Medical technician salaries are affected by sample types, examination techniques, employment locations, and working hours. Samples that require more testing increase salaries, as do more involved techniques and larger workplaces. Night shifts also typically offer higher salaries.
The main factors that affect a medical technician’s salary are sample types, examination techniques, employment locations and working hours. Medical technician duties are very varied, such as blood or urine analysis. Generally, samples that require more testing than others will increase a medical technician’s salary.
Human tissue, blood, and other bodily fluids are examined for cell counts, chemical composition, and even drug levels. Each examined sample has a different difficulty level associated with the task, which guarantees various salary values. A simple blood typing procedure should not be especially challenging for the medical technologist; however, analyzing certain tissues for disease-causing microorganisms will typically require more skill and effort, and the medical technician salary is therefore higher. The technologist must be able to manipulate the sample and operate the examination instrumentation to obtain the most accurate results.
Examination techniques are often relatively straightforward for the low-paid technologist, such as performing a basic CBC. Simple tools such as sticks are placed in a liquid sample and react to produce a color. This color change indicates specific characteristics of the sample, such as high cholesterol or blood sugar. Some techniques are much more involved, like trying on fabrics to find signs of allergy or illness. These technologists specializing in experimentation warrant higher salaries as they are involved in research and completing their results as scientific professionals.
The workplace can also affect a medical technician’s salary. Workers can be employed in a large or small laboratory, as well as a hospital. Large laboratories and hospital facilities often have several different medical technologists working on multiple samples. Each salary will be based on the different levels of each worker’s job duty.
Smaller labs may employ only a few technologists, requiring them to cover many different sample examination procedures. As a result, a medical technician salary can be higher in these facilities as more job tasks are required for each person. Each worker should be well-versed in all examination procedures and instrumentation, rather than specializing in one area.
Work schedule is another factor that can result in different salary rates for a medical technologist. Many hospitals and large facilities have 24-hour answering services that require one or several technologists to work around the clock. Night shifts typically offer higher salaries, so the position is more attractive to applicants. Some employers also offer rotating shifts so workers don’t work exclusively nights or days.
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