The ASCP Great Plains Chapter, based in Nebraska, recently concluded a successful spring meeting.
“Everyone had a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. We appreciated working with ASCP staff on marketing the meeting and with providing credits,” says Karen J. Hastings, MLS(ASCP)
CM, a board member of the ASCP Great Plains Chapter who is a clinical laboratory manager at Pathology Services, P.C., North Platte, Nebraska.
Speakers for the two-day event included a CLIA inspector, a physician from Mayo Clinic via Zoom, a representative from Audit Microcontrols, Inc., who talked about calibration verification and guidelines, regulations, and troubleshooting, as well as local laboratory professionals and healthcare providers.
Virtually everyone on the Great Plains Chapter’s 10-member board pitched in to organize the event, securing speakers, handling registration and education credits, and publicizing the meeting.
“We have a small board, so everyone takes on a duty,” Ms. Hastings says. “The board makes sure that the meeting covers all of the main topics necessary for the ASCP Board of Certification, and it also incorporates sessions on laboratory leadership, since many of its members are laboratory leaders.”
Future meeting topics are based on feedback via a survey distributed at the end of each meeting. The CLIA inspector session so popular at the chapter’s fall meeting that it was held again for the recent spring session.
With the meeting held in Omaha, in the eastern part of the state, it can be a challenge to draw attendees who work at rural hospitals that don’t have deep resources to send employees to meetings or who work in the western part of the state. The chapter board is considering holding future meetings in a central location and adding a virtual component as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic so that those who work farther away can participate, according to Ms. Hastings.
Meanwhile, the chapter has developed an innovative way to engage younger professionals. It hosts an annual Emerging Leaders Award and provides a free, one-year membership to talented young professional who has been recommended by a chapter member. This past year, the emerging leader is a laboratory manager who works at a rural hospital. “I had not met her before, so it was great to meet her in person at our recent meeting,” says Ms. Hastings, adding, “Now, we are trying to recruit her to serve on our chapter board.”
The Great Plains Chapter also hosts a fall educational meeting, a summer social event for all members and a town hall meeting to present the board’s long range, strategic plans.
In addition to meetings, participating in regional chapters are a great way for ASCP members to connect with other laboratory professionals in their area! Learn more about, and join, the Great Plains Chapter or any of the 19 other ASCP Chapters by clicking
here.
