gary_stocker (00:02.274)
Welcome back to another episode of Medical Laboratory Science Career Guidance. My name is Gary Stocker. I want to start a series of podcasts that differentiate what the different careers are like. And I'm going to start with Medical Laboratory Science, MLS is the acronym, versus nursing, and just provide a couple of categories that you can compare the two careers as you're looking at making those career decisions. And let's just start off with ours.

and most medical laboratory professionals typically work five shifts and they're eight hours per shift. There are some hospitals in the country that do four shifts per week and 10 hour shifts. On the other hand, the most common shift schedule for nurses that I have seen, and these are for nurses that work on regular floors, labor and delivery, surgery, orthopedics, oncology, all those kind of places, they typically work three shifts per week, and it's a 12 hour shift.

So three times 12 is 36 hours. Many hospitals still pay for 40, but you only have to work 36. So the advantage comparing those two is really goes towards nursing. Compensation, you know, also a little bit toward nursing. Since there are such variations, I'm gonna share the typical starting nursing salary somewhere in the vicinity of 60 to $70,000 per year. Depends on whether it's an urban position, non-urban position.

Sometimes it's based on the size of the hospital. Sometimes it's based on the discipline, the department, the floor that you're working on. And typically a Bachelor of Science medical laboratory scientist is somewhere in the vicinity of $50,000 a year or more. Keep in mind that in both cases, there are shift differentials because most healthcare employees, many healthcare employees work evenings and nights and the hospitals typically pay a four to $5 an hour shift differential, something like that.

for those off-hour shifts.

gary_stocker (02:00.482)
Career growth is really the same for both. I've got a list that shows hundreds of different kind of career opportunities in laboratory. The nursing would be the same kind of large list. It really depends on what you wanna do with your career. Do you wanna get into management? Do you wanna get into a specialized clinical discipline?

gary_stocker (02:21.698)
Do you want to look at research? Do you want to look at sales and marketing? There are countless opportunities for both for career growth in both. I think one of the biggest differentiators that people look at is the patient interaction. And of course, nurses, whether you're working in a hospital or in a doctor's office, your interaction with patients is almost constant. It is a face-to-face job. There are good things to that, and there are bad things to that. It's not always the best fit.

for working with human beings when they're not feeling well because they can be difficult. On the laboratory side, the interaction with patients is infrequent at best, more commonly, it's rare, because laboratory professionals work with body fluids, blood, urine, feces, and spinal fluids, those kind of things, cultures. The more interaction that medical laboratory scientists have is really with physicians and nurses.

On the telephone, a reasonable argument can be made that medical laboratory scientists really serve more in a consultative role with both physicians and nurses. There are many stories to support that. There are also, of course, many stories to suggest that it's a transactional relationship between medical laboratory professionals, nurses, and physicians. The education for both is really the same. You can get a two-year associate's degree for both the laboratory as a medical laboratory professional and in nursing. And of course,

There is a bachelor's degree, bachelor of science degree, for both as well.

And then your physical safety. And I think there's a fair comparison here. In the laboratory, your physical safety risk is minimal. There are safety precautions, there are airflow precautions, your interactions with patients is nonexistent for the most part. On the other hand, the risk, your physical safety risks as a nurse are comparatively higher. And even before COVID, the risk of viruses being caught from patients in the hospital.

gary_stocker (04:26.03)
or even from family and friends, was certainly much higher for nurses than it was for medical laboratory professionals. And then let's look at the best thing and the worst thing for each. This is of course my opinion. The best thing in the medical laboratory is the science and the robotics. It is a fascinating application of science and robotics and even information technology. If you're a science person, I use the word geek but that's not appropriate.

The medical laboratory is something to think about. The worst thing in terms of working in a medical laboratory is it can be routine. The automation, the stunning level of automation does most of the testing. Your skill sets come into play when things just don't quite look right in terms of patient results, in terms of quality control, in terms of the instruments. And then for nursing, from my perspective, the best thing is that one-on-one, face-to-face sense of accomplishment.

When that patient or patients come into a hospital, you take care of them and they leave healthier than when they came in. There's certainly a sense of accomplishment associated with that. And then on the worst thing from my perspective and having listened to nurses over the years is really the worst, is really the risk of burnout. It is a difficult job. Certainly there are rewarding aspects, but certainly it's challenging on the care piece, on the care piece on

on the human piece and working with doctors, it can be challenging. So use those to compare medical laboratory and nursing, and I'll talk next time about medical laboratory science in another allied health career.