Community Healthcare System Clinical Assistant program will provide students with both didactic instruction and hands-on experience via student laboratories and clinical rotations at the three hospitals in our healthcare system. The first half of the program consists of classroom lectures and student laboratories where the fundamental principles will be taught via lectures and reinforced through student laboratory practicals which provide hands on experience, in addition to providedworksheets, quizzes and exams. The second half of the program consists of clinical rotations in which the Clinical Assistant will take the knowledge and skills learned in the first half of the program and apply them to acutal patients. For example, the first half of the program there are phlebotomy lectures and student labs while in the second half of the program students perform venipunctures on patients. During the second half of the program,students will rotate through different departments in the laboratories at all three sites within our healthcare system which include St. Catherine's Hospital in East Chicago, St. Mary's Hospital in Hobart, and Community Hospital in Munster. While in clinical rotation,the Clinical Assistant will be providedone-on-one training under the direct guidance of a Medical Laboratory Scientist or phlebotomist. Students wil have a binder that lists all of the objectives that need to be accomplished during their clinical rotations. The Medical Laboratory Scientist and/or phlebotomist must check-off and inital each task suceessfully completed by the Clinical Assistant each day of training. After completion of second half of program, student will graduate with a certification of completion and is eligible to sit for the national cerification exam, Medical Laboratory Assistant though the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).