Meeting & Agendas

a. Allow ACC faculty to perform mini-clinicals at your site to familiarize themselves with current technology and get input on how we can mirror those activities on campus. b. Please copy and post handouts: 1) Case Study Materials Needed , 2) Donations of Expired Reagents, Controls or Other c. Review clinical competencies and provide feedback. 1) Clinical II -http://www.austincc.edu/mlt/clin2/clin2 Urinalysis, Hematology and Blood Bank 2) Clinical III http://www.austincc.edu/mlt/clin3/clin3- Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology d. Assistance with recruiting.

a. Provide review sessions for DL learning students which are equivalent to what are provided to the on-campus students. b. Clinical sites prefer the same student for UA, Hem and Coag rotation. This allows the clinical site flexibility in training in the different departments. c. Texas Oncology, which has 9 clinics, are utilizing the coagucheck for fingerstick PT/INR testing. This test is performed by phlebotomists or nurse practitioners. ACC may wish to investigate incorporating this into phlebotomy. d. Number of openings for MLTs & PHBs Michelle maybe a couple of openings. Molly SD RR – recent hires 1 PRN MLT- e. Is ACC meeting the needs? If not, what can be done to enhance recruitment? f. Weaknesses of graduates? Is there a consistent weakness among new graduates? None noted. Joanna asked if they had seen improvement in the pipetting skills of the students because that was a weakness noted last year. Joanna reported that she had created a lab that introduced different pipetting techniques. They said they had not heard complaints this past year. g. Strengths - what are the graduates doing competently or exceptionally well at entry-level? 1) They have good work ethic. 2) Appear to have a good knowledge base. 3) Current student - Ola- Hands on relates to what you are learning. Like that about this program. 4) Keri stated there is a lot of repetition. Reinforces learning. 5) Able to connect results with theory. 6) Know the normal reference ranges. h. Other 1) PFA expired cartridges needed. Lorraine & Michelle have PFA at their sites i. What can we do for you? 1) Reduce the number of dip sticks the student has to do. Assist in reducing paperwork.

Go to http://www.austincc.edu/mlt/advisory and review at your leisure. Email Keri with any questions or comments. j. MLT Blood Bank Site Survey k. Blood Bank Written Comments l. MLT Clinical Chemistry Site Survey m. Chemistry Written Comments n. MLT Hematology/Coagulation Site Survey o. Hematology/Coagulation Written Comments p. MLT Microbiology Site Survey q. Microbiology Written Comments r. Phlebotomy 1) Phlebotomy Site Survey Tech Prep 2) Phlebotomy Summer 2012 3) Phlebotomy Spring 2012

a. Direct potential students to http://www.austincc.edu/health b. Second year of MLT program can be completed online! 1) Students who have completed all of the year one courses and have either taken the phlebotomy course or have 1 year full time experience as a phlebotomist may be eligible to take the second year online. 2) The student must be employed by a full service clinical laboratory. 3) The laboratory must have or establish an affiliation agreement with ACC. 4) The sponsoring laboratory provides all of the “hands on” training. ACC works closely with the staff to orient them to the laboratory procedures and clinical activities which must be completed. 5) ACC faculty provides the didactic (lecture) component and grades all assignments and labs.

4. Enhanced Certificate in Molecular Diagnostics - update http://www.austincc.edu/mlt/md/md_certificate.html a. Moving courses forward one semester so clinical will be in the Fall semester. b. Need students for Spring class - PLEASE post flyer.- Molecular Diagnostics c. Must have a degree, prefer MLT or MT. The first course is open enrollment, and offered on-line. Really need to grow this program. Please share information with your staff. Need 10 Students for class to make. d. Recommendation made to provide a list of tests performed to give interested individuals a better idea of what the program is about. Some people do not know what “molecular diagnostics mean” but do know what BRCA-1 is.

a. Number of graduates Summer 2012 1) Started with 25 graduated total of 19. 2) Graduated our FIRST distance learning student! b. Second Year - 24 Students which includes our second distance learning student. c. First Year - tracking about 100 students. The application deadline is Feb 1 and it is expected there will be a large number of applications submitted after the Fall semester concludes. Currently have about 35 applications. Due to the increase in number of applications the MLT program has implemented a competitive selection process for this year. d. ASCP Board of Certification Results http://www.austincc.edu/mlt/mlt_bor 1) All graduates from the 2012 class have signed up for the exam. So far all students (6) who have taken the exam have passed it. We compare our program with the national pass rates. The national pass rate is approximately 75%. ACC meets or exceeds that. The passing score for the exam is 400. The highest score possible is 999. 2) 2011 there were 11 students who took the exam, 10 students passed. 3) When reviewing the scores for the BOC it is important to note the date of graduation of the examinee as some students take the exam one or more years later. e. The Parasitology/Mycology class is online. Because very few clinical laboratories practice parasitology or mycology due to low test volume and continued competency assessment required of the practitioners. The MLT program faculty feel that students can gain a solid foundation in parasitology/mycology through an online course with virtual labs. The course is offered open enrollment with no pre-requisites and has proven to be very popular.

a. Completers - Traditional - 16 started, 15 completed. b. Completers - Tech Prep - Summer 2012- 68 started, 65 completed which is a 91% completion rate. 1) Students take the didactic component in high school which is taught by instructors who meet the NAACLS requirements. They earn 3 credits “in escrow”. 2) Successful students take the clinical course at ACC during the summer and, once successful, earn the credit for clinical as well as the 3 credits in escrow. 3) Nine schools from 6 school districts participated. 4) This year limited number of students to 72 due to clinical site limitations. c. ASCP Board of Certification Results http://www.austincc.edu/mlt/phb_bor 1) National pass rate usually 82-85%. 2) 2011 there were 24 students who took the exam, 3 failed, 85.8% pass rate. 3) Tech Prep students seem to do as well as traditional students.

a. Working hard on standardizing activities for students on both campuses as well as distance learning student(s) (DL). b. DL students must be offered the same educational opportunities as the campus based students.

4. Clinical Placement Needs – Presented Committee Members a proposed template of clinical rotations needed for this MLT class of students. The schedule must be developed and confirmed soon to prevent outside scheduling conflicts and because of the quickly approaching winter break. a. Spring – Hematology/Coagulation, Urinalysis and Chemistry rotations. b. Summer – Blood Bank and Microbiology rotations needed. c. With the exception of blood bank and microbiology only one rotation per year is requested. The MLT program faculty are aware of other laboratory science programs who are scheduling rotations at the same clinical sites. ACC MLT students are required to practice many clinical skills on campus as a means to reduce the amount of time required and better prepare them for rotations at the external clinical sites. d. Committee approved of the idea of merging the Coagulation, Urinalysis, and Hematology paperwork together and placing the same student at the same place, if applicable, for all of these rotations to improve consistency.

a. On-Site clinical. Input is needed to determine the specific skills common to all clinical laboratories to focus on during off-site clinical and perform skills on campus that only a few labs perform. For example, very few sites perform manual reticulocyte counts so this skill is checked off on campus. Would like to set up focus groups with appropriate ACC faculty to set curriculum and standards of practice for commonly performed tests. b. Need input from clinical practitioners on competencies established at ACC for both on-site and off-site (in the actual clinical laboratory) to establish entry-level practices. Suggestions for additions and deletions in the documents created. c. Competency assessment is routine in the clinical laboratory. ACC wishes to mirror these activities and need input. Which skills need to be observed? Which skills are evaluated based on results obtained with remediation and additional practice offered if the skill is failed? Which part of a competency are \'\'essential\'\', resulting in a failure, versus requiring remediation but allowed to pass? How many times would a competency be failed before an employee was terminated?