Brenda Kouba’s biggest challenge in recruiting medical technologists is that the program is a mystery to teachers and students.
“People don’t know who we are and what we do,” she said. “That’s our biggest hurdle.”
But, Kouba, a staff assistant in UNMC’s medical technology program, is helping to change that by promoting the role and importance of medical technologists to students, guidance counselors and all who will listen. For her dedication, outstanding office management and recruiting skills in the School of Allied Health Professions, Kouba has received the Chancellor’s Gold ‘U’ Award for April.
“Eighty percent of all the medical diagnosis made are dependent upon lab work by a medical technologist,” Kouba said. “They are an essential part of the medical team.”
Medical technologists, also known as clinical laboratory scientists, perform tests to confirm diabetes, determine compatibility for organ donations, verify potentially dangerous drug levels, and a variety of other behind-the-scenes medical detective work. And they are in great demand in medical labs across the country.
“Brenda works tirelessly for the program,” one nominator said. “Brenda has taken over the recruiting for the program and has added excellent ideas and a complete burst of energy…There are some people in an institution that could never be replaced. Brenda is one of those people. She is capable of excelling at any work she is assigned or decides to take on. With our strategic plan to be world-class, we need people like Brenda. She has always been and will continue to be world-class.”
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Title: staff assistant, Division of Medical Technology program Job responsibilities: pre-admission counseling, recruiting students and administrative office duties. Joined UNMC: June 1991. One day I’d like to: take a cruise and/or spend a few weeks at a resort in the Canadian mountains. Greatest personal achievement: My family, whom I consider gifts from God given to me to nurture, love, enjoy, and encourage and to do the best I can to lead them to the Lord. |
Said another nominator: “Brenda Kouba is the single most important reason for the many accomplishments and successes of the medical technology program…In addition to her outstanding organizational skills, she is the soothing oil that keeps our entire operation running smoothly.” Another nominator called her the “heart” of the division of medical technology.
The daughter of a drug salesman, Kouba had always wanted a medical career, but did not want to take care of patients or fill prescriptions. She found her niche as a medical technologist, analyzing tubes of blood from patients she never met.
“I found it to be an exciting field,” Kouba said. “I could follow somebody’s case through their laboratory diagnosis and know if they were improving or doing worse.”
Kouba, who was raised in Arizona, graduated from Creighton University, and launched her professional career in 1963, eventually serving two years as medical technology program director at Bergen Mercy Hospital, before leaving there to raise her three children.
In 1981, she returned to the workplace to help a family friend as a paralegal. After 10 years, she decided to return to a hospital setting. In 1991, Phyllis Muellenberg, director of UNMC’s medical technology program, was looking for someone who knew the medical technology field and could run the office.
“I dropped into her lap,” Kouba said. “I know I would be paid more if I worked on the bench, but I like the atmosphere and people here. Everyone is focused on doing the work that is needed to foster the program. It’s a comfortable environment of cooperation rather than competition or individuality.”
The mother of three grown children, Kouba enjoys reading, embroidering and crocheting. She is active in her church and in the lives of her three young grandsons.
Meanwhile, she is promoting a profession that faces a critical shortage. There are approximately 100 job openings in Nebraska and a 10 to 20 percent vacancy rate in most of the regions in the United States. With 31 students, UNMC’s program, the only one in Nebraska, has more students than most of the programs and its graduates are being aggressively recruited by health care facilities throughout the United States.
“For professors and others to say that medical technology is a ‘dead-end field’ blows my mind,” Kouba said. “A bachelor’s degree in medical technology is one of the best basic science degrees available and the students are job-ready at graduation. This profession is also a great stepping stone into other medical careers, research, higher education, and sales jobs for companies making laboratory equipment.”
It’s also a wonderful career in itself, Kouba said. “We do forensics; molecular, cytogenetic and genetic work; testing for a myriad of chemical disorders and toxicology; bacterial, viral, parasitic testing done in these days of bioterrorism; diagnosis of leukemias and anemias and many other areas that affect the health and physiology of the human body.
Thanks to Kouba, Nebraskans are gaining a better understanding of the important role medical technologists play in their health care.