Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Medical Laboratory Science

JON: Great. Let’s get started. Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for your time. We will be discussing the PBC, the Post Baccalaureate Certificate in medical laboratory sciences for the George Washington University.

Here are the topics of conversation for our presentation. We’ll briefly get to know who you will be hearing from and their backgrounds, information about the University and its rich history, a breakdown of the way our program works in an online environment.

We’ll cover programmatic details for those new to the industry or for seasoned veterans, an overview of the career opportunities our graduates can expect, hear from faculty directly about the program’s objectives from their unique perspective. Lastly, we will discuss the process with which students apply and what is needed.

Hello there. I’m Jon. I’m on the bottom. I’ll be your host for a portion of the slides this evening. I’ve been in higher education for a little over a decade now, working in various roles in admissions.

I did complete a traditional undergrad degree on campus. This is really before online learning was even widespread. We had one hybrid class then. But then I did my master’s while working [INAUDIBLE] kids in a fully online environment, much like a lot of you might.

Joining me is our program director, expert in all things MLS professor samrat Thank you for joining us. Would you like to introduce yourself?

CLIFF CYMROT: Sure. Thanks, Jon. My name is Cliff Cymrot. I am the program director for the undergraduate MLS programs here at GW.

I oversee a number of different MLS programs. I also teach a number of different courses both online and in person, such as hematology and molecular diagnostics. And I’m excited for everyone to be here today.

JON: Perfect. Thank you so much. Let’s cover some details about the university itself before diving into the program. Collaboration, respect, openness, and diversity are core values that define GWU. In year 201 of existence now, GW is located in the heart of where health care policy and research is being conducted and decided on.

The lengthy history and specialization in medicine allow our faculty to have vast connections within the industry. Not just a local or national name, GW has a strong global alumni list and has students from all 50 states, the District, and 130 countries. There are more than 26,000 undergrad and grad students enrolled within the university, a strong ranking and recognition from industry experts such as US News.

Let’s dive into some of the day to day expectations and using an online learning platform. All the coursework that you’ll do is entirely online and is asynchronous with no live lectures. We use Blackboard to manage content, which allows for weekly deadlines within a structured seasonal semester.

Each semester is 16 weeks long, and many of the classes, though, will be in an eight week format. You can log on as needed within the week to complete assignments, do discussion board posts, responses, quizzes.

The mission of the Student Support Team is to help students succeed at GWU, and it’s by connecting them to many support resources, helping them develop plans of action to meet their goals, while navigating challenging circumstances, to work with and engage with real faculty, such as Professor Cymrot, for your online classes

CLIFF CYMROT: So thank you, Jon, again. So if any of these sounds like you, this is the right place to be, so if you genuinely enjoy the sciences and topics like microbiology and chemistry. You have a passion for health care and create a positive impact in the community. Maybe bedside wasn’t the best fit for a number of reasons, but you still want to help patients.

You’re interested in the latest diagnostic testing in health care technology. Career focused on something that pays well and is in strong demand no matter what the economy looks like. You like research, or you want to further pursue the advancement of testing or instrumentation development. You prefer to work in a lab and examine specific specimens for testing.

And I also ran an Indeed search, and there were over 10,000 job postings nationwide. So if any of these sound like you’re interested, and they pique your interest– hey, I really like health care, and I like sciences, and I want to utilize instruments, then we strongly recommend a medical lab science career might be a great path for you. Next slide, please.

So specifically why this program? So it’s a great field, medical lab science, but why this program? First and foremost, the success rates– this program is designed and accredited for students to take a very specialized test leading to a very high, in-demand position. With over a 90% pass rate last year compared to just 69% for the national average, this proof lies in the success of our graduates and how we better prepare them to enter this field.

This program is from a medical school and from the school’s Medicine and Health Sciences department. With that brings prestige and a connection validated from the success of students. Next slide, please.

So why choose this degree? So the field of Medical Laboratory Sciences is a great field. This is an excellent university. But why choose this degree?

So the George Washington University online Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in laboratory science is perfect if you’re looking to advance your career and become board certified as a laboratory technologist. The certificate program is designed to teach you how to analyze blood, urine, tissues, and other body specimens to detect, diagnose, and treat disease.

You’ll learn the latest molecular techniques to investigate and determine the causes of disease. As one of the few medical laboratory medicine programs in the country that combines all our coursework and a hands-on practicum, you’ll be prepared to sit for the ASCP medical laboratory scientist board certification exam.

And just a note that our programs lead to eligibility for all the national certification exams. It’s just we recommend the ASCP certification exam because that’s the gold standard recognized throughout the country. So specifically, we recommend that, but you are eligible for the other MLS certification exams.

And importantly, there’s a critical laboratory work shortage, so highly trained laboratory scientists are in demand. Next slide, please.

So what does the career outlook look like? The Bureau of Labor statistics projects that the increase in the aging population is expected to lead to a greater need to diagnose medical conditions through laboratory procedures such as cancer or type 2 diabetes. Overall employment of medical laboratory technologists and technicians is expected to grow 7% from 2019 to 2029, and this is faster than the average for all occupations, not just health care occupations. So it has tremendous growth.

Salary ranges from 50,000 to 70,000, depending upon the job, position, and location. Important to note, it can be higher. It just depends upon the positions you get into. More supervisory, laboratory direction positions will pay more, particularly if you get into public health. Government jobs tend to pay very well.

Graduates can be found working in all these various fields. So hospital and private laboratories, that’s a majority of the MLSs. Biotech pharmaceutical laboratories, crime labs, veterinary labs if you like helping animals, research labs, medical sales, technical service. These are very lucrative– particularly lucrative positions to be in if you like traveling and fixing instruments and things like that.

Government regulatory agencies– there’s just a whole range of opportunities for those that get into the laboratory profession field. Next slide, please.

So here’s a curriculum overview. This is particularly for the Post-Baccalaureate certificate in MLS. The Masters or the graduate program in laboratory medicine is a little different, it’ll have graduate degree courses, but similar.

But for the Post-Baccalaureate certificate program, it’s comprised of 48 credits, and these are the courses that you will be taking. The curriculum is comprised of five semesters, so you can complete everything in five semesters, and happens each semester, so spring, summer, and fall. The courses are going to be lock step, so you’ll take, generally, two or three courses at a time of varying lengths. Some will be eight weeks. Some will be 15 weeks.

So some of the courses that you’ll be taking– bacteriology, hematology, biochemistry, molecular diagnostics, and all of these are help to prepare you to enter the field as a medical laboratory scientist. Next slide, please.

We are extremely proud of the faculty that we have here for our programs. Faculty members here teach courses in the Post-Baccalaureate certificate medical laboratory science program are all ASCP certified. We are subject matter experts, and we hold a master’s or doctoral degree.

And we’re qualified to deliver the best possible education to help you achieve your goals. And all the faculty here love what they do, and they’re very excited to teach and to potentially teach you if you come and join us. Next slide, please.

OLGA DERGACHEVA: Hi, my name is Olga Dergacheva, and I’m one of the two clinical coordinators with the biomedical laboratory sciences department. So students are taking rotations in the DMV area, which includes Washington DC Metropolitan area, Maryland, and Virginia. We’ll work with the local clinical site coordinator to schedule their rotations, and the local clinical site coordinator is Ms. DeSilva.

Students who are attending rotations outside of the DMV area, which is pretty much all other states outside of Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia, will work with me to schedule their rotations– to coordinate their rotations. So we do have a clinical policy, which we call the Clinical Experience Guide, that explains all the policies and rules and information about the clinical rotations and the expectations and standards while the student is attending their rotations.

So one thing that is important to point out, that any major changes that may occur from the time the student is admitted to the time of the clinical semester may affect eligibility to attend clinical practice. So this type of changes will need to be reported to your clinical coordinator.

For example, if you may have moved, and you change in the clinical side, or something may have happened to your health or background check or military. We have a lot of military students, and they relocate from one base on another to include internationally. So anything that affects your ability to complete clinical rotations, we do ask that you work with your clinical coordinator to make sure that you are successful. Next slide, please.

So clinical placement is essentially three steps. Number one is to secure a clinical location, and then if the site is approved, then it’s added to the tentative roster. And then the admissions team completes the admission file and sends it to the program for review.

So here at the university, it is a rigorous and high quality education in health sciences, and one way we ensure that our students are up for the challenge is by requiring applicants to secure a clinical placement before they are admitted into the program. But don’t worry about it just yet. You are not alone, just thrown to the wolves out there. No, we are here to assist you.

So the basic policy is that if you live within 25 miles of our DC campus, then you may qualify as a local student. So if you have professional experience working in a laboratory, you may qualify for a waiver or part of the required rotations. This is a very popular program, so if you have worked in the lab and meet certain eligibility criteria, then that’s definitely an option that is available for you to pursue.

So in our clinical placement, specialists are available to help in conducting searching and communicating with laboratory contacts and give you guidance on how to approach sites and best practices on success in securing a clinical placement. So we’re looking forward to working with you in the future.

JON: Thank you so much. Yeah, very well said. So here’s really a breakdown of how our team will engage with students that are seeking clinical placements.

So just to reiterate, we have to verify that clinical site before students go through the application process, and that one just speaks to our success rate, too. We want students to have all of the boxes checked before they even spend money on an application fee. That way, you know you have a proper site that meets all ASCP requirements to host you for the clinical, so you’re able to sit for the test and get into your career.

So students, many times, are going to be in different stages of their research, so we’ll initially go over how to start the process of locating a site. Students are already working. Maybe they’re a lab assistant. They can go right to their lab manager. Maybe they can do it where they are.

If they’re not within 40 miles of DC, and they’re not working on a site, which is the majority of our students, we’ll be checking in with you. So we’re going to provide you with email documentation how to start your initial search. We will periodically check in with students via phone or email to see how we may assist with or answer any questions as the research progresses.

We do have an established clinical line. We leave that open for nearly 12 hours a day, Monday through Thursday. Friday, it’s until about 5:00 we have someone here talking to them.

Step two, that involves us sending a list of previous affiliates. So if students aren’t able to find something just geographically closest to them, we may have had a previous student find a lab in your area that could be a second place to look. Not the end all, be all, but it just gives you a potential agreement that’s already been established.

In step three, the student will have located their clinical site. They’re assigned a specific admissions counselor who will create a unique shared application folder. That way, as students send in documents, they’re able to see their own progress, and the counselor is able to give them specific feedback on their documents.

We’ll assist in ordering transcripts for students assuming the school lets us, that you went to. We’ll reach out to your recommenders directly to provide specific programmatic instructions on how to write a strong reference for you, all the while communicating with each student really based on their preferred method of communication.

Now, we have the admissions counselors available to talk over the phone or on chat to cover each student’s program eligibility, and that’s a big piece. We want to look at your transcripts. We want to determine that you have all the classes needed as prerequisites to meet eligibility. We’ll also be able to do a specific GPA calculation.

So once that clinical site’s verified, or students are approved as a local student, they’ll begin the application process. We made that convenient, again, with assisting in a lot of the documents. It’s also a very flexible online portal, and we’ll look for academic success in terms of your cumulative GPA verified via official transcripts from all universities.

Again, we can help to attempt to order them and pay for them for you as long as your school will let us. So that completed application online, a copy of your professional resume, one to two letters of recommendation depending on which program. This [INAUDIBLE] work or school related, so supervisor, current or former, a professor, for example, those would be strong recommendations. In some cases, potentially a coworker, but usually a supervisor, current or former, or a professor will look the best.

A 500-plus word statement of goals, as we call a personal statement. We have an outline to help students with on that. We certainly proofread, can help to guide you through what’s expected, and then an $8 application fee. That is waived for certain students, our military or current or former alumni, for example.

So before applying or if you’re seeking questions regarding the program, the clinical site verification process, please call or email us at the above contact information. By phone, it’s 202-466-3791, or online, hss@gwu.edu. Admissions councils are available Monday through Friday with evening hours through Thursdays each week.

Thank you so much for your time, everybody. So we can open up if anyone has maybe questions for Professor Cymrot or anything we could go over.

STUDENT: I have a question. I just wanted to ask, in terms of being eligible for the ASCP examination, I see on the ASCP.org website, there’s six routes that you can qualify through. So I just wanted to know, if you did attend the university, and you completed the course MLS program, what route does that qualify you to, or through?

CLIFF CYMROT: That’s a great question. You’re going to apply through route 1.

STUDENT: And all you need to do is complete the MLS program through you guys, and you’re instantly eligible to qualify through route 1?

CLIFF CYMROT: Correct. So it’s going through the entire program successfully completing all five semesters, going through clinical rotations, and that’s what allows you to become eligible. So as soon as you graduate from the program, you are eligible to take the ASCP exam.

STUDENT: Is that assuming you have a Bachelor? Because you’d need one for the application process.

CLIFF CYMROT: You must have a bachelor’s degree in order to even apply to the Post-Baccalaureate certificate program. If you didn’t have a bachelor’s degree, you could apply to our other undergraduate programs that allow for that option, but you would not be eligible for the Post-Baccalaureate certificate pathway.

STUDENT: Understood. But route 1 says Baccalaureate degree from a regional accredited college or university, so about myself, I’m actually– I went to a Canadian University and achieved my Bachelor of Science there. So does that affect the route qualification?

CLIFF CYMROT: If you were [INAUDIBLE] student– another great question. All students that apply to our programs, whether they’re national or international, they– if you’re international, you would have to have your transcripts evaluated by an appropriate international agency, such as WES, that can evaluate how your transcripts compare to a university in the US.

And if they evaluate out, which most of the time, if the university is a strong– a good school, then that’s fine, but we review all applications and all transcripts to be able to determine that. So if you applied, and you went through that particular– type of evaluation agency, we have a certain approved ones, once again, such as WES, we would receive their evaluation and then determine from there, yes, this satisfies. So that once we deem that appropriate, then we can also deem that for– you would be eligible under route 1 still, if that answers your question.

STUDENT: GWU would help me in terms of having my transcript looked at by that company that you had mentioned just now, just to ensure?

CLIFF CYMROT: Our admissions advisors can. Essentially, you just reach out to a particular– once again, the most common one is the WES that we use– that we see. You would reach out to them. It requires a fee in order for them to evaluate, but yes, we can certainly connect you with that, absolutely.

JON: Yeah, I could speak a little bit of that out of admissions. It’s called a course by course evaluation, and it just determines equivalency. So you would work with WES, was World Education Services, directly.

You’d send them your original transcripts from Canada. They’ll produce a report, and what it should determine is the equivalent to a four year bachelor’s degree in the US. So as long as you have that, and have the converted appropriate GPA, that, in a sense, is the same as having a bachelor’s degree in US.

And that WES report becomes your transcript to apply to any school, and really, any school in US is going to ask for that. That’s not just a GW thing. Any school would need that, but that takes the place of that bachelor’s degree. Then completing an ASCP and AACLS accredited program such as this, in conjunction with the bachelor’s, makes you eligible via route 1.

STUDENT: Understood. So that is something that I have to reach out to the WES before my application or after?

JON: Really, during. I’d say you start to do that once you have a site verified. Once you have a site you know is going to host you, then we’ll start to go through the application process.

I think, in Canada, so with honors, there’s two different distinctions you can get. With honors– that’s a three year, or another one with honors. Is it plus certificate that equates to a four year?

You can go a couple of ways, but as long as you have the one that equates to a four year, I feel confident that WES would produce a report for you. So I’d just first still put your initial efforts into finding a clinical site if you don’t already have one.

STUDENT: Understood. Thank you.

The next semester is January 9. That’s our spring term. Deadlines are coming up quick, though– early December, December 1st. Rolling admissions, though, so once the file’s complete, I get to set it up, try to get a decision for you. Admission decision is one of my favorite parts of the job, so hope to see some of you apply.

STUDENT: Is there any chance–

STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE]

STUDENT: Oops.

STUDENT: Sorry, go ahead.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JON: Olivia, do you want to ask? We haven’t heard from you?

STUDENT: Oh, yeah, sure, sorry. I was just asking– I’m sorry I kind of came in five minutes late. So I know the clinicals obviously happen in person, but for the courses, are they, at your own pace type classes, or is it like there’s a lecture every Tuesday night or something like that? How do those work?

JON: Well, it’s weekly, so it’s asynchronous. The lectures are not live. It is a structured seasonal semester, and the semester’s timing just like on campus– spring, summer, fall. Each week, there would be new content, but it is not live. You probably still would have to log in, I’d say, a minimum two to three times a week to be successful, not that we time you.

So you never have to get on a certain time, but I’d say you’re going to need a minimum of 15 hours a week, give or take, to be successful each week in the program.

STUDENT: Thank you.

JON: Does anyone else have questions? Yeah.

STUDENT: Is there any possible way that we could maybe have a personal email that’s towards more of someone in admissions so that we could just personally speak to somebody who could help us a little bit more than maybe somebody that’s in the general office.

JON: Well, if you call that 202 number, I have four counterparts. So they’re going to make sure to get one of us on the phone. If maybe I’m not available, or I’m on the I’m on the phone, the other person will be able to answer. Or I can share my email with you when we’re done, too. That way, you can reach out to me directly if it’s easier.

STUDENT: That would be appreciated. And lastly, would a pulmonologist physician’s clinic count as a clinic that qualifies for rotations?

JON: As long as they have all the services. It’s tough to speak to individually. I’ll be getting you the clinical site verification form we call the CSV form. It’s a pretty simple PDF, has a series of checkboxes. You just get that into the hands of your lab manager. And if they can check all the appropriate boxes in there, they’ll have it.

They’re going to have to do blood banking. They have all the microbiology services. If they do, this kind of walks them through having everything.

STUDENT: Understood.

OLGA DERGACHEVA: Jon, can I add to that?

JON: Yes, please.

OLGA DERGACHEVA: Yeah, for the CSV form, CSV form is just a non-legally binding document. And it’s just a mechanism by which the program confirms that the clinical site is, in fact, eligible to become a clinical site. We have many clinical sites who offer some menus, but not others. So it’s a mechanism by which we obtain information on the specific laboratories.

And most of the laboratories we work with, nearly all of them, are very forthcoming, and they love to take our students. So it’s usually not a problem. It’s getting to speak with the right person, and so on. And once the process started, it’s usually a good process.

JON: Absolutely.

STUDENT: My question was, so we start the process by determining program eligibility. And is it during that time we find clinical placement before we apply?

JON: Correct. We do recommend that, yeah. Or at least have a verbal commitment for a clinical placement. The labs may take a little while to fill out the form. They’re very busy, too. But again, once you have that verbal commitment from a lab that says, “yes, we can host you, please send me the paperwork,” then you’d want to reach out, talk to admissions counselor, begin the application process.

In that conversation, we’ll be going over this specific pre-reqs, GPA. I usually have students reply to my first email with an unofficial copy of their transcript. And I’ll go through and highlight, make sure I see everything, is an example of how that would work.

STUDENT: OK, thank you.

OLGA DERGACHEVA: And the admissions advisors are very good at providing the tools and best practices, suggestions, on how to approach the labs, and what to communicate to them, and get to know them a little bit, and for them to get to know you, and how to secure a placement. So they’re really good at that.

JON: Yeah, it can be a little nerve-racking for students to think about reaching out, something they haven’t done before. These labs are used to it. A lot of people want to work at these labs. They want to do internship there. They’ve heard the question before. And we write everything out for you. We provide documentation to make it easy, help us set expectations.

OLGA DERGACHEVA: One of the defining characteristics of our program that we’re also very proud of, many of our clinical students, when they get hired at the places they do their rotations in, we consistently get positive reports on the level of knowledge and professionalism our students demonstrate. So it’s actually a very good thing to do in-person rotations and actually get a possibility of placement there, work placement.

JON: Yeah, that’d be my first or second call after I pass the exam, your spouse or parent or that’d be to my manager at the internship. If they don’t have something, chances are they’re going to– it’s a small world, the laboratory world. So they may know someone in a lab, too, which is how this has such high success rate in having a job after graduating. This is a [INAUDIBLE] strong demand in the career, first and foremost, but then, too, this university setting students up for success.

CLIFF CYMROT: Absolutely. Just to quickly follow up with that [INAUDIBLE] point is that for our programs, we have a greater than 95% employment rate for those that graduate, after graduation, find jobs in the field. So we’re very proud of that.

JON: I think that’s even within three months, too. It’s not like students are taking a long time to find something.

CLIFF CYMROT: Correct.

JON: That’s pretty quick.

CLIFF CYMROT: It’s pretty quick.

JON: And do an Indeed search even in your area. You can see the demand. It’s hard for laboratories to find qualified scientists, especially now with what’s going on in the world with testing and diagnostics. It’s a rapidly growing field. So I think it was 13% over the next 10 years, which is well above any normal industry average.

CLIFF CYMROT: Absolutely.

STUDENT: That’s employment as a medical–

JON: I think we lost you, only heard the first part.

STUDENT: I was asking, the 95%, is that–

JON: So we got some cut off there. The 95%, so that is 95% of students who pass the exam were employed within three months of passing the exam. And last year, 91% of students passed the exam, which is versus 69% industry-wise.

CLIFF CYMROT: Just to add on to that, [INAUDIBLE] yes, it’s greater than 95% employment as a medical laboratory scientist or related field, if they wanted to pursue molecular diagnostics or to pursue higher education. So those other paths are also included, but yes, the far, far majority is those employ 95% as medical lab scientists, not just randomly working in retail or fast food, or something.

That’s actually part of our standard, as per the accreditation through [INAUDIBLE]. It’s their employment rate within the field. So we actually have to maintain that. If it gets below that, then there are various consequences for the program. They could lose accreditation.

JON: Excellent questions so far. It seems like we’re wrapping up. This is recorded, so we will be able to email out the event. It will be posted on our website. For those that did ask questions, I’ll be emailing you directly. That way, you have my info, a direct channel to reach out to. We really appreciate everyone’s time this evening. Any last remarks from the professors?

CLIFF CYMROT: Just we’re grateful, and thank you so much for coming here tonight. We hope we’ve piqued your interest. Answered a lot of questions that you had, but please, we do ask that to reach out to us again. If you have any questions at all, we’re here to answer that and to help you out. But thank you. Thank you again for coming.

STUDENT: Thank you very much.

OLGA DERGACHEVA: Thank you for spending part of your evening with us, and we’re looking forward to hopefully work with you in the future.

JON: Take care, everybody.

OLGA DERGACHEVA: Bye-bye.