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Medical & Clinical Laboratory Technologists

Also called: Medical Technologist (MT), Medical Laboratory Technologist (Medical Lab Tech), Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS), Medical Laboratory Technician

What they do:
Perform complex medical laboratory tests for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. May train or supervise staff.
On the job, you would:
  • Conduct chemical analysis of body fluids, including blood, urine, or spinal fluid, to determine presence of normal or abnormal components.
  • Analyze laboratory findings to check the accuracy of the results.
  • Enter data from analysis of medical tests or clinical results into computer for storage.

Knowledge

Math and Science
  • biology
  • chemistry
Business
  • customer service
  • administrative services
Health
  • medicine and dentistry
Arts and Humanities
  • English language

Skills

Basic Skills
  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems
Problem Solving
  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Abilities

Verbal
  • listen and understand what people say
  • read and understand what is written
Ideas and Logic
  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
  • notice when problems happen
Visual Understanding
  • quickly compare groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things
  • see hidden patterns
Hand and Finger Use
  • put together small parts with your fingers

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include
ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Attention to Detail
  • Integrity
  • Dependability
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Independence
  • Analytical Thinking

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Medical software
  • Electronic medical record EMR software
  • Laboratory information system LIS software
Spreadsheet software
Electronic mail software
  • Email software

Education

Education: (rated 4 of 5)
bachelor's degree or
associate's degree
usually needed

Get started on your career:

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Job Outlook

Average Outlook
New job opportunities are likely in the future.
Salary
$57,010
per year, on average
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See more details at O*NET OnLine about medical and clinical laboratory technologists.