By Grace Kwiatkowski, Contributing Writer
Daemen University offers a combined master’s program in cytology that is not well known but has many benefits to offer students.
The study of cytology is looking at cells to identify cancerous changes, according to Diane Ramos, the natural sciences chairperson and associate professor of biology at Daemen. The program includes four years of undergraduate and one year of graduate school, which made it very appealing to Sage Sellers, a master’s student in the cytology program. As a former physician assistant student, Sellers was expected to do two years of undergraduate and three years of graduate school, but cytology offered a different choice that allowed her to work a part-time job and support herself through college.
Once graduating from the master’s portion, students become board-certified and licensed, meaning they can work in New York State and anywhere else in the country. According to Trusted Health, the average salary for a cytologist is $87,469 a year, with New York being one of the top-paying states with salaries up to $102,163 a year. Ramos also said a benefit of becoming a cytologist is the flexibility in the career.
“There are lots of different ways to work as a cytologist,” Ramos said. “ It’s like more similar to nursing where you can be a full-time cytologist. That’s your full job. You can be part-time or you can work per diem. A per diem job allows you to work very minimally.”
The flexibility of schooling and the career is not the only reason Sellers picked cytology. It offered a different approach to medicine that she appreciated.
“I also chose this program because I feel like it focused more on preventative care as opposed to slapping a drug on a problem like I saw when shadowing patient care providers that are directly seeing the patient,” Sellers said.
According to Ramos, this is also why cytology programs are beneficial to Western New York. Cytology helps medical providers understand more about the different kinds of cancer, which allows medication to be tailored specifically to the patient to minimize side effects. This helps deliver on the idea of personalized medicine.
Buffalo’s Roswell Park Comprehensive Care Center is the reason why Daemen is one of only three cytology programs in the state. Ramos said that in 2013, Roswell came to Daemen because it was having a hard time hiring cytologists. The people at Roswell wanted to start a program to train cytologists for Buffalo and the rest of the country.
This reason is why the master’s portion of the program has students working in Roswell. Students work the fall and spring semesters on content and training, and then spend the summer doing clinical rotations before becoming certified.
Rachel Dyche, a third-year cytology student, is excited for the Roswell portion of the program because being in the environment brings the sense that she will be helping people with the work she is doing.
Although important work, Sellers and Dyche both find that people do not know about cytology and they have to explain what the career entails.
This could be caused by the maximum of five students allowed in the program. With a small class, staff can work closely with the students but also allow them to work independently, according to Sellers.
Ramos said students who are strong in science and enjoy independent work may succeed and enjoy the cytology program.
This is what Dyche finds she is liking about cytology. She enjoys classes like cell biology and is looking forward to working in a lab.
“I went in wanting to become a pediatrician, but I found out very quickly through the clinical aspect that it was not for me,” said Dyche. “So I really like the laboratory setting and being able to interact with patients but it’s not required.”