[Histonet] Pathology Ladder System

[Barry Rittman]

A well defined career ladder has often been a missing factor in salaries
for histotechs.

I believe that part of this is due to the change in the Med Lab Tech
training System.
Originally this system used to incoporate histology in the training.
I believe in the early 70s the histology section was removed from the
training and histopatholgy was on its own.
This, in  effect resulted in Med lab techs getting a degree and often being
placed in charge of labs including histology/pathology labs without realy
having much if any experience in these areas.
I trained in England where histology was one of the six areas in med lab
tech training in the entire country. Following this training it was
possible to specialise in one of the fields such as histopathology.
This provided  a direct career path as everyone working in a lab all had
the basic training and knew what to do to advance in their career.
During my career, while I worked in histology (and this is still my first
love), I was able to draw on my training in the other fields to help with
my histopathology.

I think that in effect the system of often having med lab techs in charge
of histopatholgy have artifically kept salaries for histopathogists
artificially low.

I personally would prefer the med lab tech training (including histology)
with a direct career path for all but am not holding my breath that this
will occur
Barry.