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Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Perform routine medical laboratory tests for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. May work under the supervision of a medical technologist.

Related: Cardiovascular Technologists & Technicians Cytogenetic Technologists Histology Technicians Histotechnologists Medical & Clinical Laboratory Technologists

Industries: Health & Counseling

Summary
Details

Prepare standard volumetric solutions or reagents to be combined with samples, following standardized formulas or experimental procedures.
Conduct blood tests for transfusion purposes and perform blood counts.
Test raw materials, processes, or finished products to determine quality or quantity of materials or characteristics of a substance.
Obtain specimens, cultivating, isolating, and identifying microorganisms for analysis.
Conduct chemical analyses of body fluids, such as blood or urine, using microscope or automatic analyzer to detect abnormalities or diseases and enter findings into computer.
Supervise or instruct other technicians or laboratory assistants.
Collect blood or tissue samples from patients, observing principles of asepsis to obtain blood sample.
Consult with a pathologist to determine a final diagnosis when abnormal cells are found.
Analyze and record test data to issue reports that use charts, graphs, or narratives.
Set up, maintain, calibrate, clean, and test sterility of medical laboratory equipment.
Set up, maintain, calibrate, clean, and test sterility of medical laboratory equipment.
Obtain specimens, cultivating, isolating, and identifying microorganisms for analysis.
Obtain specimens, cultivating, isolating, and identifying microorganisms for analysis.
Conduct chemical analyses of body fluids, such as blood or urine, using microscope or automatic analyzer to detect abnormalities or diseases and enter findings into computer.
Conduct chemical analyses of body fluids, such as blood or urine, using microscope or automatic analyzer to detect abnormalities or diseases and enter findings into computer.
Analyze the results of tests or experiments to ensure conformity to specifications, using special mechanical or electrical devices.
Test raw materials, processes, or finished products to determine quality or quantity of materials or characteristics of a substance.
Examine cells stained with dye to locate abnormalities.
Set up, maintain, calibrate, clean, and test sterility of medical laboratory equipment.
Supervise or instruct other technicians or laboratory assistants.
Perform medical research to further control or cure disease.

Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.

Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.

Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

68650/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

33.01/hr

Currently Employed

7,750

Yearly Projected Openings

630

Realistic: People interested in this work like activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They do well at jobs that need:

Cautiousness
Integrity
Attention to Detail
Dependability
Cooperation
Achievement Orientation

Anaerobic jars or accessories
Analytical balances
Bench refractometers or polarimeters
Benchtop centrifuges
Binocular light compound microscopes
Blood bank analyzers
Blood bank cell washers
Blood collection needle holders
Blood collection needles
Blood collection syringes
Capillary or hematocrit tubes
Chemistry analyzers
Chromatographic detectors
Coagulation analyzers
Colorimeters
Compact disc CD or labeling printers
Desktop computers
Dropping pipettes
Dry baths or heating blocks
Electrolyte analyzers
Electronic multichannel pipetters
Extracting equipment for laboratories
Fluorescent microscopes
Forced air or mechanical convection general purpose incubators
Gas chromatographs
Glucose monitors or meters
Hemacytometer sets
Hematology analyzers
Histology tissue cassettes
Hypodermic needle
Immunology or serology test kits or supplies
Laboratory chillers
Laboratory diluters
Laboratory mixers
Laboratory vacuum pumps
Laminar flow cabinets or stations
Lancets
Laser printers
Liquid scintillation counters
Manual or electronic hematology differential cell counters
Manual single channel air displacement pipetters
Microbiology analyzers
Microcentrifuges
Micrometers
Microplate washers
Microscope slides
Multipurpose or general test tubes
Multiwell plates
Notebook computers
Personal computers
Petri plates or dishes
Phlebotomy trays or accessories
Platelet mixers
Robotic or automated liquid handling systems
Shaking incubators
Specialty plates for bacteria
Spectrometers
Spectrophotometers
Steam autoclaves or sterilizers
Stereo or dissecting light microscopes
Surgical instrument brushes or instrument stylets or instrument wipes
Temperature cycling chambers or thermal cyclers
Tissue culture coated plates or dishes or inserts
Tissue embedding stations
Tourniquets
Triple beam balances
Tube rotators
Ultracentrifuges
Urinalysis analyzers
Vacuum blood collection tubes or containers
Warming cabinets
Winged infusion needle set
pH meters

Accounting software
Analytical or scientific software
Computer based training software
Data base user interface and query software
Development environment software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Medical software
Office suite software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

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Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians

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