INTRODUCTION

Medical Laboratory Technician is one of the accredited programme offered in Bishop Micheal Okoro College of Health Technology, Ndubia. It is a dynamic profession that is designed to provide a broad-based fundamental scientific knowledge and its application. Such that the graduates are well equipped to meet with the challenges of modern scientific knowledge in Health Care and to enable them proceed for further training.

The courses offered are designed to expose the student to core areas such as Clinical Chemistry, Heamatology and Blood Transfusion science, Histopathology and Cytopathology, Medical Microbiology, Virology, Parasitology and Entomology, Immunology and Immuno-chemistry as well as Instrumentation, Laboratory Management and Entrepreneurial Skills. Students are required to broaden their knowledge in their core areas by taking ancillary courses in Chemistry, Physics, Genetics, Mathematics, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, and Biology. They are also expected to understand the working of Laboratory instruments and existing techniques, and to modify them where possible. The practical aspect of the programme prepares the students always to think in terms of diagnostic criteria in the assessment and evaluation of clinical samples. Students so trained will fit into any medical/ diagnostic laboratories and other aligned fields. On the successful completion of the three (3) years Certificate Medical Laboratory Technician Programme, graduates are registered as Technicians with the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria. However, such graduates would have registered with the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) as student members.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE PROGRAMME

The broad philosophy of training in Medical Laboratory Technician Department should be:

1. To produce a middleman powered personnel who will work under a supervision of a medical laboratory scientist.
2. To produce Medical Laboratory Technician who would satisfy internationally recognizable standards and could under further professional training.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE

The main aim of Medical Laboratory Technician programme is to train competent Clinical Laboratory Service personnel in knowledge, skills, attitude and professionalism to meet present and projected service needs in primary and secondary health care services in Nigeria and other ECOWAS member states.

The main objectives of Medical Laboratory Technician programme are:

1. To instill in students a sense of enthusiasm for the profession: an appreciation of its application in different contexts (in areas such as general medicine, pharmaceutical industries, utility department (e.g water co-operations), research institution, e.t.c.
2. To involve the students in an intellectually and satisfying experience of learning, studying and research.
3. To recognizes normal and abnormal test results and take necessary action with critical values.
4. To provide students with a broad and balanced foundation of medical laboratory knowledge and practical skill: performing effectively in clinical diagnostic services, academics and quality assurance; and function independently or in collaboration with other member of the health team in the care and management of and group at all levels of health care
5. To develop in student, the ability to apply their medical laboratory knowledge and skill to the solution of theortical and practical problem in laboratory medicine.
6. To provide student k'nowledge and skill base from which they can proceed to further studies in specialized areas involving sciences.
7. To develop in student through an education in medical laboratory sciences, a range of transferable skill of values in medical and non-medical employment.
8. To generate in students, an appreciation of the importance of Medical Laboratory science in an industrial, economic, environmental, health and social contexts.
9. To also empower graduates of Medical Laboratory science with skill that will enable them engage in income yielding venture, that is, are-orientation from the intake-a-job mentality to the make-a-mentality.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE

A medical laboratory scientist (MLS) and medical laboratory technician (MLT), are also known as a medical technologist or clinical laboratory scientist, works to analyze a variety of biological specimens. They are responsible for performing scientific testing on samples and reporting results to physicians.

Medical laboratory scientists work in hospitals, clinics, forensic or public health laboratories, as well as pharmaceutical industries, biotechnology companies, veterinary clinics, or research institutions.