Re: BOR exam
Mohammed
Hey life is not fair, otherwise I would already have retired and be living in
luxury.
This is not a black and white issue.
1. Some individuals while technically excellent in the work they do may not
be able to work outside that sphere or necessarily solve unusual problems that
can occur. A formal training can provide a broad perspective to their work and
also allow that person to improve their performance no matter how skilled they
are at their job.
2. Examinations do not necessarily test your knowledge or level of skill.
They test what you are able to regurgitate on that specific day. Just because
the individual cannot answer the question does not mean that they do not know
the material, it may in some cases be because they are nervous. If someone shot
your horse, ran off with your spouse that day (or is it shot your spouse ran off
with your horse, well you get the idea), you may not be able to perform at an
optimal level in the examination.
If you have knowledge way above that which you are expected to know, you may
find that there is no one accurate answer to a question. I feel that examination
in which there are only essays gives a better chance for that individual. Oral
examinations are also another option as the interviewers can be sympathetic and
still determine whether an individual knows the material. We do have to use some
method for comparing individuals and examination are one easy way to do this.
While I am not defending these particular examinations, I should point out that
writing good examination questions whether multiple choice or essay to
adequately test a candidates knowledge is really difficult, no matter how
experienced you are in this.
I don't think anyone on the Histonet has suggested removing OJT but because of
the enormous variation in OJT between labs I feel that some type of formal
training is required to get closer uniformity in training and allow us to
compare apples to apples.
Barry
"Mohammed, Sayeed" wrote:
> This is in regards to some one's concern about shortage of histotechs and
> Ascp BOR exam being very difficult. Well, there is one histotech I know in
> Houston Medical Center, who is cosidered to be one of the best techs. She is
> an excellent cutter, Special stains, and Immunohistochemistry etct.
> But, she has failed the BOR exam twice. There are other techs that have
> passed the exam with flying colors and are not any where near as good techs
> as this person is. In my openion, The Ascp histo tech registry exam should
> be desinged to evaluate histology skills of the person not test them at a
> Phd level or try to test their IQ. College education requirement is fine,
> but, taking out OJT is a bad idea. There are not enough histo tech schools
> to keep up with the market demand. We have been trying to find a histotech
> for at least two months without luck. Any opinions on this. Thanks.
>
> M. Sayeed
> ChiefTechnician
> Dept. of Spore Pathology
> Baylor college of Medicine
> Houston TX. 77030
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