What Are the Duties of a Clinical Lab Technician?

by Linda Ray, Demand Media Google

Clinical lab technicians work behind the scenes in a variety of health-care facilities. They serve in a technical capacity to provide assistance to health-care professionals with duties such as operating computers and machinery and analyzing cell samples to help them carry out their functions and treat patients more efficiently. In 2010, clinical lab technicians earned a median income of about $22.44 per hour in a field that is growing at pace with the rest of the economy, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Generating Data

The central duty of a clinical lab technician is to assist in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of disease in patients. To this end, they work with pathologists and other medical professionals who specialize in disease identification. Although they normally don't have much direct contact with patients, they serve as a kind of liaison between the doctor and the patient. They generate data for use by the doctors by taking blood, urine, tissue and other kinds of samples from the patients. They then do lab work and analyze the samples to provide the primary physicians with the information they need to more effectively treat the patients.

Record Keeping

The duties of a clinical lab technician include a strong clerical element. They help the hospital staff do paperwork and maintain records. Normally, sampling and testing require documentation of results by the clinical lab technician. In addition to recording individual results, clinical lab technicians often assist in maintaining the entire data system at their places of work, keeping track of and filing incoming and outgoing lab reports and making statistical reports at regular intervals. They also help to match donors’ and recipients’ blood types for successful transfusions or transplants.

Lab Maintenance

Clinical lab technicians work on a daily basis with cutting-edge technologies. They use advanced machinery and computers to assist them in specimen analysis and record keeping. For the health-care facility to function properly and for physicians to effectively treat their patients, lab technicians need to keep their diagnostic and record keeping machinery functioning to a very high standard. They must do regular sterilization, maintenance and examination of all lab equipment. They also need to have an in-depth understanding of whatever technology they are using, so they can notice and report any malfunction or inconsistency.

Developing Solutions

Some clinical lab technicians come in at the other end of the process as well, helping the physician develop or implement whatever solution or treatment is necessary for the patient. Sometimes this means working with medication, but more often it means creating medical appliances for the patient, which can include canes, prosthetic limbs and hearing aids. Lab technicians often take instructions or prescriptive guidelines from physicians and then work toward implementing those requirements.

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