Program Mission & Philosophy

In harmony with the University mission statement, the Medical Lab Science (MLS) program is a professional program that best serves individuals seeking healthcare careers that cultivate their naturally scientific, analytical, and inquisitive nature.  The curriculum consists of basic science, general education, and profession-specific courses that include critical pathway and critical decision-making exercises.  With strong community support, the MLS program seeks to contribute academically prepared graduates with entry-level technical competency and professional behaviors, as a solution to the national shortage of clinical laboratory professionals.

Learning Outcome Goals

The goal of the SVSU MLS program is to educate the student so that their knowledge of Medical Laboratory Science, technical competency, and professional behaviors are consistent with career entry expectations allowing them to contribute to the national clinical laboratory workforce.

Competencies: At the conclusion of the program, students will be able to:

1. Perform (independently) routine and specialized laboratory procedures found in a typical full-service clinical pathology laboratory. Performing these procedures include all of the QA/QC requirements, setting up reagents and equipment, and managing problems.
2. Apply principles and practices of quality assurance/quality improvement to the pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical components of laboratory services utilizing statistical analyses.
3. Apply safety and governmental regulations and standards to laboratory practice.
4. Analyze and/or evaluate laboratory findings to incorporate critical pathways and clinical decision-making activities, such as;

• Verifying patient results and QA for a given test.
• Correlating findings with health and disease states
• Prescribing course of action for discrepancies
• Recognizing possible inconsistent results
• Developing algorithms

     5. Apply acceptable principles of teaching and learning to a selected activity.
     6. Apply basic principles of management in select activities.
     7. Practice the ethics of the profession.
     8. Apply concepts and principles of laboratory operations to include

• Critical pathways and clinical decision making
• Performance improvement

Accrediting/Certifying Body: National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science (NAACLS)
American Society of Clinical Pathology –Board of Certification
Professional Organizations/Standards that informed the development of learning outcomes: American Society for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (ASCLS)– Career Entry
Level Competencies for CLS