A Medical Technologist, also known as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, is one of the most important careers in a hospital or laboratory setting, and most people don't even know what it is. Medical Technologists do not get the credit they deserve. As a Medical Technology major, I constantly get asked: "What is that?" "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?" and so on. Well, I am going to answer those questions for you right now.

Having Medical Technology as a major in undergrad can be hard to explain to people. You take enough Biology to be a Biology major, but at the same time, you take enough Chemistry for a Chemistry minor. Most undergrad colleges that offer Medical Technology as a major offer the program as a 3+1 or a 4+1 program. If you are involved in a 3+1 program, you do three years of undergrad curriculum, just like you would for any other major. Then, in your third year of undergrad, you apply to hospitals affiliated with your college that have Medical Technology Schools. If you get accepted into the school at the hospital, then your fourth year of college will be at the hospital taking classes and going through clinical rotations, while still enrolled in your undergrad institution. Once you finish the program at the hospital and you pass your boards exam, then you will be a certified Laboratory Technologist. You will most likely be guaranteed a job, and you will get your degree in Medical Technology. If you decide to do the 4+1 program, it is the same thing, except you get your bachelor's degree in Biology first and then go to the school at the hospital and complete the program.

This all sounds easy, right?

If you ask anyone who has been through the program, they love it, but it always seems hard to explain how the program flows or how to even explain it to people who have never heard of Medical Technology before. From all the people I have asked, some of the answers I have gotten are: "it is medical school and an internship put together" or "it's like taking summer classes on steroids." The program is not easy, but at the end of the year, it all seems to be worth it.

What do Medical Technologists do, you ask?

Well, that answer is simple. Medical Technologists work in a laboratory setting either in a hospital, doctor's office, or a diagnostic laboratory. Then you can work in other departments within those areas such as: Blood Bank, Hematology, Chemistry, Microbiology, Mycology, and so on. They collect samples and perform tests to analyze body fluids, tissue, and other substances. Medical technologists also log data from medical tests and enter results into a patient’s medical records, discuss results and findings of laboratory tests and procedures with physicians, and study blood samples for use in transfusions by identifying the number of cells, the cell morphology or the blood group, blood type, and compatibility with other blood types, plus more. A job as a Medical Technologist is tedious work, and it is very critical you do not make many mistakes, because one mistake could cause serious harm or death to a patient.

To narrow it down some more, remember that time you had to give a urine sample for a drug test, or you were feeling under the weather and they took a blood sample from you. The sample taken from you was then taken straight to a laboratory and tested by Medical Technologists. Medical Technologists are the very first people to know if you have cancer, HIV, mono, a parasite, are positive for drugs, and much more.

What do you want to do with the rest of your life?

That answer is not so simple. With being a Medical Technologist, there are so many different career paths you are able to take. You are able to be a Medical Technologist working in a lab, you can further your education more, you can choose a specialty and only be a medical technologist in that type of laboratory--for example, Pathology--or you can choose another job field. There are well over 125 different career choices you can choose as a Medical Technologists. The career choices can be anything from working in a laboratory area with over 40 different types of jobs and specialties in different departments, working in a health care or government agency as a private investigator in a forensic lab and more. With a Medical Technology degree, you can also get a career in almost any health care administration, humanitarian work, health maintenance information systems, in the industry field, such as a medical consultant for the movie industry, and more. Also with a Medical Technology degree, you can go into education and be any type of educator, you can do research, or you can further your education to be a physician, pharmacist, optometrist, and more.

One saying about Medical Technologists goes "without us, doctors would just be guessing," and that is true. Although we do not diagnose the patients, we run the tests and send the results to the physicians so they know what to diagnose the patient with. Medical Technologists to me are the most underrated and underrepresented people in the workplace. Even though Medical Technologists have minimal patient contact, they still make a huge difference in our everyday lives.