Good morning. Thank you, Joyce, for the kind words. 

I just wanted to clarify some information about our program at Indiana
University. We are in the middle of our 7th year of distance education of
histotechs, and have had over 150 graduates from about 30 states nationwide.
We are NAACLS accredited, so graduates are eligible to sit for the ASCP
exam. This year we have 45 students, but our average year is around 35.

Ours is a certificate level course, not an associate degree. We do not use
true 'online' delivery of course work, rather students call in for lectures
on our 800 line and we are all conferenced together for 2 hours each
Wednesday. We deliver all lectures this way. Students are required to work
or volunteer in a lab that meets certain requirements, one of which is
having an ASCP-certified HT or HTL who directs their technical training
following our structured curriculum. Often, labs have current employees
(maybe a lab assistant or a phlebotomist) who go thru the program (sometimes
at the labs' expense) and then that trained person is more apt to remain on
the job in that lab after they are trained. Most do remain where they train.

Students earn 24 credit hours at Indiana University upon successful
completion of the program, which is 2 semesters long. We have had great
success rate in program completion and passing the ASCP exams, very little
drop-out rate, and we turn fully qualified people away every year because we
can't accommodate all who apply. We also offer an associate degree built on
the 24 hours students earn in the certificate program.

Students are required to have completed one biology, one chemistry and one
math course prior to admission to the program (a NAACLS requirement), but
some of our students have earned associate, bachelors, and sometimes even
masters degrees previously. 

The Program Director whose MLT program highlighted is in the article that
Robert Lott sent out did contact me to ask questions about how I had set up
certain aspects of the program. I'm happy to see she now has hers
operational. The accrediting agency, NAACLS, had/has some concerns about the
programs' ability to educate students effectively. They watched us very
closely (as they should), but we have recently had our site visit for
reaccreditation and the visitors found no problems to report -- that does
not mean that we are yet reaccredited, as the process takes until the
springtime to play out, but it does mean that there's no major concerns that
will be reported to the committee that makes final decisions.

In this time of high vacancies and few extra histotechs for the hiring,
educators and lab managers need to look at non-traditional methods of
meeting the needs of laboratories. Try to see how something WILL work as
well as the challenges to MAKE it work.

This is not intended to be an advertisement for our program, but if you
would like more information, please contact me. We are currently accepting
applications for the class beginning in August 2002.

Glenda F. Hoye, B.S., HT(ASCP)
Histotechnology Program Director
Indiana University School of Allied Health Sciences
Indianapolis, IN 46202-5119
317-278-1599 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Weems, Joyce [mailto:JWEEMS@sjha.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 2:51 PM
To: 'CrochiereSteve@aol.com'; Robert.Lott@bhsala.com;
histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: RE: Histology educators! Please read


This is true. Glenda Hoye has been teaching Histology on line for years. The
practical portion of experience is obtained in a laboratory setting. I think
it's an excellent method for OJT techs to get the background education that
is so valuable for the position.

Joyce Weems
Pathology Manager
Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	CrochiereSteve@aol.com [SMTP:CrochiereSteve@aol.com]
	Sent:	Thursday, January 17, 2002 1:50 PM
	To:	Robert.Lott@bhsala.com; histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
	Subject:	Re: Histology educators!  Please read

	Are you suggesting that microtomy can be taught on-line? I don't
think that the tactile aspect can be learned from a monitor. Maybe a lot of
the "classroom" instruction can be done in this way, but there's a great
deal of hands-on learning that would need to be supplemented at a medical
faciltity. 
	s