Volume 92 - Special Edition	Download

Background to Development of the Clinical Doctorate Initiative

NAACLS is an independent accrediting agency recognized for accrediting academic programs that prepare graduates in a number of clinical laboratory fields including CLS. Its responsibility is to determine and set educational Standards for the professions it represents. Because development of Standards is a lengthy and laborious process, NAACLS is charged with envisioning the future while considering potential skills required by the workforce.

In 2000 NAACLS held a Futures Conference for stakeholders. The purpose of the conference was to look at possible future health care scenarios and the roles the CLS/MT and CLT/MLT would fulfill in those scenarios. Future skills needed by each profession were delineated. Results of the conference were published and used in development of revised Standards for CLS/MT and CLT/MLT programs in 2002.

Driven by: 1) massive growth in range and complexity of available tests and services; 2) continuing need for increased differentiation between associate and baccalaureate level programs, and 3) the emergence of numerous national studies that called for reshaping of the health care delivery system, a NAACLS Task Force was appointed to study the feasibility of graduate level entry for CLS/MT. The Task Force developed numerous documents and made formal reports to stakeholder organizations. There was no agreement among stakeholders about changing entry level requirement and it was decided to maintain the Standards as they were.

The NAACLS Board authorized a second Futures Conference for October 2004. Participants at this conference once more met to hear projections of the future and to discuss needed educational changes. They were strongly in favor of maintaining the current entry level for CLS/MT but were now vocal about the need for considering a clinical or advanced practice doctorate in the field.

As a result of evaluations of the conference and further discussion, the Board appointed a new committee, the Graduate Task Force (GTF) to study the possibility of an advanced practice doctoral degree for CLS/MT and to determine if NAACLS should develop Standards for such an academic program.

The Graduate Task Force first met by teleconference late in the winter of 2004 and began to research the issues related to a clinical doctorate. After several teleconference meetings it met face to face with the NAACLS Board in July and September of 2005. At each meeting, extensive information was presented by the GTF. The Board later authorized a March 1, 2006 invitational meeting to obtain stakeholder input on numerous documents produced by the Task Force.

After the September NAACLS Board meeting, the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (ASCLS) and the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) were invited to nominate representatives to serve on the Graduate Task Force. Discussions ensued about how the NAACLS task force might cooperate with a similar ASCLS task force that was also investigating a professional doctorate. At a winter 2006 face to face meeting of the now expanded GTF, it was concluded that there was much overlap between the concept of the professional doctorate being developed by the ASCLS Task Force, the Professional Doctorate Task Force (PDTF), and the concept proposed by the NAACLS GTF. It was determined that after the March 1 meeting the Task Forces would work cooperatively but with differing agendas to develop competencies, curriculum, and Standards for programs preparing to offer a clinical doctorate.

Top of the News
			A Clinical Doctorate for the Laboratory
			Process and Outcomes of the NAACLS Graduate Task Force
			The Concept of the Clinical Doctorate in Clinical Laboratory Science: Role, Responsibilities and Education
Features
			A Pathologist's Perspective The Doctorate in Clinical Laboratory Sciences: The Time Has Come by Larry H. Bernstein, MD
			A Pathologist's Perspective The Clinical Doctorate: A Boon to Pathologists by Linda B. Piller, MD, MPH
			Evaluation of Participant Reactions to Stakeholder Meeting
Other News
			Background to Development of the Clinical Doctorate Initiative
			FAQs
			Next Steps in Development of Standards
			Planning for the March 1, 2006 Stakeholder Meeting
			Process Employed at the March 1, 2006 Stakeholder Meeting

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