In September 2019, Camosun students in the Certified Medical Laboratory Assistant (CMLA) program showed up for class, unaware that the program was no longer provincially accredited. When the program was offered through the college’s Continuing Education department, it was provincially accredited by the British Columbia Society of Laboratory Science (BCSLS). When the college moved the CMLA program from Continuing Education, changing its curriculum while doing so, the program had to be accredited again.
BCSLS executive director Malcolm Ashford says that his organization first advised Camosun of the consequences of running a CMLA program without BCSLS’ provincial accreditation in August 2018—when the college contacted BCSLS saying it wanted to revamp the program—and that the new program wasn’t approved because Camosun did not submit it in time.
“We informed Camosun on many occasions [since August 2018] that if you wanted your students to be deemed graduates of a BCSLS-approved program, then you need to have the program approved,” says Ashford. “Period.”
Ashford says it is very clear in BCSLS policies that programs need to be approved prior to the intake of students, which he says Camosun was made aware of many times.
“That’s very clear in our policy documents; we don’t approve programs retroactively. There’s no such thing as sort of ‘approval pending,’” says Ashford.
Camosun sent BCSLS an application for accreditation in late July 2019, according to Ashford. The approval process takes a minimum of two months, says Ashford, which means the earliest Camosun could have been granted approval was late September, but the program had already started by then.
“Both organizations are doing exactly what they believed they were supposed to do,” says Camosun vice president of education John Boraas. “We’re discovering that there are some communications that we are trying to rectify as we speak.”
Boraas says Camosun moved forward with the program because it had “every assurance and every element of certainty” that accreditation would follow, but Ashford says that assurance “couldn’t have” come from the BCSLS. (Boraas did not confirm by press time who this assurance was from.)
Boraas—who oversees and is responsible for all programming at the college—says that deans bring forward all new programs for approval to the college’s Education Council. According to Education Council meeting minutes available online, at the November 21, 2018 Education Council meeting, the Integrated Curriculum Committee—an Education Council sub-committee—had consensus to recommend approval of the program.
Boraas says that the college believes “with absolute certainty” that students will leave the program able to find work.
“When you get to a place where there’s tension, certainly, part of what a person does is think back through all kinds of different ways that it can be provided and made clear,” says Boraas, “but we certainly did go through a process of being sure that students knew that there would be parts of their journey that included accreditation processes.”
Ashford, who says he received his first email from a concerned Camosun student on January 26, 2020, says that Camosun was forewarned of the consequences of not running a BCSLS-approved program. (There is no governing body saying Camosun can’t run the program without BCSLS approval.)
“Camosun didn’t do what they were supposed to do, quite frankly,” says Ashford. “They didn’t get their program approved… They chose to proceed without our approval at that point, even though they had been forewarned about the consequences of all this.”
Ashford says that students currently in the program will be eligible for BCSLS certification by taking an alternative practicum, which he says the BCSLS is “bending over backwards” to do; he says it will not be done again.
“This is a one-time process,” he says.
BCSLS charges $89 for one-time certification; Boraas says the college will not pass this cost on to students.
“Our commitment in this is that there won’t be a cost to students,” says Boraas. “Our reason for making changes to the program was to serve students better.”
According to workbc.ca, all certified medical lab assistants in British Columbia are required to be graduates of a BCSLS-approved program; the certification that students can receive following completion of BCSLS-approved programs is voluntary on the part of the students.
According to Island Health job postings available online, a “recognized” program is required as part of an applicant’s education. A spokesperson for Island Health was unavailable to be interviewed for this story but informed Nexus that Island Health is working with Camosun and BCSLS to implement the alternative practicum process, adding that students who successfully complete a practicum would be eligible to apply for appropriate job postings when they graduate.
LifeLabs, a major employer of CMLA graduates, did not respond to interview requests, but some job postings available online also indicate “recognized” programs (“or equivalent related experience”) are required as part of an applicant’s education.
Two CMLA students, who chose to remain anonymous, say that employers have said nothing to them yet about how this will impact employment, and that they have asked for assurance in writing several times. They say they shouldn’t have to be the ones dealing with this stress. One student says they were “livid” and “apoplectic with rage” when they found out that it wasn’t BCSLS-approved.
“Not only are we investing money for this, both [the other student] and I, we work 12-hour days seven days a week for this program.”
The other student says they felt the same way.
“I felt betrayed,” says the student. “I felt enraged. I felt afraid.”
Boraas says Camosun is working to fix the situation.
“It’s not uncommon when major programming changes are made that there are things to be fixed as we move through,” says Boraas, “and we will fix them.”
The student who says they were livid says that what Camosun is doing now doesn’t change what’s already happened.
“They are making many changes,” says the student, “but that doesn’t mitigate the damage that’s already done.”
Ashford confirmed to Nexus that BCSLS received a proposal from Camosun in early March 2020 for accreditation of the program for when the next cohort starts in September 2020.