The National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences provides the following description for medical laboratory scientist: At career entry, the medical laboratory scientist will be proficient in performing clinical laboratory tests in areas such as hematology, clinical chemistry, immunohematology, microbiology, serology/immunology, coagulation, and molecular and other emerging diagnostics, and will be able to play a role in the development and evaluation of test systems and interpretive algorithms. Graduates will have diverse responsibilities in areas of analysis and clinical decision-making, regulatory compliance with applicable regulations, education, and quality assurance/performance improvement. They will also possess basic knowledge, skills and relevant experience in:

• Communications to enable consultative interactions with members of the health care team, external relations, customer service and patient education.
• Financial operations, marketing and human resource management of the clinical laboratory to enable cost-effective, high-quality, value-added laboratory services.
• Information management to enable effective, timely, accurate and cost-effective reporting of laboratory-generated information.
• Research design/practice sufficient to evaluate published studies as an informed consumer.

Upon graduation and initial employment, the medical laboratory scientist should be able to demonstrate entry-level competencies in the above areas of professional practice. Graduates are eligible to sit for national certification examinations in medical laboratory science after completion of the program.