About the Program

The Bachelor of Science/Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Medical Laboratory Sciences Program is a full-time program that includes five semesters of intensive study and is equivalent to the junior and senior years of college. At this time, the program is not accepting new applications.

The program is open to college students wishing to complete their Bachelor of Science degree and to college graduates wishing to earn a post-baccalaureate certificate. The course work is the same for both types of students. All students participate in regular commencement ceremonies upon graduation.

The program offers preparation for careers in the medical laboratory. Students enrolled in the program gain experience in all major aspects of the clinical laboratory through classroom instruction, student laboratory experiences, and clinical rotations. After completing the program successfully, you’ll have the skills and experience to:

• Analyze blood, body fluids and tissues to aid the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases.
• Perform pre-transfusion testing to ensure that blood components are safely compatible with a patient’s blood.
• Examine blood and other body fluids to detect signs of infection, anemia, leukemia, and other disease states.
• Culture and identify disease-causing bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites, and determine the appropriate antibiotic therapy.
• Monitor the immune system to detect signs of infectious agents and to measure the body’s ability to fight infections.

At the end of 19 months, successful students receive a Bachelor of Science degree or a post-baccalaureate certificate in medical laboratory sciences and are qualified to sit for national certification and state licensing exams where required. Our graduates are in demand in a wide range of settings, including hospital laboratories, reference clinical laboratories, physician office laboratories, public-health agencies, university and government research laboratories, and in industry laboratory, sales, and customer-support positions.

Objectives

The Bachelor of Science/Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Medical Laboratory Sciences Program strives to improve healthcare services by recruiting and educating a diverse group of quality laboratory professionals, while encouraging collaborative relationships that generate new knowledge through innovative educational methodologies.

The primary goal of the program is to provide the community with medical laboratory scientists who are prepared to enter the healthcare work force as qualified clinical laboratory practitioners, and who meet the requirements for certification in their profession. The curriculum also provides a foundation for graduate study in clinical or health-related basic sciences, laboratory management, education, medicine, and dentistry.

The faculty of the Medical Laboratory Sciences program is committed to:

• Providing the didactic and clinical instruction necessary for the graduate to perform procedures in all areas of the clinical laboratory, to integrate and relate laboratory data, and to solve problems relating to the production of laboratory results.
• Maintaining excellent entry-level clinical laboratory education in collaboration with other affiliate institutions and agencies.
• Educating medical laboratory scientists to function as qualified members of the laboratory team to meet the demands of the healthcare community of Texas.
• Develop current educational methodologies that expand the body of knowledge and scope of practice of Medical Laboratory Sciences.

Successful graduates of this program will be eligible for national certification and have the necessary skills to:

• Demonstrate appropriate communication skills (both oral and written) in the laboratory and academic settings.
• Apply basic management principles with the medical laboratory system.
• Organize work area in an effort to be efficient and effective in use of time and supplies.
• Demonstrate an amenable attitude toward all aspects of the education experience.
• Maintain appropriate ethical and legal behavior.
• Demonstrate honesty and integrity in their work.
• Demonstrate ability to operate various analytical methods and instrumentation used to perform tests in the clinical laboratory and in point-of-care settings.
• Differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate test results, assessing normal, abnormal, and critical values, and the necessary actions needed as a result.
• Utilize quality control to evaluate the validity and reliability of test results.
• Correlate disease processes with appropriate laboratory testing for accurate diagnosis.
• Demonstrate proficiency in the identification and resolution of laboratory errors.
• Perform manual laboratory testing when necessary.
• Demonstrate proficiency with the use of universal precautions in the handling of blood and body fluids.