After CLS...Masters in Mgmt, PathA, or Molecular Diagnostics?

[Laberg]

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I am finishing my degree in clinical laboratory science, and I'm unsure which route to take to further my education: masters in clinical management, pathologists' assistant, or molecular diagnostics.

A lab supervisor told me a management degree will open more opportunities for me. Is it wise to get a management degree even if I don't want to be a manager? (shy introvert) Is molecular diagnostics a good route to take?

Which is the best choice in your opinion?

I appreciate your feedback!

 

[pamac]

A masters in lab management doesn't guarantee you one of the very few spots at the top. It might help you if you are very willing to relocate to anywhere in the country. For one, experience is key. You won't move up the chain anytime soon.... There's just a lot to familiarize to. Second, folks without management degrees, but holding pertinent experience, will have an edge because they know the terrain, whereas you won't. There just isn't a premium for additional education in the lab science industry like there is for know how.

 

[wutthechris]

There isn't really anywhere to go with CLS other than management, so that would be the best route unless you want to change careers.

 

[Aminex]

I will be finishing CLS as well in 2015 but have worked for a number years as an unlicensed everyman in several labs and blood banks. My Dad is a laboratory director who got there on a B.S. alone (see Old Economy Steve meme) but he really hates it. The managers I've encountered have an alphabet soup of things that sound really mind numbing to me (quality management, Six Sigma, etc.). My former manager could put 26 letters after her name if she wanted to based on all the nonsense she went after but she stuck to MT(ASCP), SBB(ASCP), CQA. Molecular is apparently the future assuming FDA approval comes through but, while the theory and mechanisms behind it are cool, it's still just pressing "play" like any other automated assay. I was trained by a traveling tech. for GenProbe who had gotten HLA certification and he described some neat opportunities related to organ transplantation since molecular assays will continue to create finer HLA matches.
I am also interested in path. asst. but you have to really love grossing because that's it. I was an autopsy technician for the local medical examiner and while it's definitely cool at first, the scenery doesn't change much. It's been said that the "assistant" title brings with it doing everything that the physician doesn't want to do and while some pathologists love autopsy and specimen prep., the vast majority do not. They like to stay in slacks behind the scope. Personally, I think 70-90K for chop shop all day is pretty good but I'm not very mobile at the moment and there is no school within 700 miles of me. The downward pressures/race to the bottom in pathology may affect the outlook for PAs but probably not by much. Dead people are not bad to work with and you quickly get used to decomposition smells, puke, stool, old blood and the like. It can be very sad to see so many people come to unfortunate ends but the fascination is endless. We got a burned corpse that appeared to be a house fire victim until we found the hollow point bullet deep in his neck. There was another poor fellow who created a device for autoerotic asphyxiation. Naturally, something went wrong and the ME found the beginnings of a tumor in his kidney that might have been his near-term downfall anyway if he wasn't into Carradine-ing. You get a chance to explore pathology in ways you wouldn't otherwise be able to but that also means loving pathology.
Introversion does not work well at all for management. You have to gladhand, a**kiss and finesse your way through not only the senior management riding you like a mule but also your army of disgruntled staff. Meeting after meeting after meeting and work never ends. One Thanksgiving, my dad tried to take some days off and in the middle of dinner, some employee felt that she was not appreciated enough and caused a huge disruption in the lab that he had to go mediate. He had to work on budgets and reports through VPN access the whole time anyway so his attempt at time off was a wash really. But, he takes home 95K so you have to ask yourself what's important to you in life. Part of me hopes I fall in enough love with the lab to counteract the itchiness wanting to be a clinician of some stripe but we'll just have to see. I'm beefing up pre-req's before my clinical year just in case.

 

[pamac]

I will be finishing CLS as well in 2015 but have worked for a number years as an unlicensed everyman in several labs and blood banks. My Dad is a laboratory director who got there on a B.S. alone (see Old Economy Steve meme) but he really hates it. The managers I've encountered have an alphabet soup of things that sound really mind numbing to me (quality management, Six Sigma, etc.). My former manager could put 26 letters after her name if she wanted to based on all the nonsense she went after but she stuck to MT(ASCP), SBB(ASCP), CQA. Molecular is apparently the future assuming FDA approval comes through but, while the theory and mechanisms behind it are cool, it's still just pressing "play" like any other automated assay. I was trained by a traveling tech. for GenProbe who had gotten HLA certification and he described some neat opportunities related to organ transplantation since molecular assays will continue to create finer HLA matches.
I am also interested in path. asst. but you have to really love grossing because that's it. I was an autopsy technician for the local medical examiner and while it's definitely cool at first, the scenery doesn't change much. It's been said that the "assistant" title brings with it doing everything that the physician doesn't want to do and while some pathologists love autopsy and specimen prep., the vast majority do not. They like to stay in slacks behind the scope. Personally, I think 70-90K for chop shop all day is pretty good but I'm not very mobile at the moment and there is no school within 700 miles of me. The downward pressures/race to the bottom in pathology may affect the outlook for PAs but probably not by much. Dead people are not bad to work with and you quickly get used to decomposition smells, puke, stool, old blood and the like. It can be very sad to see so many people come to unfortunate ends but the fascination is endless. We got a burned corpse that appeared to be a house fire victim until we found the hollow point bullet deep in his neck. There was another poor fellow who created a device for autoerotic asphyxiation. Naturally, something went wrong and the ME found the beginnings of a tumor in his kidney that might have been his near-term downfall anyway if he wasn't into Carradine-ing. You get a chance to explore pathology in ways you wouldn't otherwise be able to but that also means loving pathology.
Introversion does not work well at all for management. You have to gladhand, a**kiss and finesse your way through not only the senior management riding you like a mule but also your army of disgruntled staff. Meeting after meeting after meeting and work never ends. One Thanksgiving, my dad tried to take some days off and in the middle of dinner, some employee felt that she was not appreciated enough and caused a huge disruption in the lab that he had to go mediate. He had to work on budgets and reports through VPN access the whole time anyway so his attempt at time off was a wash really. But, he takes home 95K so you have to ask yourself what's important to you in life. Part of me hopes I fall in enough love with the lab to counteract the itchiness wanting to be a clinician of some stripe but we'll just have to see. I'm beefing up pre-req's before my clinical year just in case.

That's about the gist of it when it comes to lab management. Archaic and difficult to navigate. I looked around the lab I was in and realized I could aspire to run that place (I really had no such designs), and have all my efforts turn to naught if management decided to go with someone else. Then where do you go? What ladder would I have worked up? There's just no consistency under which each facility operates.

 

[wholeheartedly]

This really depends on what your interests are. What areas of CLS do you like? What are your goals. It probably would be best to get a year or two of experience before making this kind of decision. Experience tends to count for a lot. at my current institution the job postings for management positions tend to say something like 5 years experience in the lab, plus 2 years of leadership experience OR 3 years experience plus a masters in cls or management cert. plus some leadership or supervisory experience. There are some non traditional options out there that could be interesting to you as well.

From my group of classmates and colleagues we've had some go into management, become quality or education specialists, work as development techs, and get various specializations like SBB, etc. Some go to PA or med school, one considering path assistant, one became a cardiac perfusionist, one is in a masters program for forensic science, one is doing quality control in a brewery. I've got a friend who works for the health department overseeing lab surveillance programs. I'm doing an MPH in Epi and there are quite a few CLS folks in the MPH program with various plans ranging from merging CLS with public health to a complete departure from CLS. There's a cool program offered through the association of public health labs and the CDC called the Emerging Infectious Disease Fellowship that I've considered that seems to offer great opps if you liked micro.

So while CLS can seem to be a bit of a limited career path there are quite
a few CLS directions and non CLS directions you can take depending on your interests. But you shouldn't jump into anything until you have a clearer idea what you want to do.