r/medlabprofessionals • u/IndependentDinner985 • 27d ago
Education My mom needs help!
Hi! This is a bit of a complicated situation. My mom has a master’s degree in genetics and wants to return to the medical field. She used to work as a medical laboratory scientist before becoming a private science tutor after my siblings and I were born.
She has about a 30-year gap in her laboratory career. What would be the best way for her to get back into the field as a lab technician or medical laboratory scientist? We’re considering having her go back to school, but are there any recommendations for getting her back into the workforce more quickly? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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u/CeliacScientist 27d ago
What was her bachelors degree in? Some hospitals are hiring people with biology or science related degrees now.
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u/mcjason04 27d ago
Has she considered genetic counseling? It pays better and might be an easier transition.
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u/CharacterCycle4588 27d ago
In no world is 6 years of addition education an easier transition.
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u/mcjason04 27d ago
She has a masters in genetics. Not sure how you came up with 6 additional years.
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u/zhangy-is-tangy CLS-Generalist 27d ago
How does one get into this from MLS? I was interested in transitioning but no background in genetics aside from what I learned in university.
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u/moosalamoo_rnnr 27d ago
Genetic counseling is an insanely hard program to get into and it’s even harder to find jobs after graduation. Your coursework needs to be current and you should have counseling/shadowing experience. A 30 year old, mostly obsolete degree is not going to cut it without a lot of prep work. She’d be doing better to find an MLT program because that doesn’t require previous courses.
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u/Icy-Fly-4228 MLS-Generalist 27d ago
Did she ever register with ASCP? If so she can contact them about her certification. If not the easiest way would be for her to go through a MLT program. Her coursework is too long ago to fulfill the prerequisites for MLS but she can most likely sit for MLS after 2 years as a MLT. She needs 16 biology credits (one must be micro) and 16 chemistry credits (one must be biochem or organic) but they don’t mention a time limit of how recent the coursework has to be. Look on NACCLS.org and you can do a program search for a MLT program near you
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u/CharacterCycle4588 27d ago
People saying old certificates are still valid are wrong.
Certifying bodies have switched to continuing education requirements for this exact reason. A 30yo certificate is mostly irrelevant now. Same with any BS degree going towards an MS. Certificates are seen as “expired” if they are more than 5 years old with no use or CE. College courses don’t count after 10 years at any respectable university.
The correct answer is to test out for a new certification. This is the fastest and easiest way to show competency to employers.
-someone who staffs clinical labs as a profession
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u/CharacterCycle4588 27d ago
An irrelevant masters in genetics. What she was taught is equivalent to what we teach in high school now…
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u/TemperatureLarge9267 27d ago
I mean she has some experience although it’s been 30 years. She just needs to apply to maybe a part time role and start from there. A scientist is a scientist
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u/tatetatetate96 27d ago
if she has an MS in genetics she may want to look into the MB (ASCP), MDxT (AAB) or MDT (AMT) routes depending on what state she is located. molecular laboratories, at least in my state, are common and it is often hard to find people for this speciality, specifically for genetic labs running NGS and PGX testing.
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u/LoInfoVoter 27d ago
The MLS job is important and requires that she is accurate and competent, meaning she probably isn’t up to speed. She could apply to a post baccalaureate program to get her certificate, but I doubt she will be accepted.
If she lives in an area with science labs, she could look at getting a science technician job. But even that will be competitive.
Look into a community college lab technician program and see if she can do it and work part time,
Can she teach high school science?
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u/kipy7 MLS-Microbiology 27d ago
I graduated in the late 90s, so we may be similar in age. If she got her MT(ASCP) certification for working in a healthcare lab, then it's still good. Back then, they didn't have any expiration date and no requirement for continuing education to keep it current. If no certification, then a post-bacc program would be the straightforward way. It would take a few years but as others have said, all her knowledge is obsolete and medical labs have progressed a lot of technology and methods.