Combine Medical Laboratory Technician Courses with Practical Training at Centennial College
“What we do in the Medical Laboratory Technician
program, is we practice the practical aspects of being in a medical
lab,” says Daniel Pasternack, a student of Centennial College’s
undertaking. “We practice taking blood from each other and doing
microbiology plates and taking part in all of the aspects of what you
would be doing in a medical lab.” Meanwhile, for student Ava
Herichmiller one of the most exciting parts of the medical lab technician
undertaking is having professors who have worked in the field and who
have their own experiences, which are shared with the students. “It
gives you a very good idea of what you will be doing in the field,” sums
up Ava.
These two students do a great job of summarizing the most special
aspects of Centennial College’s Medical Laboratory Technician
undertaking: practical experience and knowledgeable faculty. But there
is much more the program has to offer. First and foremost, to apply,
students must have completed at minimum an Ontario Secondary School
Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent or be 19 years of age or older. Also
required are: compulsory English 12C or U or skills assessment, or
equivalent; math 12C or U or skills assessment, or equivalent; Biology
11C or U or equivalent.
Once students are accepted, they train for three semesters and graduate
with an Ontario College Certificate. As this is a collaborative program
taught by Centennial’s School of Community and Health Studies and
School of Engineering Technology and Applied Science, representatives
from hospitals, private laboratories and the Ministry of Health provide
curriculum input. This input has resulted in a medical lab technician
offering that sees students becoming familiar with essential functions
such as collecting blood, processing clinical specimens, performing
ECGs, setting up Holter monitors, and performing a variety of lab
responsibilities. In order to do this, the medical laboratory technician
courses teach students the use of laboratory equipment, medical
terminology, transcultural health, applied chemistry for the medical
laboratory, clinical data management, and much more.
To round out the theoretical and practical knowledge students of the
Medical Laboratory Technician program obtain on campus, they participate
in a Clinical Internship, during which they apply theoretical knowledge
in a clinical practice setting under the direction of a medical
laboratory assistant. This focus of this course is to allow for easy
transition into the workplace environment. Students will be given the
opportunity to become proficient at specimen collection and handling and
be able to function as an effective member of a medical laboratory
team. Lastly, students of this offering have eligibility for
certification as a Medical Laboratory Assistant/ Technician with the
Ontario Society of Medical Laboratory Technologists and the Canadian
Society for Medical Laboratory Science.
Upon graduation from the Medical Laboratory Technician program,
students work in hospital laboratories, public health laboratories,
reference laboratories, biomedical companies, universities, industrial
medical laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, forensic medicine,
governments, veterinary labs and the armed forces. Medical laboratory
technicians can specialize in one of five different areas: blood
banking, chemistry, hematology, immunology, or microbiology.