Virtually every conceivable bodily fluid or substance sent to a laboratory
for analysis will be processed by a medical technologist. Whether
looking for the AIDS virus, leukemia, blood type for a simple transfusion
or tissue match for a transplant, the med techs run the tests, analyze
the data and hover over the microscopes trying to identify one more piece
of a patients health puzzle. No clinical laboratory can function
without medical technologists, and the program that produces 80 percent
of the medical technologists in Nebraska just received its highest award
ever.
The University of Nebraska Medical Centers Division of Medical Technology
is the 2001 university-wide department of the year. The formal announcement
was made on March 7 by University of Nebraska Executive Vice President
and Provost Lee B. Jones. This is UNMCs first university-wide department
of the year honoree since the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy won
in 1995.
We are really proud of the success of our distance learning program,
said Phyllis Muellenberg, associate professor, chair and program director
of the division of medical technology. We have graduated 79 rural
Nebraskans from our distance program in the past nine years, and there
has been no difference in the certification board test scores and first
time success rates between campus students and distance learners.
In fact, the success rate of the rural affiliate distance learning program
has no comparative equal in the United States today. The program
now includes clinical affiliations with St. Francis Medical Center, Grand
Island; Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, Hastings; Good Samaritan Hospital,
Kearney; and Great Plains Regional Medical Center, North Platte. Many of
the distance learning graduates, such as Gina Lauby, never attended a single
class in Omaha. Lectures and clinical case conferences are delivered by
satellite television or televideo.
I only spent two days in Omaha during my entire year and that was
for orientation, said Lauby, of Litchfield, Neb., a 2000 grad and now
employed as a research technologist at UNMC. I never felt slighted in
any of my education. In fact, I think I got an even better deal.
In Kearney, there were just two distance med tech students in my class.
We received extraordinary laboratory bench time, and more personal attention
from the technologists and professional volunteers. As good as things are
in Omaha, I know that just having more students and demands on the labs
we probably could never have gotten all the extra opportunities people
were able to give us in Kearney. We felt special all the time.
In addition to program partners in Omaha, Nebraska Methodist Hospital
and the Nebraska Health System, clinical education support is provided
by affiliates at VA Medical Center, Childrens Hospital, Alegent Bergan
Mercy, Physicians Laboratory and the Omaha Regional Red Cross.
Well-educated medical technologists are essential for UNMCs strategic
focus laboratories in cancer, transplantation, molecular genetics, neuroscience
and advanced biomedical technology research. During the 2000-2001
academic year, the medical technology faculty also is providing courses
and lectures for 841 health professions students from the fields of medicine,
pharmacy, physician assistant, master-level nursing, clinical perfusion,
phlebotomy, and radiography.
Medical technology education began at UNMC in 1931, and is the second
oldest medical technology program in the United States. The baccalaureate
degree was first offered in 1947. In 1968, the UNMC educational program
formed a consortium with the educational programs at Nebraska Methodist
and Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospitals in Omaha with UNMC as the bachelor
of science degree granting partner. Since 1988, UNMC has provided
the only medical technology/clinical laboratory bachelor of science degree
program in Nebraska.
The program consistently ranks in the top 20 percent of all programs
nationally with a first time pass rate of 97-100 percent and program mean
well above (558/468) the national average.
I heard about UNMCs med tech program while a student at the University
of South Dakota, said Regina English, from Council Bluffs, a 2000 grad
and now a medical technologist at Alegent Health Immanuel Medical Center.
All the alumni I talked with told me that the faculty was extremely well
prepared and took great personal interest in each student.
Later, I returned home, enrolled at UNO and took an introduction to
hematology class taught by Linda Sykora. She really impressed me
as a great instructor. I knew after that first class with Linda that
all the med tech instructors must be very good, and there would be a high
standard of excellence. Yet the faculty really cared about us as
people. When some of my classmates were hospitalized, the faculty
really worked extra hard to encourage them not to quit, then helped them
keep up and graduate with the rest of us. Ill never forget that.
Six medical technology faculty members have received the Outstanding
Clinical Instructor Award in recent years. James Newland, M.D., professor
and medical director of the division of medical technology, has received
the University of Nebraska Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity
Award. Dr. Newland, Muellenberg, and Linda Fell, associate program director
and education coordinator, all share national appointments to their disciplines
top associations including the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical
Laboratory Science and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.
The division has attracted more that $1.2 million in external funding.
Current projects include developing cultural competency courses for practitioners,
a web-based curriculum in clinical laboratory sciences with seven national
partners and increasing the number of minority and disadvantaged students
through multimedia recruitment modules.
A formal presentation of the divisions award will be made on April
4 during a special lunch with University of Nebraska President L.
Dennis Smith. The division also will be featured during activities
planned for the week of April 15-21 — 2001 National Medical Laboratory
Week.