In the year ahead, ASCP’s Council of Laboratory Professionals (CLP) will focus on building awareness of careers in the medical laboratory, recruiting to the profession through non-traditional pathways, and helping retain and support those already working in the laboratory.
These efforts will include reinvigorating the Society’s Career Ambassador program to build awareness of careers in the medical laboratory, and exploring innovative ways to strengthen retention and recruitment efforts.
“Many CLP members are already Career Ambassadors,” says CLP Chair Michelle Campbell, MS, MLS(ASCP)
CMMB
CM,SC
CM, who is in product management for Clinical Chemistry and Neurology at Roche Diagnostics, and adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “ASCP Career Ambassadors are very passionate. We want to recognize the hard work they are doing and share that with others who might be interested in becoming a Career Ambassador. Educating the public on what laboratory professionals do is critical.”
These efforts will complement ASCP’s
What’s My Next website and its existing
Career Ambassador Facebook page, which will be revamped and streamlined to make them easier to use.
Additionally, the CLP will continue its partnership with a web resource called The Lab Drawer, an education-technology monthly subscription site overseen by ASCP member Dana Baker, MBA, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM. It provides educational resources on science activities that are STEAM related. (STEAM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.)
The CLP’s other two major goals are the recruitment into the workforce and the retention of existing medical laboratory professionals.
For recruitment, the CLP will work to address short term, urgent needs. “There has always been a need to fill vacancies in the laboratory, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated that situation,” says Ms. Campbell. “There are nontraditional routes to enter careers in laboratory medicine for individuals who have college degrees in areas such as biology and chemistry. We intend to reach those individuals.”
As a first step, the CLP will form subcommittees to determine how best to implement their ideas.
The other half of this effort is retention of current laboratory professionals, particularly those who may be experiencing burnout. The CLP is working to connect with ASCP members who are laboratory professionals to learn about their common interests as well as areas of concern. It will build upon existing outreach efforts, such as the Birds of a Feather roundtable sessions that were hosted at the ASCP Annual Meeting, which bring together individuals who share common interests in the laboratory. The CLP has many other ideas in the works and plans to roll them out in the new year.
“The CLP is a strong group of individuals representing many professional laboratory areas,” Ms. Campbell says. “We are energized as we look to the year 2023 and beyond to continue representing the voices, needs, and interests of laboratory professionals everywhere.”
Learn more about the Council of Laboratory Professionals and how to get involved
here.
