ASCP’s effort to boost awareness of the medical laboratory profession is getting national attention.
USA Today recently ran an article,
The Lab Profession You Need to Join, featuring ASCP leaders talking about the crucial role that the laboratory plays in patient care. In it, ASCP President Kimberly Sanford, MD, MASCP, MT(ASCP), underscored the critical need to build the medical laboratory workforce.
“The laboratory staff is a critical part of the healthcare team and if you do not have trained, educated, certified laboratory professionals and pathologists, you are not going to be able to provide the analysis and, therefore the diagnosis, for your patient in order to render treatment,” she said.
The USA Today article was part of a campaign by ASCP and Mediaplanet USA that focuses on Infectious Diseases and also highlights careers in the medical laboratory. The article also highlights ASCP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative, which aims to attract and help educate students and young adults from underrepresented communities to the laboratory profession.
In addition, ASCP and the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies recently announced the results of their joint study, Clinical Laboratory Workforce: Understanding the Challenges to Meeting Current and Future Needs.
The comprehensive study, supported by a grant from the Siemens Foundation, proposes innovative strategies to build a more diverse and inclusive laboratory workforce. The study takes a deep dive into examining entry pathways into the laboratory profession, as well as barriers and opportunities regarding recruitment, retention, program capacity and job responsibilities and requirements.
Conducted over an 18-month period, the study involved ASCP leaders and others in the profession, as well as focus groups. The resulting report produced significant data and documentation of best practices and a blueprint for the future.
“This blueprint will raise the visibility of the medical laboratory profession,” said ASCP CEO E. Blair Holladay, PhD, MASCP, SCT(ASCP)CM. “We are at the beginning of an exciting journey, and ASCP looks forward to working with our members and leaders in industry and others to improve the visibility of the laboratory profession and recruit and retain an outstanding and diverse pool of young professionals. They are the next generation of laboratory leaders. They hold the keys to the research and scientific discovery that will propel medicine forward.”
