Book Description

Physicians and patients trust the medical laboratory science (MLS) professionals performing laboratory tests, assuming that they are competent. The education of these professionals includes time spent in clinical rotations; weeks that students spend alongside their clinical instructors who are practicing professionals. When they first have students to teach, these clinical instructors have little or no experience or training in how to conduct clinical instruction. This research examined how medical laboratory science clinical instructors learn to conduct clinical instruction. In order to describe the phenomenon of clinical instructors learning to conduct clinical instruction, a mixed methods approach was used. In the first phase, a questionnaire was distributed to clinical instructors at hospital affiliates of six Midwest university programs of medical laboratory science. Informed by these data, the researcher conducted interviews in the second phase. Six MLS clinical instructors were interviewed to explore more deeply how they learn to conduct clinical instruction. These data were analyzed for recurrent themes. The culmination of the research was a thick, rich description of the phenomenon of how medical laboratory scientists learn to conduct clinical instruction. In addition, six themes were identified: 1) clinical instructors use experience as a learning resource; 2) clinical instructors learn in order to solve problems and they apply their learning for immediate use; 3) clinical instructors use a variety of methods to learn how to do clinical instruction; 4) some clinical instructors have a natural ability for teaching but some do not; 5) clinical instructors must learn to teach with less time; and 6) clinical instructors vary in their self-directedness and internal motivation. The research showed that medical laboratory science clinical instructors act as adult learners by using their experiences as students, experiences as instructors, and life experiences to learn clinical instruction. As adult learners, they are focused on learning in order to solve problems, learning for immediate application. Clinical instructors learn clinical instruction by a variety of methods. With increasing stress and workload, clinical instructors in medical laboratories, however, find it difficult to concentrate on learning to teach students. This research answers the questions, "What does a clinical instructor do to learn clinical instruction?" and "What experiences do clinical instructors call upon to help them in learning to be clinical instructors?" and "What, if any, adult learning principles do clinical instructors use in learning clinical instruction?" These answers illuminate the ways in which clinical instructors of medical laboratory science students learn to conduct clinical instruction. By understanding how clinical instructors learn, hospital management and university MLS programs will be better prepared to support new clinical instructors in their initial learning and experienced clinical instructors in their lifelong learning. The quality of instruction of our medical laboratory science students depends on how well clinical instructors learn how to conduct clinical instruction.