Competency for Japanese Novice Medical Laboratory Scientists: A Delphi Method

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionCompetency is used to channel abilities into successful processes and is employed in the medical field. Worldwide, many laboratory competencies are available, but little evidence-based information about the competency of novice medical laboratory scientists exists in Japan. This study aimed to clarify competencies by various expert opinions around Japan.MethodsThe Delphi method was used to achieve an expert consensus on the competencies of novice medical laboratory scientists. We asked the participants to evaluate the importance of each item using the Likert scale and set 70% as the final consensus rate. The participants comprised medical laboratory scientists who met the following inclusion criteria: (1) qualified Japanese national medical laboratory scientists, (2) practised with >10 years of experience and (3) were heads of medical laboratory scientists in a clinical setting.ResultsWe obtained 106 responses from 400 (26.5%) participants in round one and 95 from 106 (89.6%) participants in round two. Their professional experience mean ± standard deviation was 32.4 ± 6.0 years (range: 13–41). The average of each category consensus rate was >99.1%. The opinions of 95 experts converged, who agreed that competency comprised 8 categories and 54 items.DiscussionHere, Japanese novice medical laboratory scientists required not only basic laboratory competencies but also other competencies, such as ‘medical safety management’, ‘interpersonal relationships’, ‘professional development’ and ‘ethics’, and some items were characteristic of Japan. Further research is warranted to explore assessments tools through the scale development of competencies, thus helping clarify the differences between ability and correlated factors.