This module reviews how to navigate the course, describes the module structure, and lists other resources to prepare for the Medical Laboratory Scientist certification exam.

This module is split into two parts.

• Part A - Foundations of Clinical Laboratory Practice: Reviews the principles and procedures of laboratory quality, laws and regulations governing the laboratory, laboratory instrumentation, maintenance, principles of operation, laboratory mathematics, and standards and procedures for laboratory safety. 
• Part B - Specimen Collection and Handling: Reviews procedures to maintain specimen integrity for blood specimens, including the use of appropriate collection tubes, venipuncture steps, and capillary draw steps, the proper order of draw, procedures to maintain specimen integrity for non-blood specimens, including urine, stool, other non-blood specimens, and irretrievable specimens, and the causes of erroneous results.  

This module reviews the principles of operation and maintenance of common clinical chemistry instruments, describes renal function tests and hepatic function tests and their clinical significance. It discusses carbohydrate metabolism and its impact on the regulation of blood glucose levels, protein analysis techniques and how results correlate with clinical conditions, enzyme assays and enzymatic activity measurements, endocrine function tests and how hormone levels are interpreted in clinical contexts, lipid metabolism and its relevance to health and disease, and the mechanisms of fluid and electrolyte balance. Lastly, this module identifies the principles of acid-base balance and pH regulation, defines cerebrospinal fluid and describes the collection and analysis of samples, and explains other chemistry procedures.  

This module reviews the anatomy and physiology of blood, explains the principles and procedures of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and special tests, and describes various instrumentations and preventative maintenance. 

This module reviews the processes and mechanisms of hemostasis, the types of hemostatic disorders and their characterizations, and the tests and procedures used for coagulation and hemostasis. 

This module reviews the principles of immunology and serology, syphilis and the principles and procedures of serological tests, immunology and serology test procedures, and special test procedures. 

This module reviews the major blood group systems, their antigens, and antibodies, the immune response, the classes of immunoglobulins, and their characteristics, the tests and procedures involved in pretransfusion compatibility testing, and hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) and the considerations in testing. 

This module reviews blood banks and identifies the role of regulatory bodies in ensuring the safety and quality of blood products, describes the process of blood collection and donation, recognizes and differentiates various blood components and the process of blood component preparation, storage, and labeling to ensure product integrity and traceability, identifies special patient populations and their unique transfusion-related considerations, and defines therapeutic phlebotomy and identifies its clinical indications, procedures, and the benefits and outcomes.

This module reviews bacteriology principles and procedures, bacterial identification, special bacterial tests, virology, parasitology, mycology, and quality control in microbiology.

This module reviews the anatomy and physiology of the renal system, describes the procedures for collecting and processing urine specimens, identifies the physical, chemical, microscopic, and confirmatory procedures for analyzing urine, and details special testing methods associated with urinalysis and body fluids.