LIMA, OH (WLIO) - There are many different paths in the medical field with many different areas of expertise. One of those at Mercy Health St. Rita's is testing samples in the on-campus laboratory.
For many, it's a chance to contribute in the medical field without having direct patient care, and that was the perfect combination for Maggie Becker, who got her undergrad at Ohio State and found that lab work was what she was interested in after getting her phlebotomy certification.
"The lab where I drew, we actually did all of our own testing - it was a self-contained ER," said Becker, who is a medical laboratory scientist. "I said, 'hey, I like the drawing, but I think I like the lab more', so then I decided after I got my Bachelor's, I would pursue the lab a little bit further and get my MLS certification and take my registry."
Becker says that they often see students in high school and college coming through and taking a tour of their labs at St. Rita's to get a feel for what the work would be like day-to-day.
She adds that's a good thing as they are always looking for more helping hands. "I think it's a really good idea that if you're even considering the lab at all, to just come in here and shadow," said Becker. "There's an extreme shortage of lab techs; we work short pretty much every day, so the more people who get into it, the better."
And even though St. Rita's is not the biggest hospital in the state, there is still a lot that these lab workers have to process and look at every day from health care facilities around the area.
"We get a lot of specimens from all of the offsites and smaller hospitals, we do all of that testing here, and we are actually a pretty big lab compared to some of the other hospitals in the area," Becker said.
If you're interested in finding out more about the lab work at St. Rita's, you can find out more about the listings at careers.mercy.com.
