LIMA, OH (WLIO) - In one of the buildings on Mercy Health-St. Rita's campus, lab scientists and assistants are hard at work, testing samples from patients from around the area. These workers use different lab equipment and methods to examine those samples for a variety of reasons - for example, looking for a type of disease - and talking with doctors about those results.
Getting started in the lab can start fairly early for someone interested in the work, like Janel Stachler, who started her degree right out of high school after deciding that the lab would be a good fit for her.
"I wanted to go into something in healthcare, but also something that wasn't super patient-facing, so I found the lab," Stachler said. "I went straight into a bachelor's degree straight out of high school at Ohio State, that was about two years of general education and two years in the lab. Then we had about six weeks of an internship, which I did here at St. Rita's."
For others, deciding that they would like to work in a hospital lab may come later on. Caleb Alexander was taking computer science at Bowling Green before spending time at St. Rita's and finding that he liked the work.
"I went for my phlebotomy certification just so I could make some extra money and I found my way into the lab," said Alexander. "There's great backing from the lab for learning and expanding your career, regardless of if you stay here or not, and it's great for general knowledge."
But no matter how these two started working there, they say that the laboratory could be a good option for anyone considering the medical field, but perhaps not as a physician or a nurse.
"I think going straight into it is a good option if you know you want to do that, but there are also a lot of other paths if you're still trying to figure out what exactly want to do - you can do a different degree and eventually go into it later," said Stachler.
"Many, many people can pick it up; I don't think it's something so far out of reach the day-to-day person, anyone can do this," said Alexander.
As with all available jobs at St. Rita's, more additional information on lab positions can be found at careers.mercy.com.
