LABORATORY ASSISTANT

Laboratory Assistant

With more than 10 million residents, Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the nation! As the largest employer in Southern California, over 116,000 employees in more than 38 Departments, we provide vital public services as diverse as law enforcement, property assessment, public health protection, water conservation, cultural activities and many more.

We are dedicated professionals committed to preserving the dignity and integrity of the workplace as well as protecting the rights of each employee. The County has more than 2,300 different job descriptions, offering a lifetime of opportunities and careers! We offer one of the strongest public-sector benefits packages in the country. Join us and discover a rich selection of health care options, robust retirement plans and the flexibility to work, relax, and rejuvenate to reach your fullest personal and professional potential.

The mission of the County of Los Angeles is to advance the health of our patients and our communities by providing outstanding care.

Essential Job Functions

Laboratory Assistants work in a laboratory setting, performing a variety of tasks such as logging in patient specimens, adding fixatives and preservatives to specimens, smearing specimens onto microscopic glass slides, transcribing laboratory tests results into a computer, preparing media and reagents, or assigning, training, and reviewing the work of a group of lower-level laboratory positions. Essential duties include:

• Receives patient specimens such as blood, urine, feces, pulmonary fluids, gastro-intestinal fluids, body carry fluids, and sputum slides with standard laboratory request forms providing information such as patient's name and tests to be performed by licensed personnel; verifies patient's name and permanent file number by matching information on request form and specimen container.
• Prepares specimens for laboratory testing by adding fixatives or preservatives using a prescribed technique/instrument appropriate to the type of specimen.
• Processes specimens for subsequent analysis by certified professionals by performing duties such as making primary inoculations of test material to be cultured, and smearing and staining test specimens on laboratory glass slides and/or plates.
• Transcribes laboratory test results from laboratory reports/worksheets into a permanent log or computer; routes laboratory reports to patients' ward so medical personnel will be informed of laboratory findings.

Requirements

Six (6) months' experience in laboratory work* in a public health, medical, or biological laboratory. Physical Class 3 - Moderate: This class requires that the incumbent stand or walk most of the time with bending, stooping, squatting, twisting, reaching, working on irregular surfaces, occasional lifting of objects weighing over 25 pounds, and frequent lifting of 10-25 pounds.

Withhold information:

No withhold will be allowed. Required experience must be fully met at the time of filing and clearly indicated within the materials provided.

No Out of Class experience will be accepted for this examination.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS: Additional credit will be given to applicants who possess the following desirable qualification:

• Laboratory work experience in an Acute Care Hospital Laboratory** beyond the minimum requirements.
• Successful completion of chemistry, biology, or microbiology lecture and lab course(s) at an accredited college or university.

To receive credit for your education, you must include a legible copy of official transcripts from an accredited institution when applying or email the required document(s) to View email address on click.appcast.io within seven (7) calendar days of filing your application. Unofficial transcripts are not acceptable to fulfill the educational requirement. The document should show units and titles of course work in English; if it is in a foreign language, it should be translated and evaluated for equivalency to U.S. standards if not listed in the International Handbook of Universities or World Higher Education Database.

Note: We do not accept password-protected documents. Ensure documents are unlocked before attaching to your application or sending to the exam analyst.

Laboratory work is defined: as experience accessioning and/or processing human specimens for diagnostic testing using general laboratory equipment (e.g., centrifuge, autoclave, scale, etc.)

Work experience in an Acute Care Hospital Laboratory is defined as: Assists laboratory personnel in the performance of standard laboratory testing on human blood, body fluid, tissue, stool, urine, or other specimens in a hospital operating 24/7 that provides inpatient medical care and other related services for surgery, acute medical conditions, or injuries (usually for short-term illness or other conditions).