Allied Health Continuing Education

Welcome to Allied Health Continuing Education

What is “Allied Health”? Allied health professionals are specially trained individuals who are typically licensed or certified but are not physicians or nurses. Phlebotomists,  Laboratory Technicians, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Histotechnicians, and Pathologists’ Assistants are allied health professionals.

Continuing Education (CE) includes educational activities that are pertinent to a person’s professional skills, activities, interests, and growth. It includes training relevant to the person’s job, such as patient safety, fire, and disaster training, and other training required by regulatory and accreditation agencies. Some educational programs are undertaken to satisfy intellectual curiosity or to enhance professional skills.

Professional development requires lifelong learning. We know that tests, methods, and instruments used only a few years ago have been replaced by new methods, and the old ones discarded. Like professionals in other fields, allied health professionals must continue to learn new skills.

The Department of Pathology requires that all testing personnel complete 12 hours of continuing education per year.

Many laboratory professionals are certified through the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) and may be required to complete Continuing Education to maintain their certification.  This is the Credential Maintenance Program (CMP).

  • Generally, those newly certified after January 1, 2004, are required to participate in the CMP program.
  • Medical Laboratory Scientists (MLS), Medical Laboratory Technicians (MTL), Histotechnicians (HT), and Histologists (HTL) are required to complete 36 hours of continuing education every three years to maintain certification.
  • Phlebotomy Technicians are required to complete 9 hours.
  • Pathologists’ Assistants are required to complete 60 hours.
  • The CMP program may require that continuing education be in certain lab disciplines, and this is specific to the certification type. See CMP program guide for more information.