Course Description

The DCLS Clinical Practice Residency Core is a three-course series, taken consecutively from the first semester of the clinical residency year, providing an in-depth, mentored specialty clinical practice experience. Students complete a one year clinical residency at an affiliated institution. The supervised clinical residency provides opportunities for students to integrate knowledge and research findings in a practice setting, to develop skills in clinical and management areas, education, research applications, and to interface with other professionals in the healthcare environment. The clinical residency includes: daily grand rounds with the interprofessional healthcare team, participation in interprofessional patient-care conferences, interaction with pathologists, clinicians, patients, medical laboratory scientists, other healthcare professionals, and hospital administrators. Experiences also include clinical laboratory science services at community outreach sites as available, and clinical laboratory administrative functions. This structured clinical practice is enhanced with additional experiences individualized for the student and the clinical institution based on identified goals and needs. Through the three course series, the student will develop competence within the specified practice areas, achieving advanced practice skills.

CLSC 7199 DCLS Clinical Practice Residency I is the first course in the series, offered in summer term, which provides the foundation experiential learning experiences to begin applying advanced knowledge and skills in laboratory diagnosis consultation and interprofessional collaboration directed to quality, cost effective patient care.

Credits/Modes of Instruction

Credits:  4

Hours: 360 hours for 12 weeks: 6 hours a day.

Prerequisites

Matriculation in the Doctorate in Clinical Laboratory Science Program (DCLS).
Completion of all DCLS pre-residency required courses.
Approval for enrollment by the DCLS program director.
Fulfilment of residency requirements as outlined in “Section 18 Clinical Residency Requirements” in the DCLS Policy Manual.

Additional Requirements: Interaction with lab administrators, pathologist, clinicians and other healthcare professionals to explore select discussion question and assignment topics may be required.

Technical Requirements: Students are required to have reliable access to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider. Specific computer hardware, software and browser requirements for the University online course management system are required. Power Point viewer, Adobe Reader, and clinical decision support software, e.g., Epocrates, are required.

Course Goals and Outcomes:

Goals

For the DCLS student, through the course sequence:
1. CLSC 5213 Clinical Laboratory Data Analysis (CLDA) – pre-residency requirement
2. CLSC 6290 Clinical & Laboratory Diagnosis Correlation (CLDC) – pre-residency requirement
3. CLSC 7199, 7299, 7399 DCLS Clinical Practice Residency (I, I, III)

Daily tasks (activities of daily value, ADV) of the DCLS will be identified, characterized, and linked inductively to the marketplace quality driver they measure, i.e., coercive forces (regulations); normative forces (standards/benchmarks), and/or memetic forces (competition). These marketplace quality drivers are directly linked to course activities through professional competencies through which course objectives are accomplished.

The first course in the series CLSC 5213 Clinical Laboratory Data Analysis (CLDA), introduced quality theory, situates clinical laboratory quality investigations within these theoretical constructs, and explored the regulations and standards governing clinical laboratory quality improvement.

The second course in the series CLSC 6290 Clinical & Laboratory Diagnosis Correlation (CLDC) provided opportunity for DCLS students to develop processes using published and/or simulated data to apply and evaluate interventions introduced in CLDA. These interventions are designed to address patient safety core competencies in the areas of patient-
centered care, interdisciplinary team practice, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and informatics.

The third level of courses in the series, DCLS Clinical Practice Residency I, II, and III (CLSC 7199, 7299, 7399), provide opportunity for DCLS students to draw from concepts introduced in CLDA and applied in CLDC to construct interventions and testing algorithms constructed to address issues of quality, value, and patient safety relevant to their clinical sites and experiences.

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

Provide patient-centered, customized consultation services on appropriate test selection and interpretation for the purpose of clinical decision-making among the interprofessional healthcare team and for the patient. (IOM Core Competencies1: patient-centered care, interprofessional teams)

Identify information during clinical rounding on types of consultation opportunities appropriate for DCLS interventions and provide consultative responses

Participate in rounds in major areas: ED, ICU, CCU, Oncology, pediatrics, and others as identified by the clinical site coordinator and course faculty.

Monitor laboratory data, test utilization, and diagnostic testing processes for individual patients and populations using informatics and analytics to reduce diagnostic errors, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.(IOM Core Competencies1: quality improvement, informatics)

Expand consultation skills through interaction with healthcare providers and participation in inter-professional patient-care conferences

Conduct research and apply evidence to demonstrate clinical utility of laboratory tests and algorithms and to improve the quality, efficiency, and safety of the overall diagnostic testing process2. (IOM Core Competencies1: evidence-based practice, quality improvement, patient-centered care, informatics)

Provide consultation related to clinical laboratory services, test selection and interpretation.

Educate health care providers, patients, their families, and the general public on the indications, best evidence, patient preparation, and interpretation of clinical laboratory testing, including home self-testing. (IOM Core Competencies1: patient-centered care, interprofessional teams)

Develop education materials related to laboratory testing, interpretation, and compliance geared to various consumers i.e. patient, clinician, other healthcare providers

Direct laboratory operations to comply with all state and federal laws and regulations, as well as guidelines determined by professional boards of licensure, and certification/accreditation agencies. (IOM Core Competencies1: quality improvement)

Formulate and implement algorithms and plans related to clinical laboratory testing and services based upon current scientific rationale, evidence-based practice guidelines and standards of practice/care.

Participate in public and private health policy decision making at all organization and government levels using best evidence.(IOM Core Competencies1: quality improvement, interprofessional teams)

Participate in grand rounds in various areas: general medicine, clinical pathology, oncology, pediatrics, and others as identified by the clinical site coordinator and course faculty.