medical laboratory technicians: the support system you rarely see behind the scenes
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kévin allard works with doctors without borders, helping people in underdeveloped countries learn how to run labs to benefit patients.
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kévin allard’s profession as a medical laboratory technologist is behind the scenes. you won’t see him, or others who do this job, in hospitals, but they are vital pieces of the puzzle when it comes to health care overall.
medical laboratory technologists analyze everything, from blood samples to other diagnostic tests, to help determine a patient’s diagnosis. they support clinicians at the highest level.
“with this information that we do, the doctor can make a better decision to understand what is really happening,” said allard.
but there’s more to the job, such as “supporting life” by administering blood to people who need it, as well as supporting the doctor in determining how much medication a person may need to treat their condition.
“if you bleed, you get in a car accident, the lab technician has the responsibility to be sure that the blood that we give you will be the good blood, it will be compatible, and if you make a mistake, people can die in two minutes,” said allard. “for the treatment, too, you have some drug that if you give too much, you can die, so the doctor adjusts with the result of the lab.”
while those are more tangible examples of what these professionals do, the job itself is more than what a broad explanation suggests. from injury to disease, a medical lab technician is there for it all.
pulled into an exciting career at a young age
when allard first started college, he hoped to become a doctor, specifically in pathology. however, during his first year, he realized that it wasn’t as stimulating as he originally thought it would be.
“i’m happy i didn’t do it because i think it would have been too boring,” he said. “they don’t do that much.”
that’s when he made the switch to medical laboratory technician and realized that studying physiology, right down to the cellular level, was much more intriguing.
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“we do a lot of things. it’s really technical. we play the instrument. we do the maintenance,” he said.
while he was trained in pathology, his career led him in a different direction, and because of his vast knowledge of human physiology, he was able to apply all he’d learned.
“i do hematology, blood bank, chemistry, bacteriology, i did tb [tuberculosis], parasites or stool,” he said.
he notes that for medical lab technicians, skill sets often vary, with some people homing in on one area and becoming completely immersed in it, while others do one thing for a few years, then use their knowledge and skills to transfer to another. he falls into the latter category, which makes it a “quite interesting experience.”
stress is inevitable, but so is fulfilment
allard’s career has taken him across the globe, working in various countries, including afghanistan, using his skills to teach others the tricks of the trade in a humanitarian capacity. while it was fulfilling, allard found that managing a lab and working in a lab were two very different machines in terms of on-the-job stress.
even while working in war zones, the stress outside was nothing compared to the stress of being the head of the department.
“when i was in afghanistan and we had a bomb every day, i was not that stressed,” he said, noting that his stress came more from ego and being “related to my performance.”
what he meant by his performance was how well he was able to leave the lab functioning when his job there was done. for example, when he would go for one of his humanitarian missions, he would be in charge of ensuring that the medical lab technicians there know how and what to do every step of the way, even if he’s not there watching.
but in one instance, after leaving a lab and then returning some time later, he realized that “most of the things that i was doing” were no longer being done.
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he now works in a way that allows the staff to become more autonomous, so that when they learn to do certain things properly, he can be sure that when he’s no longer around, they continue to do them the same way.
“i was super excited and super proud of that,” he says of one experience in which he helped other lab technicians reduce errors to reach a standard rate. “i find way more pride in that than if i just fix it.”
being able to assist people so that a place with a less developed health-care system can do the same things they do in canada or other more developed countries is a point of fulfillment for allard, noting that while he likes doing the work, he has “way more pleasure” to see that passing on his knowledge has allowed someone else to do it.
using his skill in humanitarian ways
today, allard continues his work as head of department with doctors without borders, or médecins sans frontières (msf), which is the french translation. he finds that focusing on laboratory management quality, wherever they may be, is his current point of interest for his future.
while there are medical lab technicians all over the world, some in the local hospitals, others in diagnostic lab clinics, his heart is with his humanitarian work. his next stop is tanzania for six months.
as for others looking into this type of work, allard notes that becoming a medical lab technician opens many doors, but it’s important to understand which path you want to take. in canada, good grades and a program that’s willing to give a recent graduate a chance are all that’s needed.
however, to branch out in the humanitarian pathway, “you need a lot of experience.”
“if you want to do it, you cannot just focus on the technical. you need to have been in charge of a team. you need to have done a little bit more in management, in supervision, in training. because people don’t need you to do the stuff. they need to learn how to do it,” said allard.
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