PREREQUISITE COURSES FOR MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY CURRICULA - RESULTS OF A NATIONAL SURVEY

A questionnaire was mailed to program directors of Committee on Allied Health Education and Accreditation-accredited medical technologist programs to survey their perceptions of prerequisites in biology, chemistry, computational skills, and other general education courses. Program directors were asked to indicate whether the course was required as a prerequisite and to rate its importance as a building block, as well as its frequency of use in the professional curriculum. Of the 403 questionnaires mailed, 271 (67.2%) were returned. Courses required by the largest percentage of programs include general biology, general microbiology, physiology, immunology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and algebra/trigonometry. The importance and frequency of use is highly correlated (P<.001), using the Spearman's rank correlation test.