MLT Program Details

MLT Program of Maine Technical Standards

Lab education programs establish technical standards and essential functions to ensure that students have the abilities required to participate and be successful in all areas of the program. Satisfactory completion of the MLT Program and successful employment following graduation demands your ability to meet the following requirements.

Essential functions, as distinguished from academic standards, refer to those physical, cognitive, and behavioral abilities required for satisfactory completion of all aspects of the MLT curriculum, as well as the development of professional attributes required by the program administration and clinical faculty of all students upon completion of the program. The essential functions consist of minimal physical, cognitive, affective, and emotional requirements to provide reasonable assurance that students can complete the entire course of study and participate in all aspects of clinical training.

The student must be able to meet the following essential functions and technical standards, with or without reasonable accommodations to fulfill the requirements of the MLT Program for admission, continuation, and completion.

If you are uncertain as to your ability with any of these essential functions, please consult with the MLT program administration.

Movement—Demonstrate sufficient gross and fine motor skills required for safe and effective performance of duties. Students must:

• Move freely from one location to another in physical settings of the student classrooms and laboratories, medical laboratories, and healthcare facilities.
• Travel to university campuses for laboratory sessions and clinical laboratory sites for practical experience.
• Operate analytical instruments appropriately and safely.
• Must be able to lift, move, push, and pull reagent containers.
• Reach laboratory benchtops and shelves, patients lying in hospital beds, or patients seated in specimen collection furniture.
• Perform moderately taxing continuous physical and mental work, often requiring prolonged sitting or standing, over several hours.
• Maneuver phlebotomy equipment to safely collect laboratory specimens from patients.
• Possess finger and manual dexterity necessary to safely control analytical equipment.
• Demonstrate the ability to use a binocular microscope to identify structures, cells, and organisms.

Communication Skills—Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively in English using verbal, non-verbal, and written formats with faculty, other students, clients, families, and all members of the healthcare team. Students must:

• Communicate effectively in verbal and written formats.
• Speak clearly, concisely and employ correct vocabulary and grammar for communication with physicians, other health care professionals, students, faculty, patients, family, and the public, in writing, in person, and via telephone.
• Appropriately assess nonverbal as well as verbal communication with other students, faculty, staff, patients, family, and other professionals
• Communicate respectfully and in a productive manner even in stressful conditions.
• Apply verbal and written instructions to independently perform laboratory procedures.

Visual Acuity and Sensory—Demonstrate functional use of visual, auditory, and somatic sensations. Students must:

• Identify and distinguish objects macroscopically and microscopically.
• Read charts, graphs, and instrument scales as well as discern fine details of texture and color in print or on monitor screens.
• Demonstrate sufficient depth perception and spatial awareness to perform laboratory tasks efficiently and safely.
• Differentiate color, clarity, and viscosity of specimens.
• Demonstrate a sense of touch and temperature discrimination sufficient to perform laboratory testing.

Cognitive Application Skills—Demonstrate the ability to collate information and make decisions. Students must:

• Apply knowledge, skills, and values to new situations.
• Measure, calculate, reason, analyze, integrate, and synthesize information.
• Successfully apply theory to practice and test performance to ensure quality outcomes.
• Demonstrate sufficient cognitive abilities and effective learning techniques to assimilate the detailed and complex information presented in the MLT curriculum.
• Learn through a variety of modalities including, but not limited to, classroom instruction; small group, team, and collaborative activities; individual study; preparation and presentation of reports; application of theory to clinical practice, and use of computer technology.
• Demonstrate the capacity to perform problem-solving skills in a timely fashion.

Safety—Students must:

• Work safely with mechanical, electrical, thermal, chemical, radiologic, and biological hazards.
• Follow prescribed guidelines for good laboratory practices and working with hazards.
• Recognize potentially hazardous materials and situations and proceed safely to minimize the risk of injury to patients, self, and nearby individuals.

Behavioral—Students possess the emotional health and stability required for full utilization of the student’s intellectual abilities, the exercise of professional judgment, the prompt completion of all academic and patient care responsibilities, and the development of professional relationships with faculty, fellow students, clinical instructors, patients, and other members of the healthcare team.

Self-Awareness—Students must

• Fully utilize appropriate and professional abilities to respond to others collegially and professionally.
• Maintain mature, sensitive, respectful, and effective relationships with patients, students, faculty, staff, and other professionals under all circumstances, including highly stressful situations.
• Demonstrate emotional stability to function effectively under stress and to adapt to an environment that may change rapidly without warning and in unpredictable ways.

Affective Skills—Students must

• Manage the use of time and be able to systematize actions to complete professional and technical tasks within realistic constraints.
• Provide professional and technical services under conditions of physical and emotional stress.
• Maintain alertness and concentration during a normal work period.
• Adapt to changing environments, display flexibility, and learn to function in the face of uncertainty.
• Respond to and accept constructive feedback from others and take personal responsibility for making appropriate positive changes.
• Take corrective action based on instructor or preceptor feedback and guidance.
• Support and promote the activities of fellow students and healthcare professionals which helps furnish a team approach to learning, task completion, problem-solving, and patient care.
• Possess attributes that include compassion, empathy, integrity, honesty, responsibility, and ethics.
• Works within environments of cultural diversity. Works well with individuals of different ethnic, gender, social, or educational backgrounds.
• Exhibit professional behavior by conforming to appropriate standards of dress, appearance, language, and public behavior.

Revised: May 22, 2024