LIFE OF A MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIST: BASIS OF

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR THEIR

COLLEGE COURSE

A Qualitative Research
Submitted to
PROFFESOR NELSON MAKILING
Faculty, Southwestern University-PHINMA

In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

In RESEARCH I
STEM N16

Researchers:

TRISHA MARIE AQUINO

VEA CHAYNE LEE CHAN
MEGAN TALADHAY
AVVY SHEEN UY

March 2018

CHAPTER I

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Introduction

One benefit of persistence and completing a college degree is access to

higher paying, and more prestigious careers. The National Center for Educational
Statistics (2006) reported that in 2004 males between the ages of 25 and 34 who
completed the bachelor’s degree or higher had annual earnings 67% higher than
a male high school graduate. This is an increase from a 19% advantage in 1980.
Females with a bachelor’s degree or higher, earned 68% more than females with
a high school diploma, or the equivalent.

Students who wish to succeed in college must take an active role in their
learning, according to Browne and Keeley (1997). To be an active learner, the
student must stay in school. This links academic success directly to persistence.
However, more college students leave college without completing a degree than
those who graduate (Tinto, 1993). Tinto pointed out that there are serious
consequences for both students who drop out of college, and for their schools.
One of the reasons why students who drop out of college is, they didn’t fit on
their college choice of study.

A college year is the primary stepping stone of students in attaining their

desired profession in the future. They were given a chance to choose what they
want to take up and pursue a course base on their desires. Choosing a course at
your own will, will take you to do all the things it needs just to finish and attain the
goal you set. The reason why taking up college is important because having a
degree is a plus point, especially when finding a job, mostly of the in demand
jobs are seeking for college graduates and/or professionals. But, this is the
reason why it’s the crucial time to decide, because there is no turning back once
you chose one or else you’ll start from the beginning of all the hardships. This is
a total change in their way of living and thinking, less leisure time but more time
in studying and in school works, being more responsible in their actions and
managing their time wisely in a river of stress and pressure.

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 Students who wasn’t able to comply all the necessary things to do just to
survive college, tend to give up and think twice why they chose that certain
course. Choosing the wrong course is a common problem in college. There is a
lot of pressure to choose a major. It is easy to think that your major will determine
your future career and how much money you will make, which means that
making the right decision now, feels hugely important (and stressful). Others tend
to choose the wrong course and fall in the wrong track. Because of this, they
can’t do the job properly, or they can’t finish their course and would shift to
another one, which is a waste of money or worse, they’ll stop going to school and
wouldn’t be able to graduate. The only way to eliminate the chances of having
this problem is to be guided and to be acknowledgeable of the certain problem.

Medical technologists, also known as clinical laboratory technologists,

perform and analyze the results of complex scientific tests on blood and bodily
fluids. These highly trained professionals work in hospitals and independent
laboratories using sophisticated procedures and equipment. When test results
are analyzed and completed, medical technologists collaborate with physicians
or laboratory directors on patient data. A bachelor's degree in medical technology
or science is required for entry-level positions. Medical technology is considered
as one of the hardest courses in college base on other student’s opinion. There
are subjects that are hard to pass because of high standards, a need for summer
classes, and extra subjects needed to be taken. But still, a lot are interested in
taking up this course, but at the end of the journey, only a few were able to
survive and pay-back all the hardships because the course wasn’t suitable for
their interests. The reason behind this phenomenon, where only a few were able
to graduate, is because of the wrong choice of course, that they weren’t able to
prepare on what was an imminent and surrender in pursuing the course and lose
their way on reaching their success in life.

Dr. Boyce Watkins, who earned a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University,
also tied academic success to persistence. In explaining why, he believes he was
a successful student in college, in which he said, “I sometimes failed tests, I

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received bad grades from time to time, and there were periods when I endured
intense humiliation. But I persisted…” (2004, pp. 1-2). Dr. Watkins added, “…you
have to go into the situation ready to work as hard as you can to solve your
problems and reach your goals. Never ever give up, because giving up is the
only way to guarantee that you have NO CHANCE to be successful” (p. 46)

A group of students from Southwestern University-PHINMA will conduct a

study about the life of a medical technologist to serve as a guide in choosing the
college course. The purpose of the study is to help the students to avoid
choosing the wrong one. The pioneering senior high school students will
eventually consider on which they’ll take as a course in college after graduating.

The researchers only aim to conduct and gather information on how

medical technologists work and how they attain such success when they were
still in school.

4
Conceptual Framework

LIFE OF A
MEDICAL Choice for Acceptance of the data
TECHNOLOGIST college gathered
course

The entire process of participating in higher education revolves around

students making choices: Should I go to college? Should I enroll in a four-year or
two-year course? Should I attend a public or private college? Do I want to go to a
secular or religious institution? What should I major in? How will I pay for
college? What classes should I take when I get there? Should I return for my
second and subsequent years? Students must ask and answer many, if not all, of
these questions before and after enrolling in the college of their choice (St. John
et al., 2001).

The interrelationships of these various concepts in a conceptual

framework for this study are shown in Figure 1. The conceptual logic of this
framework led the researcher to the substantive hypothesis that relationships
would be found in this study between the reasons students on choosing medical
technology as a college course and their persistence or academic success.

5
Review of Related Literature

This literature review begins by describing the student choice construct,

traditional and modern college choice theories, the adaptation of these constructs
into a course selection theory, a review of college transition courses or seminars,
and how the constructs of habitus and capital (human, financial, social, and
cultural) influence how first-year students select which courses they will take
during their first semester in college.

Because of Sputnik, universities were challenged to turn out more

scientists. But as the decade of the 1950s began, American colleges saw a
decline in enrollment. The GI Bill for World War II was coming to an end, and the
Korean War took college age men who were potential students. While public
education was feeling the effects of the baby boomers coming of school age in
the 1950s, colleges would not see an increase in enrollment until the 1960s and
1970s (BookRags, 2006).

For the first 250 years of higher education history, student retention had
not been an issue for American colleges and universities. Prior to 1900 few
people needed a college education and degree attainment was rare. Not until the
1960s did schools begin to monitor enrollments and student attrition. Rising
enrollments, with diverse populations, and the pressure to graduate students who
could meet the challenges of more complex curricula, caused researchers to
start looking for answers to the problem of students dropping out of college
(Berger & Lyon, 2005). After reviewing college attrition studies from the years
1950 to 1975, Pantages and Creedon (1978) wrote, “In terms of sheer numbers,
the attrition problem deserves the attention of those interested in and affiliated
with institutions of higher education” (p. 49).

Summerskill (1962) reported that the results of retention studies between

1913 and 1953 showed a mean loss of 50 percent of the entering classes in
these studies. Only 37 percent of the students entering college in these studies
graduated with a bachelor’s degree over a four-year period. Pantages and

6
Creedon (1978) found that the studies they reviewed tended to support
Summerskill’s findings, and suggested that colleges should consider ways to
prevent attrition rather than trying to predict it.

Tinto (1975) stated that prior research into attrition had failed to explain
the processes that led to an individual’s decision to not persist. This lack of
understanding of the problem made it difficult for administrators to develop
programs to assist students and reduce attrition. Tinto proposed a theoretical
model that would explain the interactions between students and their institutions
that might lead to the process of dropping out. Tinto’s “interactionalist theory” is
well known. Tinto theorized that the greater the institution’s ability to integrate the
student into the academic and social systems of the college, “the greater the
likelihood the individual will persist in college” (Braxton 2000a, p. 3).

Braxton (2000a) questioned why the student departure rate had hovered
around 45 percent for over 100 years when researchers had studied the problem
over the past 70 years. Braxton was somewhat critical of the effects of Tinto’s
theory, claiming that “Research on the departure puzzle stalled in the mid-1990s
because of the near paradigmatic stature of Tinto’s theory” (2000a, p. 7). But
Tinto himself (1993) stated “much of what we think we know is wrong or at least
misleading” (p. 3).

Several researchers have pointed out a relationship between student

retention rates and institutions’ financial well-being. Summerskill (1962)
explained that “dollars leave the income side of the budget when students leave
the college” (p. 628). In 1993 Tinto warned that many small schools were facing
financial difficulties because of student attrition. Tinto (2005) added, “Forced to
cope with tight, if not shrinking, budgets, institutions face mounting pressure to
improve their rates of student retention and graduation. In many cases, this
pressure reflects the movement of states to include graduation rates in a system
of institutional accountability” (p. ix).

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 Students seeking certain professional certifications must complete
required programs of study (i.e. accountants, aircraft maintenance technicians,
doctors, and lawyers). Persistence to program completion is clearly related to the
ability of these students to attain their employment goals. Choy (2002) found that
approximately one third of the students earning bachelor’s degrees are enrolled
in a graduate program within four years. Dropping out will prevent some of these
students from reaching their goals of professional careers.

Also, the other reason why some students were dropping out in college is
that they feel that they didn’t belong to the certain career path that they take.
Sometimes they tend to change their course or sometimes decided to drop out
because of wasting too much time and in the end they didn’t get the dream
career they have.

This study wants to address and help the students to understand further
the concept and life of a medical technologist, to avoid dropping out or changing
their course when they already started studying medical technology.

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Statement of the Problem

This study aims to investigate the life of a medical technologist student of

Southwestern University- PHINMA as basis for senior high school students to
further their college studies.

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions:

 What will be the preferences in choosing medical technology

as a college course?
 What preparation should be done before becoming a
medical technology student?
 What aspect must someone possess to become a medical
technology student?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a
medical technologist?
 What is the scope of work of a medical technologist?

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Methodology

Research Design

The research design of the study will be qualitative in nature, using a case
study.

Using qualitative approach, the study is aiming to primarily answering the

questions to assess senior high school students on choosing their college
course.

This qualitative research will be using a case study in order to gather

enough information and address the research questions.

Respondents of the Study

The researchers will look for one professional medical technologist and
one medical technology student. One professional medical technologist as a
respondent, in order for the senior high students to know the significance of
being a professional medical technologist. One medical technology student for
the senior high school to know and be aware of the hardships that they will face
while becoming a professional medical technology.

Locale of the Study

This study will be conducted at Southwestern University-PHINMA in Villa

Aznar, Urgello St., Cebu City for the medical technology student and in CFI
Health Care also found in Capitol Compound, Cebu City for the professional
medical technologist.

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Sampling Technique

The study will be using a purposive sampling for its sampling technique.
As the researchers will choose one professional medical technologist and one
medical technology student, in order for the researchers to deeply explore and
explain the topic of the study.

Data Gathering Instruments

Semi-structured interviews were selected to carry out this research study.

They allowed the participants to elaborate and with that provided more flexibility,
range and therefore the capacity to elicit more information from the participant.
Semi-structured interviews permit scope for individuals to answer questions more
on their own terms than the standardized interview permits, yet still provides a
good structure for comparability over that of the focused interview (May, 1997).
Kumar (2005) views the interview as the most suitable approach for studying
complex and sensitive areas as the interviewer has the opportunity to prepare a
participant before asking sensitive questions and to explain complex ones to
them in person.

While the interview process is a valuable means of collecting rich and in-
depth data, it can prove to be an expensive and time consuming process.
Interaction between the interviewer and the participant can differ as each
interview is unique and the quality of the responses obtained from different
interviews may vary significantly (Kumar, 2005). Furthermore the quality of the
data generated is affected by the experience, skills and commitment of the
interviewer (Kumar, 2005). A risk of researcher bias can also exist. In addition, it
can prove to be a difficult task to gain reliable data on the research subject if
there are a small number of participants involved, unlike the quantitative
approach which involves a higher number of participants and hence in certain
circumstances can provide more far reaching and reliable data results.

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Data Gathering Procedures

In the data gathering procedure, first the researchers will find respondents,
one professional medical technologist and one medical technology student.
Second, the interviewing will take place in order for the researchers to gather the
needed data for the study. Lastly, thematic analysis will take place. In this case,
the researchers can gather enough information for the study.

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Scope and Limitation

This study will only focus on helping the senior high school students on
deciding if they will take medical technology as a college course. This will help
them to understand the life of a medical technologist (professional) and the life of
a medical technology student. This study will help them to think carefully and
pursue their dream as a medical technologist or if they will choose other courses.

Upon conducting this study, the researchers will look for one professional
medical technologist and one medical technology student in order to gather the
needed information for this study. Personal information of the respondents will be
kept confidentially and will not be revealed with anyone to hide their identity. The
researchers are worried for looking for the respondents for they know that it will
be not easy for the respondents to make some extra time to meet and have an
interview with them for the reason that the respondents have a hectic schedule.

This research study will only serve as a guide for senior high school
students; it doesn’t have a purpose of persuading them to choose medical
technology as a college course. Lastly, researchers are conscious for their time
management.

Significance of the Study

Choosing a college course is hard for every student for the reason that
this will be the stepping stone for their future profession. Some of the students
chooses the wrong course and ended up to a wrong career or should we say that
the line of job that they were dong doesn’t suit them well. The researchers
decided to conduct the study in order to guide the senior high school students on
choosing their college course, especially if they are planning to take medical
technology.

The study has the potential to let the senior high school students
understand the life of being a professional medical technologist and a medical

13
technology student. This study will give a hint to the senior high school students
about choosing medical technology as their college course. This will give them
knowledge and will be able to let them think carefully if being a medical
technologist fits them well and also, if they can see themselves as a medical
technologist.

Definition of Terms

Thematic Analysis- a method used to analyze the data collected from the
respondents.

Respondents- people who were involved in the study and gave data to the
researcher.

Case study- the collection and presentation of detailed information about a

particular participant or small group, frequently including the accounts of
subjects themselves.

Course - a field chosen by a student, in order to study the "stuff" and use it a
job.

Professional - a person who is working in the field of their study with a working
license.

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