Med Tech makes its move

Medical technology students in the College of Health and Nursing Sciences, already enjoying the benefits of small class sizes and positive job prospects, this year have a new home to enjoy as well.

Last spring, part of the Willard Hall Education Building on West Main Street was extensively renovated, transforming what had been an educational research office, primarily furnished with desks and computers, into a collection of high-tech medical labs. In the final stage of the remodeling, a chest freezer that was too big for the elevators was hoisted up the side of the building and swung inside just before contractors closed off the opening in the wall.

When that work was complete, more than 300 cartons were loaded with the Department of Medical Technology's equipment and supplies from the basement of McKinly Laboratory on Delaware Avenue. The boxes were then carted to the third floor of the Willard Hall Building to be unpacked. The entire move was completed in about four days in early June.

All that activity has resulted in new space for the Department of Medical Technology. The move puts the department in proximity to the CHNS departments of Nursing and Health and Exercise Sciences, as well as to the College's administrative offices in McDowell Hall.

"It isn't any more space than we had in McKinly," says Mary Ann McLane, assistant professor of medical technology, "but it's so pleasant and efficient that it feels like more."

The students agree, says Renee Travis, CHNS 2003.

"When we first came here after classes started in September, we were so pleased," she says. "It's so bright and cheery."

Medical technology, the College's smallest department, has a current enrollment of 32 seniors and 25 juniors. They study in four disciplines: hematology, blood banking, clinical chemistry and clinical microbiology. The new space has teaching labs for each specialty, as well as labs where faculty members and their student assistants do research. The freezer that had to be hauled up the side of the building last summer is a super-cold (minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit) model used to store specimens that, because they are rare or used infrequently, must be kept for long periods of time.

The teaching labs are equipped with specialized instruments that students learn to operate. They analyze blood and other body fluids for such constituents as glucose, cholesterol, drugs and disease-causing microorganisms.

"The instrumentation we have is very close to what students will be using when they're working in their careers," McLane says. "We teach principles of instrumentation, not a specific instrument, so they're prepared to work anywhere." As seniors, medical technology students put that knowledge to work as they complete a series of clinical rotations in a variety of hospital and other medical laboratories.