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One of the many key pieces of the patient care puzzle, our Clinical Laboratory staff help create the framework that allows us to build a picture of what’s going on inside of the body. Their work is essential — around 70% of all medical decisions are informed by results generated by the lab. Yet often, these important roles are overlooked, particularly among those aspiring to enter the healthcare field. 

Through our Medical Laboratories Education Program, UVA Health is working to raise awareness about the many rewarding opportunities in the lab and help those pursuing a career in laboratory medicine find success.

“I do a lot of outreach to local high schools and colleges to let students know about the profession because we’re behind the scenes and these positions aren’t as widely recognized as patient-facing roles,” says Medical Laboratories Education Coordinator Briana Shelton, MLS, SH. “Also, just like nursing, most of the jobs within the medical labs require a clinical internship, so we work with schools across Virginia to bring students in for those and turn them into employees.”

Pathways to a Career in Lab Medicine

There are multiple pathways a student can take to pursue a career in laboratory medicine. For example:

• High school students can attend a university with a medical laboratory science program, completing classroom instruction and doing clinical rotations in a hospital lab to earn a Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) degree. Upon graduation, students take a national certification exam (ASCP-BOC Medical Laboratory Scientist certification) to qualify for an entry-level role. 
• A student who earned a bachelor’s degree in biology or chemistry can complete a post-graduate MLS program that would prepare them to take the national certification exam.
• Students can earn a two-year associate’s degree in medical laboratory technology (MLT) and complete the MLT certification, which would allow them to work in a lab while pursuing advancement through an MLS “bridge” program. 
• For students who want to enter the workforce sooner, there is also a medical laboratory assistant (MLA) certification program available through most community and technical colleges that prepares them for a job managing specimens, performing instrument maintenance and quality control, as well as other duties to assist in the lab workflow. This can provide someone a foundation as they work to complete a more advanced degree and certification.

How UVA Health Helps Propel Lab Careers

UVA Health partners with universities across the state to provide students with lab exposure and experience through clinical internships. “We've hired about 50 students over the past five years that have had clinical rotations here, with about 37 of them being retained,” says Shelton. “That’s a very high number of hires, and the retention rate is really very good.”

High retention rates may be attributed, in part, to the many opportunities UVA Health provides entry-level lab staff to grow in their careers. This includes:

• Tuition assistance and grants | UVA Health offers full- and part-time employees that have been employed six months or more up to $5250 toward tuition assistance each year. In addition, UVA Health Medical Laboratories offers work grant scholarships to students enrolled in select MLT and MLS programs locally who complete their clinical rotations at UVA Health.  
• Earn While You Learn | Building on the success of the phlebotomy EWYL program, which helped fill a critical gap in our clinical laboratory, UVA Health will launch two new EWYL programs in 2026. Participants are supported with paid time to complete online course work, in-person student labs and clinical rotations. They are expected to work their regularly assigned jobs for the remainder of the 40-hour work week. 
  • The MLT program is a five-semester program in partnership with J. Sargent Reynolds Community College open to UVA Health employees with one year of clinical or technical experience who have fulfilled prerequisite courses. Participants will earn an Associates of Applied Science degree and will be eligible to take the American Society for Clinical Pathology Medical Technology examinations for national certification. 
  • The MLA program is a six-month hybrid program in partnership with Weber State University that includes online learning and in-person clinicals. It is open to specimen management technicians and phlebotomists with one year of experience. Participants will receive a certificate at the conclusion of the course that will qualify them to do more complex tasks, preparing patient samples for testing and analysis.
• On-the-job training | Bridge program participants benefit from being in the lab while taking coursework. They can seek out mentors who can help them better understand related topics, get an up-close look at testing and procedures, and gain exposure to different specialties within the lab to drive their career decisions. 

Lab Success Stories

Career growth often is not a straight line. Rare are those who enter college or even their first job with a definite path in mind. Interests change, opportunities arise and life happens, taking you down a different road than you originally planned. Two of our lab staff found success at UVA Health by following their passion, working hard and taking advantage of resources made available to them.

Bushiri Salumu

Bushiri Salumu was born in the Congo, where at age 17, he faced civil war, the loss of his parents and siblings, torture, and trauma that stole his childhood and took his voice. College and career were distant hopes as he focused on surviving life in a refugee camp. Fortunately, Salumu was chosen for resettlement in the U.S. and Charlottesville became his new home. He not only regained his ability to speak, he also learned English, and eventually obtained his GED. 

“My father was a physician, and my mother was a teacher with a degree in chemistry. From a young age, I dreamed of studying medicine. I shifted my original dream of becoming a physician toward healthcare roles such as medical laboratory technology and nursing. To explore both pathways, I enrolled in certified nursing assistant [CNA] and phlebotomy programs at Piedmont Virginia Community College [PVCC],” says Salumu. “After earning both certifications, I worked as a CNA in the UVA NICU from 2019 to 2020, and later as a phlebotomist from 2021 to 2025. During that time, I visited the Core Lab and spoke with several technologists and scientists, which deepened my appreciation for laboratory medicine and ultimately inspired me to pursue the medical laboratory technology program.”

Today, Salumu works as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist 1 (CLS1) in the Core Lab, performing high-complexity diagnostic testing in chemistry and hematology. In addition to his own incredible dedication in the face of adversity, he says that the support he received from the Medical Laboratories Education Program and his colleagues in the lab were key to his success.

“UVA’s educational benefits supported me financially from the beginning of the MLT program and made it possible for me to complete my training. In addition, I received a work-grant scholarship through UVA Laboratories, which guaranteed that a position would be waiting for me upon completion of my program, an opportunity for which I am truly thankful,” he says. “In addition, all three of my PVCC MLT instructors were UVA employees who guided me throughout my training. Their mentorship played a major role in shaping my career path.”

Biagio Fittipaldi

Like many people, Biagio Fittipaldi knew he wanted to work in the healthcare field, but he wasn’t sure in what capacity. “It's been a journey since I started at UVA. I started from the bottom. I was a transporter at the beginning. I did that for around three-and-a-half years, and then I moved into the OR, working the night shift as an anesthesia tech,” he says. “It was interesting, but I wanted something where I could grow professionally.”

Fittipaldi was attending PVCC at the time, and his advisor informed him about the laboratory medicine program. “She asked me about nursing, but that’s not really my thing,” says Fittipaldi. “But the lab program sounded interesting because I really enjoyed microbiology.”

Fittipaldi applied for the MLT program, and he got in. One of his professors was Shelton, who told Fittipaldi about the Medical Lab Assistant position in the UVA Core Lab that would allow him to work in the lab while finishing his coursework. “I began working in the Core Lab as an MLA, so I got to know the lab, the people, which was the best choice,” he says. 

With a scholarship and educational assistance from UVA, Fittipaldi has been able to continue advancing his training and moving up the career ladder. He graduated from PVCC with an associate’s degree and is now pursuing his MLS degree through an online bridge program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. 

“I study in the morning, and then I work the evening shift as a CLS1,” he says. “When you’re working, you’re basically doing clinicals. I am doing all the lab testing — the urine sample testing, differentials on red blood cells, white blood cells — which helps me a lot with my courses.”

Upon finishing the MLS program, Fittipaldi says he’s confident he’ll find job fulfillment in the lab. He will advance to a CLS2, and from there, he can explore further specialization or lab management. “The great thing is you have options,” he says. “At UVA, they have specialty areas like toxicology, bone marrow testing, and immunochemistry. There’s always something new.”