MLT student on front lines of diagnosing COVID-19
Feb. 17, 2021 – Noe Lopez believes a strong work ethic and kindness are essential to success and has carried that mission into his work as a medical lab assistant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lopez, a Western Piedmont Community College student, is completing his Medical Laboratory Technology program clinical at Frye Regional Medical Center. His work involves analyzing lab samples, including tests for the coronavirus disease. Approximately 70% of medical diagnoses depend on laboratory test results.
MLT student Noe Lopez in the laboratory at Frye Regional Medical Center.
“Working with COVID in the lab has been very difficult because people are really stressed out,” Lopez said. “We have an even bigger workload to have to deal with, and we might be running out of reagents, running out of COVID kits.”
Lopez started at FRMC for his required clinical experience at WPCC and is now hired as a laboratory assistant in addition to his clinical hours.
A 2015 graduate of Hickory High School, Lopez decided to study MLT at WPCC because of the program’s proximity to his home and because of his passion for science and helping patients. Upon graduating in May, he hopes to work as a lab technologist and eventually become a travel technologist.
“I definitely do feel that I’m ready to enter the workforce once clinical is over with,” he said. “I feel like I’ve received a really good education and good training.”
Lopez’s instructors and clinical supervisors share that confidence in his post-graduate success.
“He has excellent clinical evaluations from his preceptors on top of all of the hours he works – always positive and never complains,” said Beverly Berry, MLT coordinator at WPCC. “There is a critical shortage of lab staff nationally and in our area, so he is and will be upon graduation an asset to our community and in fighting the pandemic.”
In addition to almost 40 hours a week at his clinical practicum and employment as a lab assistant, Lopez works an additional 30 hours a week at a restaurant to pay for his education. He is not able to receive government assistance and must also pay out of state tuition because he is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, student.
“It’s been a really long journey coming to this point in my life because DACA has really made it very difficult, and I feel like I’ve had to work twice as hard just to be on the same level as every other student,” he said. “But it’s honestly made me stronger, in the end, because I know that if I can overcome those barriers, everything else in life that hits me will also be overcome.”
Lopez will graduate as the first in his immediate family to earn a college degree.
“It can be difficult sometimes, but just know that being a good person and always including others and being nice and working hard will get you where you need to be,” he said when asked what advice he would give other students facing challenges.
Learn more about the Medical Laboratory Technology program at WPCC by visiting wpcc.edu/mlt.