Essential Functions (Requirements)

The following requirements for the MLT Program at Salt Lake Community College parallel the essential functions, or task based criteria that employers define and expect of laboratorians when they are hired.

Essential Requirements of Observation

The MLT student must be able to:

1. Observe laboratory demonstrations in which biologicals (i.e., body fluids, culture materials, tissue sections, and cellular specimens) are tested for their biochemical, hematological, immunological, microbiological, and histochemical components.
2. Characterize the color, odor, clarity, and viscosity of biologicals, reagents, or chemical reaction products.
3. Operate a clinical grade binocular microscope to discriminate among fine structural and color (hue, shading, and intensity)  differences of microscopic specimens. 
4. Read and comprehend images, text, numbers, and graphs displayed in print and on a video monitor.

Essential Requirements of Movement

The MLT student must be able to:

1. Move freely and safely about a laboratory.
2. Reach laboratory benchtops and shelves, patients lying in hospital beds or patients seated in specimen collection furniture.
3. Travel to numerous clinical laboratory sites for practical experience.
4.  Perform moderately taxing continuous physical work, often requiring prolonged sitting, over several hours.
5.  Maneuver phlebotomy and culture acquisition equipment to safely collect valid laboratory specimens from patients. 
6. Control laboratory equipment (e.g. pipettes, inoculating loops, test tubes) and adjust instruments to perform laboratory procedures.
7.  Use a computer keyboard to operate laboratory instruments and to calculate, record, evaluate, and transmit laboratory information.

Essential Requirements of Communication

The MLT student must be able to:

1. Read and comprehend technical and professional materials (i.e. textbooks, magazine and journal articles, handbooks, and instruction manuals).
2. Follow instructions in order to correctly and independently perform laboratory test procedures.
3. Clearly instruct patients prior to specimen collection.
4. Effectively, confidentially, and sensitively converse with patients regarding laboratory tests.
5. Communicate with faculty members, fellow students, staff, and other health care professionals verbally and/or in a recorded format (writing, typing, graphics, or telecommunication).
6. Independently prepare papers, and laboratory reports, and take paper, computer, and laboratory practical examinations.

Essential Requirements of Intellect

The MLT student must:

1. Possess these intellectual skills: comprehension, measurement, mathematical calculation, reasoning, integration, analysis, comparison, self-expression, and critical thinking.
2. Be able to exercise sufficient judgment to recognize and correct performance deviations.

Essential Requirements of Behavior 

The MLT student must: 

1. Be able to manage the use of time and be able to systematize actions in order to complete professional and technical tasks within realistic constraints.
2. Possess the emotional health necessary to effectively employ intellect and exercise appropriate judgment.
3. Be able to provide professional and technical services while experiencing the stresses of task-related uncertainty (e.g. ambiguous test ordering, ambivalent test interpretation), emergent demands (e.g. “stat” test orders), and a distracting environment (e.g. high noise levels, crowding, complex visual stimuli).
4. Be flexible and creative and adapt to professional and technical change.
5. Recognize potentially hazardous materials, equipment, and situations and proceed safely in order to minimize risk of injury to patients, self, and nearby individuals.
6. Adapt to working with unpleasant biologicals.
7. Support and promote the activities of fellow students and other health care professionals.
8. Be honest, compassionate, ethical, and responsible.  The student must be forthright about errors or uncertainty.  The student must be able to critically evaluate her or his own performance, accept constructive criticism, and look for ways to improve (e.g. participate in enriched educational activities). 

Satisfactory completion of the MLT Program and successful employment following graduation demands your ability to meet the above requirements.If you are uncertain as to your ability with any of these essential functions, please consult with the MLT Program Director or the Disability Resource Center at Salt Lake Community College to discuss your individual situation and/or to request a specific accommodation.