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I've been mulling this over the last week, as to how to write this out. I apologize beforehand if it gets a bit messy.
Many of you know, I went back to school last January to become a Medical Laboratory Technologist. I'd successfully completed Levels 1 and 2, and when I went back to class Jan 9 I began Level 3 - at the end of this level, I'd begin doing a 10-month hospital clinical. Then I'd write the exam, and start looking for work
. I already did a 2 week phlebotomy clinical this past summer and loved it. It really cemented in my mind that working in health care was what I wanted, and I did a damn good job and got excellent feedback from my clinical proctors.
Well, I'm no longer in school, I had to withdraw from my program last Friday. Not because of grades, finances, or anything like that. I was academically in good standing, and doing well according to all my instructors, but it turns out that of all things, my deafness has once again prevented me from moving forward in life.
When I was accepted into the MLSC (Medical Laboratory SCience) program, my deafness was discussed, and I was told that there may be some issues or difficulties that would need to be dealt with, but nobody hinted that my deafness would be a complete roadblock to graduating. You see the program (and the licensing body, CSMLS - Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science ) requires that I be able to report laboratory findings over the phone, and that's not something I can do. There isn't any way this could be changed, or even have some kind of accomodations made (like having a TTY in the lab, etc) because it would require every other department to have one too, and occasionally I'd have to receive calls (or make them to make reports) offsite, etc. This is a mandatory competency and if it can't be achieved, I can't graduate.
For the record, although I'm deaf, I have a cochlear implant. I was able to complete all of my lectures, my labs and my clinical without the assistance of an interpereter. I can hear fine with my CI, I have perfect speech, so communication "face to face" is not an issue. However I can only use the phone with immediate family members (whose voices I'm familiar with) and even then that depends on the phone I'm using and how much background noise there is at a given moment.
It just galls me that nobody told me in black and white that if I couldn't use a freaking telephone, I wouldn't be able to do my Clinical or graduate. The only consolation I have is that I have all the experience and requirements to become a medical laboratory assistant (which I will be applying to this coming week to get my certification paperwork,) which means I can do phlebotomy (blood drawing) and some minor lab work but that's it.
I was told I could stay and complete Level 3, but there were some courses (Clinical Chemistry, and others) that I'd not be able to pass due to my inability to meet the reporting/communication competencies, and even then, when I got to my Clinical, I'd not be able to pass that either, so in the end, after talking to my Clinical advisor, my program head and the Health Sciences dean, we all agreed I better cut my losses and withdraw instead of spending thousands of dollars more learning things I'd not be able to use.
I hate that I spent 2 years getting all my prerequisites done, another year in college, and for WHAT? To get a Lab Assistant certificate that I could have gotten 3 years ago with only 6 months of classes 3x a week!!! Granted I know 100x more than a laboratory assistant since I've done microbiology, clinical chemistry, hematology, blood banking, molecular diagnostics, etc, but I feel like life's hit me upside the head with a 2X4 and is now sitting back and laughing at me for daring to think I could become something better. I've dealt with my deafness being a barrier to SO many things, and for once I had thought that finally, I had overcome that.
Guess not.
So, next week as I said I apply for my lab assistant certs, once I get them, I'll be looking for a job. Just not the job I REALLY wanted to do....
Many of you know, I went back to school last January to become a Medical Laboratory Technologist. I'd successfully completed Levels 1 and 2, and when I went back to class Jan 9 I began Level 3 - at the end of this level, I'd begin doing a 10-month hospital clinical. Then I'd write the exam, and start looking for work
. I already did a 2 week phlebotomy clinical this past summer and loved it. It really cemented in my mind that working in health care was what I wanted, and I did a damn good job and got excellent feedback from my clinical proctors.Well, I'm no longer in school, I had to withdraw from my program last Friday. Not because of grades, finances, or anything like that. I was academically in good standing, and doing well according to all my instructors, but it turns out that of all things, my deafness has once again prevented me from moving forward in life.
When I was accepted into the MLSC (Medical Laboratory SCience) program, my deafness was discussed, and I was told that there may be some issues or difficulties that would need to be dealt with, but nobody hinted that my deafness would be a complete roadblock to graduating. You see the program (and the licensing body, CSMLS - Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science ) requires that I be able to report laboratory findings over the phone, and that's not something I can do. There isn't any way this could be changed, or even have some kind of accomodations made (like having a TTY in the lab, etc) because it would require every other department to have one too, and occasionally I'd have to receive calls (or make them to make reports) offsite, etc. This is a mandatory competency and if it can't be achieved, I can't graduate.
For the record, although I'm deaf, I have a cochlear implant. I was able to complete all of my lectures, my labs and my clinical without the assistance of an interpereter. I can hear fine with my CI, I have perfect speech, so communication "face to face" is not an issue. However I can only use the phone with immediate family members (whose voices I'm familiar with) and even then that depends on the phone I'm using and how much background noise there is at a given moment.
It just galls me that nobody told me in black and white that if I couldn't use a freaking telephone, I wouldn't be able to do my Clinical or graduate. The only consolation I have is that I have all the experience and requirements to become a medical laboratory assistant (which I will be applying to this coming week to get my certification paperwork,) which means I can do phlebotomy (blood drawing) and some minor lab work but that's it.
I was told I could stay and complete Level 3, but there were some courses (Clinical Chemistry, and others) that I'd not be able to pass due to my inability to meet the reporting/communication competencies, and even then, when I got to my Clinical, I'd not be able to pass that either, so in the end, after talking to my Clinical advisor, my program head and the Health Sciences dean, we all agreed I better cut my losses and withdraw instead of spending thousands of dollars more learning things I'd not be able to use.
I hate that I spent 2 years getting all my prerequisites done, another year in college, and for WHAT? To get a Lab Assistant certificate that I could have gotten 3 years ago with only 6 months of classes 3x a week!!! Granted I know 100x more than a laboratory assistant since I've done microbiology, clinical chemistry, hematology, blood banking, molecular diagnostics, etc, but I feel like life's hit me upside the head with a 2X4 and is now sitting back and laughing at me for daring to think I could become something better. I've dealt with my deafness being a barrier to SO many things, and for once I had thought that finally, I had overcome that.
Guess not.
So, next week as I said I apply for my lab assistant certs, once I get them, I'll be looking for a job. Just not the job I REALLY wanted to do....
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