Medical Laboratory Assistant

Class Concept

This is routine preparatory work in a medical laboratory that aids in the diagnosis of disease and treatment of patients or animals and/or routine laboratory processing work in assisting medical laboratory staff in performing tests. Employees may have responsibility for preparing glassware for use in testing; delivering test kits; clean and stocking the laboratory; and performing minor instrumentation cleaning. Employees may perform a few routine and standardized tests where the tests results are specific, predictable and require minimal interpretation. Employees may also be responsible for receiving specimens from a variety of sources, verifying identification information and assigning an accession number. Employees may be responsible for handling bio-hazardous waste and decontaminating it and organizing items from lab areas for incineration. Employees may be responsible for setting up quality control for each cycle in the autoclave. Work may include other related duties as determined by management. This work is found throughout labs in state agencies and is supervised by higher level medical laboratory personnel.

Recruitment Requirements

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Basic knowledge of laboratory instrumentation and equipment.
• Basic knowledge of good laboratory procedures and laboratory specimen handling.
• Basic knowledge of test procedures performed in the laboratory.
• Basic knowledge of the use of computers.
• Considerable knowledge of specimen processing.
• Thorough knowledge of the hazards of working with potentially infectious materials and the appropriate precautions to take to avoid infection.
• Skill in the use of laboratory equipment and in the performance of procedures.
• Ability to make accurate observations.
• Ability to communicate in both oral and written form.
• Ability to understand and follow oral and written instructions.

Minimum Education and Experience

High school or General Educational Development (GED) diploma and one year of laboratory experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.