Date of Award

May 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Zarrina Azizova

Abstract

There is a current workforce shortage of qualified medical laboratory scientists (MLS) in the healthcare field. Without these individuals completing their analysis of patient samples, patients may experience detrimental effects to their health. To help narrow the gap between the number of open positions and the number of MLS graduates per year, MLS programs could better understand pre-MLS students’ needs to better support and retain them. Using Control-Value Theory as the framework for this qualitative study, this study explored pre-MLS students’ needs by examining the emotions they experienced in their programmatic contexts to better understand this population’s needs. Five themes emerged from the findings: curriculum structure, faculty and staff interactions, MLS-specific advising, student belonging, and addressing mental health needs. To bridge the gap between research and practice, a faculty development workshop series was developed to implement the research findings. This workshop series is aimed at MLS educators within MLS programs to understand their students’ needs better and improve their program practices.

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