Abstract
At many facilities for children (patients) with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID), a small number of clinical laboratory technicians are in charge of conducting laboratory and physiological tests as well as playing significant roles in various committees such as infection control. In a workshop for staff members of facilities for children (patients) with SMID, it was revealed in a subcommittee meeting for laboratory technicians, which had been held since 2008, that technicians of each facility had been conducting tests while dealing on individual basis with various issues/problems in clinical laboratory studies specifically associated with children (patients) with SMID. In the subcommittee meeting for laboratory technicians held in 2018, a questionnaire survey was conducted on “Roles and Motivation for Clinical Laboratory Technicians in Facilities for Children (Patients) with SMID" at 134 facilities nationwide with regard to how they feel about their tasks in such circumstances. Although the response rate was low at 20.2%, 92.9% of them felt “being involved in their roles" and 89.3% felt “being motivated". We consider that in the future clinical lab technicians will feel even more involved in their roles and motivated if we could provide better-organized activities including subcommittee meetings for laboratory technicians as well as information regarding systematic measures for various issues so that clinical laboratory technicians at many of the facilities for children (patients) with SMID will be able to share and utilize the information in the tests in general, contributing to the medical care for the children (patients) with SMID.
