{"id":47489,"date":"2001-03-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-03-21T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2001\/03\/21\/unmc-medical-technology-division-is-university-widedepartment-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2022-08-29T10:52:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T15:52:54","slug":"unmc-medical-technology-division-is-university-widedepartment-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2001\/03\/21\/unmc-medical-technology-division-is-university-widedepartment-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"UNMC Medical Technology Division is University-wide\n\nDepartment of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtually every conceivable bodily fluid or substance sent to a laboratory<\/p>\n

for analysis will be processed by a medical technologist.  Whether<\/p>\n

looking for the AIDS virus, leukemia, blood type for a simple transfusion<\/p>\n

or tissue match for a transplant, the med techs run the tests, analyze<\/p>\n

the data and hover over the microscopes trying to identify one more piece<\/p>\n

of a patients health puzzle.  No clinical laboratory can function<\/p>\n

without medical technologists, and the program that produces 80 percent<\/p>\n

of the medical technologists in Nebraska just received its highest award<\/p>\n

ever.<\/p>\n

The University of Nebraska Medical Centers Division of Medical Technology<\/p>\n

is the 2001 university-wide department of the year. The formal announcement<\/p>\n

was made on March 7 by University of Nebraska Executive Vice President<\/p>\n

and Provost Lee B. Jones.  This is UNMCs first university-wide department<\/p>\n

of the year honoree since the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy won<\/p>\n

in 1995.<\/p>\n

We are really proud of the success of our distance learning program,<\/p>\n

said Phyllis Muellenberg, associate professor, chair and program director<\/p>\n

of the division of medical technology.  We have graduated 79 rural<\/p>\n

Nebraskans from our distance program in the past nine years, and there<\/p>\n

has been no difference in the certification board test scores and first<\/p>\n

time success rates between campus students and distance learners.<\/p>\n

In fact, the success rate of the rural affiliate distance learning program<\/p>\n

has no comparative equal in the United States today.  The program<\/p>\n

now includes clinical affiliations with St. Francis Medical Center, Grand<\/p>\n

Island; Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, Hastings; Good Samaritan Hospital,<\/p>\n

Kearney; and Great Plains Regional Medical Center, North Platte. Many of<\/p>\n

the distance learning graduates, such as Gina Lauby, never attended a single<\/p>\n

class in Omaha. Lectures and clinical case conferences are delivered by<\/p>\n

satellite television or televideo.<\/p>\n

I only spent two days in Omaha during my entire year and that was<\/p>\n

for orientation, said Lauby, of Litchfield, Neb., a 2000 grad and now<\/p>\n

employed as a research technologist at UNMC. I never felt slighted in<\/p>\n

any of my education.  In fact, I think I got an even better deal. <\/p>\n

In Kearney, there were just two distance med tech students in my class.<\/p>\n

We received extraordinary laboratory bench time, and more personal attention<\/p>\n

from the technologists and professional volunteers. As good as things are<\/p>\n

in Omaha, I know that just having more students and demands on the labs<\/p>\n

we probably could never have gotten all the extra opportunities people<\/p>\n

were able to give us in Kearney.  We felt special all the time.<\/p>\n

In addition to program partners in Omaha, Nebraska Methodist Hospital<\/p>\n

and the Nebraska Health System, clinical education support is provided<\/p>\n

by affiliates at VA Medical Center, Childrens Hospital, Alegent Bergan<\/p>\n

Mercy, Physicians Laboratory and the Omaha Regional Red Cross.<\/p>\n

Well-educated medical technologists are essential for UNMCs strategic<\/p>\n

focus laboratories in cancer, transplantation, molecular genetics, neuroscience<\/p>\n

and advanced biomedical technology research.  During the 2000-2001<\/p>\n

academic year, the medical technology faculty also is providing courses<\/p>\n

and lectures for 841 health professions students from the fields of medicine,<\/p>\n

pharmacy, physician assistant, master-level nursing, clinical perfusion,<\/p>\n

phlebotomy, and radiography.<\/p>\n

Medical technology education began at UNMC in 1931, and is the second<\/p>\n

oldest medical technology program in the United States.  The baccalaureate<\/p>\n

degree was first offered in 1947.  In 1968, the UNMC educational program<\/p>\n

formed a consortium with the educational programs at Nebraska Methodist<\/p>\n

and Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospitals in Omaha with UNMC as the bachelor<\/p>\n

of science degree granting partner.  Since 1988, UNMC has provided<\/p>\n

the only medical technology\/clinical laboratory bachelor of science degree<\/p>\n

program in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

The program consistently ranks in the top 20 percent of all programs<\/p>\n

nationally with a first time pass rate of 97-100 percent and program mean<\/p>\n

well above (558\/468) the national average.<\/p>\n

I heard about UNMCs med tech program while a student at the University<\/p>\n

of South Dakota, said Regina English, from Council Bluffs, a 2000 grad<\/p>\n

and now a medical technologist at Alegent Health Immanuel Medical Center. <\/p>\n

All the alumni I talked with told me that the faculty was extremely well<\/p>\n

prepared and took great personal interest in each student.<\/p>\n

Later, I returned home, enrolled at UNO and took an introduction to<\/p>\n

hematology class taught by Linda Sykora.  She really impressed me<\/p>\n

as a great instructor.  I knew after that first class with Linda that<\/p>\n

all the med tech instructors must be very good, and there would be a high<\/p>\n

standard of excellence.  Yet the faculty really cared about us as<\/p>\n

people.  When some of my classmates were hospitalized, the faculty<\/p>\n

really worked extra hard to encourage them not to quit, then helped them<\/p>\n

keep up and graduate with the rest of us.  Ill never forget that.<\/p>\n

Six medical technology faculty members have received the Outstanding<\/p>\n

Clinical Instructor Award in recent years.  James Newland, M.D., professor<\/p>\n

and medical director of the division of medical technology, has received<\/p>\n

the University of Nebraska Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity<\/p>\n

Award. Dr. Newland, Muellenberg, and Linda Fell, associate program director<\/p>\n

and education coordinator, all share national appointments to their disciplines<\/p>\n

top associations including the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical<\/p>\n

Laboratory Science and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.<\/p>\n

The division has attracted more that $1.2 million in external funding. <\/p>\n

Current projects include developing cultural competency courses for practitioners,<\/p>\n

a web-based curriculum in clinical laboratory sciences with seven national<\/p>\n

partners and increasing the number of minority and disadvantaged students<\/p>\n

through multimedia recruitment modules.<\/p>\n

A formal presentation of the divisions award will be made on April<\/p>\n

4 during a special lunch with  University of Nebraska President L.<\/p>\n

Dennis Smith.  The division also will be featured during activities<\/p>\n

planned for the week of April 15-21 — 2001 National Medical Laboratory<\/p>\n

Week.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virtually every conceivable bodily fluid or substance sent to a laboratory for analysis will be processed by a medical technologist.  Whether looking for the AIDS virus, leukemia, blood type for a simple transfusion or tissue match for a transplant, the med techs run the tests, analyze the data and hover over the microscopes trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\nUNMC Medical Technology Division is University-wide Department of the Year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Virtually every conceivable bodily fluid or substance sent to a laboratory for analysis will be processed by a 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