MLA ASCP Certification, Study Material, Content Area and Exam Preparation

MLA ASCP certification can be a dream for every medical lab assistant. Because the BOC ASCP credential adds perfection to your career. You can get better opportunities to perform jobs if you get this certificate. 

After completing the MLA program, you can apply for the Board of Certification (BOC) of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) to become MLA ASCP certified.

After getting the MLA (ASCP) certificate, you have a complete hold to do the job at any hospital where you want.

What is a Medical Laboratory Assistant?

A medical lab assistant performs varied roles in the lab including collecting samples, registering patients, and estimating the acceptability of samples for testing. Processes samples for analysis including shipping, storage, aliquoting, and centrifugation.

Furthermore, they provide support in clinical testing including loading instruments, slide preparation, & result reporting. They also perform point-of-care and waived testing.

They ensure that all samples are labeled accurately and ready for examination by medical laboratory technologists or physicians.

Career Future for Medical Lab Assistant

A medical lab assistant has become a prominent career among all other health professions due to its high demand.

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports

Medical lab assistants earned average annual earnings of $55,990 as of May 2020. Furthermore, the medical lab assistant (MLA) occupation is expected to grow by 11% between 2020-2030, which is faster than almost all U.S careers. This growth will result from increasing the number of people who have health insurance as well as the aging population's need for more medical tests.

What is MLA ASCP Certification?

Medical lab assistants need a high school diploma or its equivalent or a two-year program in relevant subjects. However, the ASCP technician certificate can help you reach your MLA career at a high level.

American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Board of Certification (BOC) offers you the medical laboratory assistant ASCP certificate to reach you a high level of career satisfaction. MLA (ASCP) license proves your skill and knowledge in your medical lab career. To become medical lab assistant (ASCP) certified, you need High school graduation or a substitute and successful completion of a lab assistant clinical experience program.

To get medical laboratory assistant (ASCP) certificate, you must be an expert in patient registration and specimen collection, specimen preparation and processing, support for clinical testing, waived and point-of-care testing, and laboratory operations.

Why Should I Get Certified as an MLA (ASCP)?

Any certificate in your relevant field adds power to your career and helps you move ahead in your profession. But, when it comes to ASCP certification, there is no other effective certificate for medical lab assistants than ASCP, across the world.

Medical lab assistant (ASCP) certificate offers you the opportunity to perform the job in any worldwide hospital with ease. Because an ASCP BOC certificate can result in greater career satisfaction, higher salaries, and improved job prospects.

State Licensure for Medical Laboratory Assistant ASCP

To become MLA (ASCP) certified, you need to meet the requirements of one BOC-recommended route and pass the ASCP test with a minimum of 400 scores. After this, you can start your journey as medical laboratory assistant (ASCP) certified.

But this is not enough to do a job in the U.S.  Because 9 states in the U.S., including West Virginia, Tennessee, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Montana, Nevada, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Florida, demand some additional licenses to start your practice as an MLAASCP. The Board of Certification (BOC) of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) has been approved for credential purposes by all of these states.

MLA (ASCP) Eligibility Requirements

BOC ASCP recommends six eligibility routes for medical lab assistants to become ASCP-certified. So, MLA candidates must meet the requirements of at least one route to be certified by ASCP BOC.

• Route 1: High school graduation certificate or equivalent. Within the last 5 years, completed NAACLS accredited MLA (Medical Laboratory Assistant) program.

• Route 2: High school graduation certificate or equivalent. Within the last ten years, completed a 50-week (11-month, or one year) U.S. military medical lab training program course.

• Route 3: High school graduation certificate or equivalent. From an acceptable laboratory, two years of full-time approved clinical experience as a lab assistant within the last 5 years.

• Route 4:  Associate degree from an approved institution or 60 semester hours of academic credit from an approved institution with 6 semester hours in biology and chemistry. Within the last 5 years of full-time approved clinical experience from an approved lab.

• Route 5:  Acceptable PBT(ASCP) certification and within the last 5 years of one year of full-time approved clinical experience as a lab assistant from an approved lab.

• Route 6:  High school graduation certificate or equivalent . Completion of an acceptable two-part (classroom training & clinical laboratory training) formal structured medical lab assistant program within the last 5 years. Furthermore, within the last 5 years of six months of full-time approved clinical experience as a lab assistant from an approved lab.

• Clinical Lab Experience: To fulfill the experience requirement for the medical lab assistant, you must have clinical lab skills and experience in the specific content areas, including specimen preparation & processing, and laboratory operations, and clinical testing support within the required timeframe.

Medical Lab Assistant ASCP Recertification Requirement

Your ASCP MLA certificate is valid for three years. After this period, you have to take part in the CMP (Credential Maintenance Program) to refresh your expired certificate. You must take part in the CMP program at least one month before your certificate's expiration date.

The CMP reinstatement fee is $125, and the application fee is $95. CMP program requirements: You have to achieve 9 points in a given content area. The content area and its point distribution are given below.

• Laboratory or patient safety (i.e., quality assurance and quality control): 1 point
• Medical ethics (e.g., DEI and HIPAA (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion), IRB, compliance, and sexual harassment/microaggressions): 1 point
• Specific area in which you are certified: 2 points.
• Lab specialty, lab management, lab-related areas, and education: remaining 5 points.

MLA (ASCP) Exam Content Areas (Syllabus)

BOC recommends five content areas for the medical lab assistant (ASCP) exam. Patient registration and specimen collection, specimen preparation and processing, support for clinical testing, waived and point-of-care testing, and laboratory operations. You must have a strong grasp of all these content areas to pass the MLA exam because BOC chooses a different percentage of exam questions from each content area.

Patient Registration and Specimen Collection

20-25% of exam questions come from this part and the exam content area of it is specimen labeling; coding procedures and billing; considerations and specimen collection complications; specimen collection procedures; patient communication; patient identification; clarification, review, and verification of orders.

Support for Clinical Testing

This part covers 20-25% and includes content areas are labeling, preparations, and staining of slides; inventory maintenance; result retrieval and reporting; critical values and STAT results; quality control; analytical instrumentation (calibrations, specimen dilution, reporting and error recognition, test initiation, and loading); microbiology setup and Plating; processes related to reagents, controls, and standards; labeling, preparation, and staining of slides.

Waived and Point-of-Care Testing

Covering just 5-10% and its key subject area is Operation, performance, and report of waived & point-of-care testing (coagulation tests, urine dipsticks, pregnancy tests, and glucose)

Specimen Preparation and Processing

It is the most important part and covers 30 – 35% of the total exam. Its content area is special handling considerations (time, light, and temperature), specimen transport; specimen storage; specimen processing (e.g., aliquoting, centrifugation); specimen distribution and prioritization; and Specimen acceptability for testing.

Laboratory Operations

It comes with 15-20% of exam questions. Its content areas are laboratory information system (LIS); professionalism and ethics; laboratory equipment; waste disposal; infection control and safety; and regulations.

MLA ASCP Exam Preparation

After meeting the eligibility criteria for the MLA (ASCP) exam. Your first task is to choose the best study material for exam preparation. BOC offers specific textbooks and online associations for exam preparation. Dependence on BOC ASCP exam prep material is not enough for two reasons. First, all these resources are so complicated and long that you cannot cover their syllabus before exam final days; and second, it is not sure that BOC chose exam questions from these resources.

Therefore, you can rely on alternative resources to prepare yourself for the exam. MLSIACADEMY could be best for you due to its compact prep package for medical laboratory assistant (ASCP) exam preparation. What you get from MLSIA after subscribing to its online MLA prep bundle:

• MLA ASCP unified study material
• Medical laboratory assistant (ASCP) Questions and Answers (Questions Bank and Practice Questions)
• MLA ASCP online classes

Frequently Asked Questions for MLA ASCP