Dear Dr. NAACLS,
What are "applied experiences"? Are they the same as clinical experience?
Sincerely,
Searching for a Definition

Dear Dr. NAACLS,
The review for my Self-Study had a concern with Standard 10M, which reads, "policies and procedures when applied experience cannot be guaranteed." What does this mean?
Sincerely,
Concerned Program Director

Dear Searching and Concerned:
The NAACLS Glossary gives a definition of applied experience by stating, "Applied education includes educational activities carried out in a clinical or student laboratory and in which the student participates actively in laboratory procedures."

Beginning with the 2001 CLS/MT Standards, NAACLS began using the term "applied experience" in recognition that the term "clinical experience" did not include all of the ways in which students gain applied experience. The debate centered around the meaning of the term "clinical," and many of the methods used to educate students might fall outside of stricter definitions of clinical. Experience in a hospital laboratory is both clinical and applied, but whether experience in a student laboratory can be viewed as "clinical" has been debatable.

The NAACLS Mission Statement includes the vision: "NAACLS provides leadership in fostering innovative educational approaches." One way that NAACLS seeks to foster innovation in laboratory education is to recognize the full range of methods used to give students applied experience - and not limit programs to a strict definition of clinical.

Most NAACLS programs affiliate with several different sites to accept their students and complete the students' applied experience. Standard 10M poses the question, "What happens if you have more students than you have spaces in sites to accept them?" Some programs accept more students than they have space to accommodate them and rely on attrition during the didactic phase of the program. Other programs, with fewer sites available in their area, have found it difficult to find a replacement should a site cancel its affiliation agreement. The policy that the Standards requires should state how the program will select which students will be placed if there are 10 students eligible for a rotation and only 8 slots. One example might be, "If more students are eligible for placement than the number of places available, then students will receive placement in order of GPA.ÿStudents not placed will be placed first at the next available placement event." Alternately, this policy should be sufficient to explain why this scenario is unlikely, such as, "It is policy not to accept more students than we have rotations available."
Sincerely,
Dr. NAACLS

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