ACADEMIC PROFICIENCY, INTERNSHIP PERFORMANCE RATING, AND THE PREPAREDNESS TO ASCP CERTIFICATION OF THE MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY GRADUATES IN REGION XI: BASIS FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF CLINICAL INTERNSHIP CURRICULUM
Medical Technology/ Medical Laboratory Science (MT/MLS) graduates seeking employment abroad first need to pass certain foreign government standard tests. The study investigated the preparedness to American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) certification examination of local MT/MLS graduates based on their academic performance and internship performance rating. Specifically, the study aimed to evaluate the MT/MLS graduates' level of preparedness to ASCP examination and their academic and internship performances, and whether the latter two could be used to predict the former. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the 177 MT/MLS graduates of batch 2014 from Region XI. The data were gathered using validated researcher made questionnaire, and analyzed using Pearson R and Multiple Regression analysis. The results showed that there is a significant direct, high correlation between the MT/MLS graduates' academic performance and their preparedness to ASCP examination (r .810, p .05) implying that an increase in academic performance of the graduates corresponds to an increase in their level of preparedness to ASCP examination. Likewise, there is a significant direct, moderate correlation between the MT/MLS graduates' internship performance rating and their preparedness to ASCP examination (r 663, p .05) implying that the higher the internship performance rating of the MT/MLS graduates, the higher is their level of preparedness to ASCP examination. Further, between the two predictors, academic proficiency is the significant factor (b .860; p .05) that influences the level of preparedness of the graduates to ASCP examination, whilst the internship performance rating showed no significant influence (b .060; p .05) to the level of preparedness of the graduates to ASCP examination. This study will provide information as basis for improvement of the MT/MLS Clinical Internship Curriculum in the Philippines.