‘Amazing Lab Race’ Offers a Deep Dive into Learning about ASCP Negotiation and Advocacy Toolbox

KnowledgeLab 2025, held in April month in Scottsdale, AZ, provided laboratory leaders an innovative way to learn about resources available to them through ASCP’s Negotiation and Advocacy Toolbox. 

The Amazing Lab Race Challenge, modeled after the popular reality TV program, The Amazing Race, tasked participating teams at KnowledgeLab with solving challenges often encountered in the medical laboratory. The goal of the activity was to get participants to use ASCP’s Negotiation and Advocacy Toolbox as their resource.  

Marisa James, MA, MLS(ASCP)^CM, CEO of the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS), was a member of the winning team of The Amazing Lab Race. She said participating in the activity gave her a deeper understanding of the resources available through the Toolbox and insights on how laboratory leaders can tap into them to support their own workplaces. 

The team she served on included Sarah Buckmiller, MS, MLS(ASCP)^CM, who is one of her former MLS students (who later became her boss at a previous job) and a few other KnowledgeLab attendees who were assigned to that team. The competing teams were each given challenges to solve that directly related to one of the “pillars” included in the Toolbox. The five pillars address: 1) Promoting Laboratory Visibility, 2) People and Culture, 3) Quality, 4) Laboratory Finance, and 5) Service and Growth. 

Each participating team had to present their responses to the Challenge judge as well as the other teams. A recap of the event was then reported to the participating audience. The education session’s audience was also engaged in challenges on the same topics. This combined approach expanded the opportunity for participation, the dynamic nature of the session, and discussion about the Toolbox and its potential application. In the end, after winning the challenge, Ms. James’ team was invited to offer new resources to the Toolbox which they deemed necessary for laboratory leaders. 

One of their recommendations is to invite new nursing graduates to visit the laboratory so that they have a better understanding of why laboratory staff makes certain requests. Another recommendation is to build relationships with emergency room physicians. “These are some of our most important stakeholders, and it is critical to have a strong relationship with these groups,” Ms. James says. 

Debby Basu, PhD, ASCP Senior Manager of Global Health and Workforce Development Grant Programs, is thrilled with the reception that The Amazing Lab Race garnered at KnowledgeLab. "The Amazing Lab Race has been an engaging way to boost awareness of ASCP’s Negotiation and Advocacy Toolbox,” she says. 

The Toolbox was launched in 2023 by ASCP, through its cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in service of the CDC OneLab Initiative. Dr. Basu, who also serves as program director of the cooperative agreement award, relayed that the Toolbox is a free resource with more than 100 templates, tools, and job aids for laboratory leaders advocating to hospital administration and the C-Suite. 

The concept for The Amazing Lab Race was developed by ASCP volunteers Christina P. Nickel, MHA, MLS(ASCP)^CM, CPHQ, and Aaron Odegard, MS, MLS(ASCP)^CMSM^CM, as a practical application for the Toolbox. It has been presented at KnowledgeLab 2024, the Central New York chapter conference earlier this year, and the 2024 ASCP Annual Meeting.  

“The Amazing Lab Race is a dynamic and engaging way to bring the ASCP Negotiation and Advocacy Toolbox to life,” Ms. Nickel says. “By turning learning it into a fun, team-based challenge, participants not only absorbed key concepts but also contributed valuable ideas to improve the Toolbox. It sparked collaboration, creativity, and real-world application—exactly what we hoped to achieve.” 

Ms. James noted that the Toolbox contains a section within the Service & Growth pillar that helps laboratory leaders make a case for beginning an MLS program. “In this workforce shortage, it is important for a laboratory to be aligned with an MLS program,” she explains. “If you are in a hospital or reference laboratory that is not aligned with a training program, you will have a difficult time filling vacancies on your staff.”  

She added that the Toolbox’s pillar on building laboratory visibility is absolutely critical to the constituency that her organization serves. “I do think there are some resources for program directors that would be very helpful,” she says.  

Ms. James’ comments reflect the takeaways that Dr. Basu had hoped participants of The Amazing Lab Race would have. 

“Beyond raising visibility about this fantastic resource, the Amazing Lab Race has fostered peer-to-peer brainstorming, driving strategic solutions to challenges commonly faced by clinical lab leaders,” Dr. Basu says, adding, “Winners have even contributed to new Toolbox resources based on their final pitches, helping expand and evolve this valuable collection." 

Access the ASCP Negotiation and Advocacy Toolbox here. 
 
This resource was made possible by Cooperative Agreement Number NU47OE000107 from the CDC. Its contents are solely the responsibility of ASCP and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC.