NOTE: This post was updated on Thursday, April 27, 2023, to include links to media coverage of the lab tours.

Steubenville, OH – April 20, 2023 — Next week, April 23 through 29, is Lab Week 2023 (full name: National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week).

Per the official website, Lab Week is “an annual celebration of medical laboratory professionals and pathologists who play a vital role in health care and patient advocacy.”

Trinity Health System Department of Laboratories is honored to participate in honoring our laboratory professionals, and as part of our observance, we’ll be hosting lab tours with Mrs. Tiffany Dobson’s seventh-graders from Bishop John King Mussio (BJKM) Junior High School next Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

“The BJKM students will be touring each department to get an overview of what a hospital laboratory is really like and what the scientists who work in them do,” said Constance L. Moore, MEd, MLS (ASCP)CM, Program Director, School of Medical Laboratory Science, Trinity Health System, West. “It really is exciting for all involved.”

The Laboratory is one of the largest ancillary departments within the hospital. Testing options include hundreds of tests in multiple specialties, including Microbiology, Clinical Chemistry, Hematology, Blood Bank, Urinalysis, and Anatomical Pathology. 

Each tour will include 18 to 20 students, with six to seven at a time visiting each section of the lab. While waiting for their turn, the students will conduct experiments with non-biohazard materials (e.g., blood typing, urinalysis) and will play lab-related games in the cafeteria conference room.

“Lab Week serves two purposes,” said Josie Cortes, MS, MB(ASCP)CM, Medical Lab Technologist, Trinity Health System. “We’re able to not only acknowledge our lab professionals for all the things they do–most especially during the beginning and height of COVID–but more importantly, we’re able to bring awareness to our community of this profession. Hence we have the lab tours during Lab Week to start exposing our next generation of workforce.”

(Pictured above is our team of laboratory professionals.)

UPDATE: Our thanks to WTOV 9 and WTRF 7 for covering the Bishop John King Mussio Junior High School tours of the Trinity Health System Department of Laboratories. Here are the links to both news items:

WTOV: Junior High students tour Trinity Hospital’s Department of Laboratories

WTRF: Bishop John King Mussio 7th graders tour labs at Trinity Health System