> "Larry Farrell" <farrlarr from isu.edu> wrote in message
> news:8cd6f$484c637b$29693 from news.teranews.com...>>>> A really basic issue, suggested by some of the other responses but not
>> explicitly addressed, is that doctors do not do *any* of the
>> identification, whether machinery is used or not. The samples taken,
>> usually not by the doctor, are sent to the lab where technicians
>> trained in identification techniques specific to identification of the
>> types of organisms suspected (bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.) do the
>> actual work of identification. Doctors are trained to use that
>> information for diagnosis, but they do not do identification.
>
Sorry, Judy, I should have paid more attention to what I was saying.
Since I have just retired from 36 years of association with departments
that have included Medical Technology programs (now a Clinical
Laboratory Science program), I certainly know better! Mea culpa, mea
culpa, mea maxima culpa.
--
Larry D. Farrell, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Microbiology
Idaho State University
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **
