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organisms that are rarely seen. The Microbiology courses have proven to
be the most challenging for students in the CLS program, and those who
are dismissed from the program usually have the lowest grades in these
courses.
The committee requested data from the department for 2009, 2010 and
2011. In January of 2010, the department chair, Dr. Bamberg became
seriously ill and had to go out on medical leave. Dr. Bamberg eventually
went out on permanent disability, and did not return. Since January of
2010 the department has had two full time faculty, and has been using
additional part time faculty to teach the program curriculum. This loss of a
faculty member required the remaining faculty to assume the
responsibilities of the department chair and program director, which
negatively impacted the department’s scholarly productivity.
The Clinical Laboratory Science department has a new faculty member
who has established a research program in the CLSC research lab. Dr.
David Cistola joined the department as tenured faculty in 2008, and is the
principal investigator of the NMR Diagnostics Research Laboratory,
which conducts translational research in diabetes, cardiovascular disease
& military blast injury. Dr. Cistola has also used this work to mentor two
senior CLSC students each year, helping them to learn the principles of
clinical research.
He is also the lead principal investigator for Operation Re-entry NC
(http://author.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/ah/operation_reentry.cfm), a university-wide
initiative to address the rehabilitation and re-entry concerns of military
personnel, veterans and their families. This initiative is supported by a five
year, 10.4 million dollar grant from the U. S. Army Medical Research and
Materiel Command.
The PPC draft recommendations also discussed the expense of the CLS
program and the low return on investment achieved. The CLS department
proposes to reduce its faculty budget by returning an additional 15%
($15,397) of the salary for the currently unfilled full time CLS faculty
position to CAHS as well as the chair’s stipend of $9362.00. $11,000 of
the salary for the unfilled faculty position was returned at the beginning of
this academic year. This would reduce the faculty salaries by $35,759.00.
In addition, since 2010 the operating budget of the department has been
reduced by 17.8 % from the original amount of $47,853 to $39, 352. To
further reduce the budget, the CLS department is in discussions with the
clinical laboratory at Pitt County Memorial Hospital to support the
program by purchasing Microbiology lab supplies for the CLS program.
This would reduce the operating budget by another $4,000 bringing the
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total reduction to 26%. The total reduction in budget (faculty salaries and
operating budget) for the department would be $48,260.00.
The CLS department also continues to seek ways to reduce its operating
budget by reducing the amount of other laboratory supplies used. Some
mechanisms that are being used include having students work in groups on
lab exercises, use of simulated laboratory exercises or demonstrations and
using laboratory supplies donated by clinical affiliates. It is important,
however for clinical laboratory science students to perform laboratory
exercises before they begin clinical rotations. The on-campus laboratory
courses teach students the laboratory techniques they will need for clinical
rotations and also help them develop proficiency. This allows the student
to assimilate into the professional laboratory environment faster and
improves the learning experience. It also helps the clinical affiliates who
assume responsibility for educating our students despite minimum staffing
levels and their primary duty to perform patient laboratory tests in a timely
and efficient manner.
The department currently has eleven applications for the fall 2012 class
(the deadline is February 1), and continues to receive inquiries from
students in the Biology department at ECU and graduates with B.S.
degrees in Biology from other institutions who are interested in careers in
the clinical laboratory. Some of these applicants came to the university for
the express purpose of applying to the clinical laboratory science program
and have been taking courses at ECU to prepare for it.
We hope that these proposed changes will allow the program to continue
at East Carolina University. As one of the many healthcare degree
programs at ECU, the clinical laboratory science program provides the
healthcare system with practitioners who possess a unique body of
knowledge that is essential in the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and
plays a significant role in maintaining patient safety.
The graduates of the CLS program have been an important source of
laboratory professionals for hospitals in Eastern North Carolina. Half of
the current laboratory staff at Pitt County Memorial Hospital is composed
of graduates of the CLS program at ECU. Many of the laboratory
professionals at Nash Healthcare Systems in Rocky Mount and Carolina
East Medical Center (one third of the total laboratory staff) are also ECU
CLS graduates.
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As you will see from the letters of support sent to Vice Chancellor Horns
by our clinical affiliates and Eastern North Carolina employers of our
graduates, our alumni are highly regarded and actively recruited by them.
As discussed in previous documents sent to the Program Prioritization
Committee, the graduates of ECU’s clinical laboratory science program
have a high first time pass rate on the national certification exam and are
often employed within two months of graduation, with many of them
receiving job offers while they are still in clinical rotation. Further
evidence of the quality of our CLS students is the fact that the clinical
affiliates will often hire them for part time positions in the laboratory
while they are in clinical rotation. In the current senior class six of the
fourteen seniors are employed part time by their clinical affiliates. They
are filling a need for clinical laboratory professionals in Eastern North
Carolina that continues to grow.
The Clinical Laboratory Science department welcomes any comments the
members of the Program Prioritization Committee have regarding our
proposed changes. We look forward to the committee’s response and hope
to be able to show you firsthand our state-of-the-art student laboratory
facilities.
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