Clinical Assistant - Mountwest Community and Technical College

Clinical Assistant from Mountwest Community and Technical College is a Campus Certificate Health Aide degree that prepares you for a Healthcare career. Program Description: Clinical Assistants (CA) are multi-skilled clinical laboratory professionals competent to perform waived and low-to-moderate complex laboratory testing. As a critical component of the health care team, the clinical laboratory is responsible for approximately 90% of the information physician?s use to detect, diagnose, and treat medical conditions and infectious disease. Typically, Clinical Assistants work under the supervision of a Medical Laboratory Technician or Medical Technologist. The multi-faceted role of the Clinical Assistant includes collection of blood and non-blood specimens, preparation of blood and body fluid specimens for laboratory analysis, as well as laboratory testing in the areas of chemistry, hematology, microbiology, urinalysis, immunology, and blood product screening/component processing. Clinical Assistants perform laboratory testing using low-to-moderately complex automated instruments for specimen analysis, and routinely use Laboratory Information Systems for ordering tests and result documentation. The Clinical Assistant is capable of comparing laboratory test results to normal reference ranges, as well as recognizing abnormal laboratory test results and their relationship to common disease states. Strict adherence to safe laboratory practice and infection control policies is an essential element of this profession. A successful Clinical Assistant must be detail-oriented, possess excellent customer service skills, and be capable of prioritizing tasks in a manner to maintain workflow and productivity. The A.A.S. Clinical Assistant Degree includes a total of 63 credit hours, of which 24 credit hours focus specifically on the field of laboratory medicine. Successful completion of the CA Program will include a clinical internship at an affiliated health-care facility. Many states require licensure in order to perform laboratory testing. The West Virginia Office of Laboratory Services (WVOLS) currently requires licensure of all laboratorians performing moderate-complex laboratory testing. Upon completion of the Clinical Assistant Program, graduates will be eligible for WV state licensure as a Clinical Laboratory Practitioner-Point of Care Technician, with appropriate documentation as required by WVOLS. Career Outlook: Opportunities for job placement in the field of laboratory medicine are excellent. At present, the number of jobs currently available exceeds the number of qualified applicants. With steady population growth and implementation of new laboratory tests, employment is expected to grow faster than the average for all other occupations through the year 2014. With the rapid growth of point of care testing, employment opportunities in physician?s offices and other ambulatory health care facilities will dramatically increase over the next five to ten years. Employment Opportunities: Hospitals Health Care Clinics Physician?s Office laboratories Blood Donation/Collection Centers Reference Laboratories Medical Research Laboratories View more details on Mountwest Community and Technical College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Health Aide courses.