A comparison of job content and job descriptions among Utah laboratorians.

The need for well-trained personnel in the medical laboratory setting has created a job market for those persons trained as medical technologists. Medical laboratory technicians and certified laboratory assistants have also taken advantage of the job market and have gained employment in the clinical laboratory. Over a period of years there has been a great deal of overlap in the responsibilities and tasks of the medical technologist and nonmedical technologist groups. The overlap has had the effect ob obscuring the tasks which each performed. Currently, it is assumed that the medical technologist and nonmedical technologist laboratorians are essentially doing the same level of responsibility. The purpose of this study is to establish the validity of these assumptions. The research tool was a questionnaire developed around three tasks which medical technologists normally perform. These tasks were compared with the job description of those persons who complete the questionnaire. An attempt was then made to determine whether the same basic job description was in use for all personnel doing testing throughout the state of Utah. The resulted indicted that the job descriptions of the certified laboratory assistants, medical laboratory technicians, and the medical technologist were very different, but the actual bench work performed by each group was not. This is significant in that a major reason for hiring laboratorians other than medical technologists is the savings of dollars to the institution. However, the content of the job is the criterion the courts use to decide compensation and grievance suits. Thus, it would be an easy matter for the nonprofessional people to upgrade their salaries by submitting the problem to the courts. Litigation has other associated problems, but the idea may cause administrative personnel to rethink this hiring practice. Since there is little difference among the practices of the groups, there is a need for upgrading the job descriptions and becoming more attuned to the capabilities of the bench technicians whatever their certification. Finally, the career ladder in the laboratory needs to be expanded and enhanced not only for certified laboratory assistants and medical laboratory technician personnel, but especially for the medical technologist who currently occupy the top positions in the laboratory and have few career moves to make if theyintend to stay at the bench.