This is a Cell

Training the Eyes that First Spot the Disease

From the very first day of class when students hear, “This is a cell,” they progress very rapidly. 

“Before too long, we’re starting to compare” the various features of cells, analyzing and discerning what is normal and abnormal, says Katherine Hoffman, M.M. (B.S. Cytotechnology ’85), cytotechnology program director, Grand Forks.  “There’s a constant back and forth with the students.  I really enjoy that.

“They blossom.”

Cytotechnology is one of the smallest and most unusual programs at UND.  In the one-year curriculum leading to a Bachelor of Science degree, Hoffman and Kimberly Droog, education coordinator, provide one-on-one teaching for students. 

“It’s different from a lot of programs at the university,” Hoffman says.  “What you learn that first day you use forever.”

Accredited for eight students, the program accepts qualified students in their fourth and final year as well as those who’ve completed a baccalaureate degree in another field, such as biology, and wish to take an additional year to become cytotechnologists.  Students take two semesters at the UND medical school in Grand Forks, followed by clinical experience in the summer at sites in Grand Forks; Fargo; the Twin Cities; Marquette, MI, and Kalispell, MT.    

“It’s highly specialized.  You gotta love the microscope,” Hoffman tells prospective students.  “It’s the tool of our trade.  Cytotechnologists spend more than six hours a day at the microscope,” usually in a hospital or clinic setting.  They may also be drawn toward research and teaching. 

Students must also be prepared to move to metropolitan areas or a larger city in North Dakota when they complete their studies, she advises.  “If you have to stay in Grand Forks, it’s probably not the profession for you.”  There are only about 25 cytotechnologists in the entire state; almost all (88 percent) are UND alumni.

Under the careful tutelage of their teachers, the students’ work is “very detailed,” Hoffman says.  “They learn to recognize minute differences” in cells, especially the nucleus – its size and shape, how does it stain, where it is located, are the edges smooth or irregular.

The majority of the cytologist’s work (90 percent) involves reading Pap smears to detect cancer in the female genital tract.  It also includes analysis of benign entities, inflammatory or infectious cells, and dysplasia (abnormal tissue growth, pre-malignant) cells.

“The Pap smear is the most successful screening test out there for cervical cancer,” Hoffman says, a disease that, fortunately, is going down in prevalence.  Slides used for teaching are donated by area clinics and hospitals.

Cytology is more than the Pap smear; cell samples can come from “all other body systems,” she notes, “gastrointestinal, genitourinary, respiratory and fine needle aspirations from anywhere in the body.”  Cytotechnologists sign out normal Pap smears; all specimens designated as abnormal (Pap smear and all specimens from the other body systems) are sent to the pathologist for final diagnosis.  

“Sometimes it’s easy to recognize abnormalities; sometimes it’s not,” she says. 

The cytotechnology program’s continuing commitment to excellence has yielded exceptional results, students routinely score very high on the national certification examination.  Last year, the national pass rate was 96 percent; UND’s pass rate was 100 percent.

Pamela D. Knudson

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