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| Archives |
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Volume 62 - Winter 1996
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1995 Essentials: clarity, consistency and the future
by Judith M. Bruce, MA, MT(ASCP) and Lucille Contois, MA, MT(ASCP)
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In fall of 1994, the NAACLS Board of Directors appointed a committee from members of the Clinical Laboratory Science Programs Review Committee (CLSPRC) to draft new Essentials for programs accredited by NAACLS. The committee's charge was to draft Essentials consistent with current and future professional practice. Essentials were to be as flexible as possible while maintaining the high quality of NAACLS accredited programs. The committee strove to eliminate redundancy, improve clarity and use a common format and terminology for all sets of Essentials. Further, it recommended removal of Guidelines from the documents.
Although many reasons for change were specific to individual Essentials, there were compelling reasons for an overall revision. The Essentials were last revised in 1986. Professional practice in the fields has evolved rapidly and matured since then. Change in practice, resulting largely from health care reform and technological advances, left the review committee striving to keep the 1986 Essentials relevant to professions that had undergone radical change. The Board of Directors acknowledged that new Essentials ought to reflect current and future education and practice.
Difficulties applying Essentials occurred when the intent and description were written into Guidelines. Although this information was helpful to program directors in meeting the standards, these Guidelines were not Essentials, and programs could not be evaluated based upon them. Some programs appeared to meet the "letter of the law" but not necessarily the "intent. " The assimilation of the Guidelines into the Essentials clarifies and strengthens the Essentials, making these minimum standards more meaningful.
Terminology within the Essentials has been updated and modified for purposes of clarification, consistency, and to reflect current acceptable terminology. In many instances the 1995 Essentials are simply a reorganization of the 1986 Essentials, deleting repetitions and unnecessary descriptive rhetoric, and also realigning the Essentials so that numbers are consistent across the documents. Communication between NAACLS review committees and programs will be facilitated and the processes for evaluating forms and reports will be expedited.
Some of the changes are summarized below:
PREAMBLE
The Preamble includes a description of the current, entry-level professions. Additional tasks and responsibilities have been added in order to reflect current professional practice.
SPONSORSHIP
Changes in this section include the separation of the provision for agreement renewal and agreement review into two provisions. The annual review provision is consistent with the interpretation that was used under the 1986 Essentials for "periodic review, " but now the requirement is explicit. An additional clause relating to completion of the program by enrolled students and a new provision, requiring a meeting between representative of the sponsoring institution and the affiliates at least annually, has been added.
RESOURCES
The clinical laboratory science professions have matured during the past decade. It was thought timely to recognize this maturation and establish standards more consistent with other allied health professions. Thus NAACLS now requires an advanced degree for program directors of CLS/MT and CLT/MLT programs. Minimum qualifications for program director of a CLS/MT program still includes a masters degree. However, the previous recognition of five years experience in CLS/MT education for a program director without an advanced degree has been deleted. The requirements for program director are now the same as the CLS/MT program and the optional education coordinator has been deleted.
A program director for a histotechnician program must now hold a baccalaureate degree and be nationally certified. An otherwise qualified program director who is not certified in histotechnology may be approved if the program appoints a qualified education coordinator. For a histotechnician program, that education coordinator must have an associate degree, be nationally certified and have three years of experience in histotechnology. For a histologic technologist program, that education coordinator must have a baccalaureate degree, be nationally certified, and have three years of experience in histotechnology.
Program directors who met the requirements of the 1986 Essentials will be grandfathered. Facilities must be adequate to fulfill the goals and objectives of the program. Some specific requirements have been eliminated in favor of a blanket statement requiring compliance with pertinent federal and state laws. The description of the library resources has been expanded to include information resources besides books and current editions. Instructional resources must include clinical, reference and demonstration materials. Omitting lengthy descriptions and arbitrary distinctions allows programs more flexibility, but it also requires the program to demonstrate that these instructional resources fulfill program goals and objectives. Provision for computer technology continues to be required for all program levels.
CURRICULUM
Considerable change occurred in this section. In the histotechnology Essentials, the "Curriculum" section has been divided into requirements for histotechnician programs and requirements for histologic technologist programs. The histotechnician curriculum has been separated into the associate degree and certificate levels, and curriculum content is outlined in general course requirements. Courses required for the histotechnologist are clearly described.
Separation between CLS/MT and CLT/MLT programs and the curriculum description for the CLS/MT have been clarified. For all sets of Essentials, clarification of instructional content and additions to the curriculum reflect elements of current professional practice. Additional information regarding learning experiences has been incorporated and includes experiences outside normally scheduled hours, achievement of competency and service work. These were formerly mentioned in the "Student" section, but are more appropriate to the curriculum section. Also incorporated under Curriculum are Essentials regarding evaluation of students.
The Essentials were modified to reflect general prerequisite course work necessary to achieve competency. Lists of prerequisites were eliminated because such course work varies. Programs are encouraged to adhere to institution-wide accrediting standards that encompass course offerings, requirements and policies.
Added to "Curriculum" were specific references to quality management, laboratory administration and computer science. The latter recognizes a need for graduates to enter, retrieve, correlate and store data using computer technology.
STUDENTS
This section includes a revised list of current publications that must be provided to students. The list includes items previously found in the Guidelines. The term "essential functions" replaces "technical standards" but refers to the same physical and psychomotor abilities needed for students to complete the program successfully. Statements regarding essential functions include the condition that all such requirements be defined, published and available to all. Students must provide documentation that they can meet the essential functions of the program.
Credits must be recorded for individual courses and maintained for a reasonable period of time. Guidance services must be available within the program that provide information about the profession and provide referral for personal problems.
OPERATIONAL POLICIES
Operational policies have an additional requirement. Student recruitment and admission must be carried out in a non-discriminatory way. This requirement is phrased as such so as to ensure this Essential's relevance for the future.
PROGRAM EVALUATION
To comply with new federal regulations, programs must use program completion and placement rates as evaluation tools. These were formerly suggestions found in the Guidelines.
MAINTAINING ACCREDITATION
Items related to an institution applying for accreditation and other administrative functions have been eliminated from the 1995 Essentials. Still, this section defines what the sponsoring institution must do to maintain accreditation. The need to notify NAACLS of any changes in program director or affiliates is stressed as is the timely submission of all required documentation.
The NAACLS Essentials have been reviewed and carefully revised after extensive input from the professions and other communities of interest. The results reflect both current practices and future expectations. Essentials are much like objectives; they should be a help and not a mystery to those trying to meet them.
Ms. Bruce is former Clinical Laboratory Sciences Programs Review Committee (CLSPRC) chairman and served as chairman of the Essentials Revision Subcommittee. Ms. Contois is the current CLSPRC chairman.
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