Across the country, ASCP Chapters are providing a wealth of education, networking, and other resources to laboratory professionals to address regional needs.
The Minnesota Chapter and the Siouxland Chapter, which serves South Dakota, will host the Upper Plains Conference, an all-day event on Sept. 12 at the Sanford Research Center, in Sioux Falls, SD. The conference will focus on leadership skills, with topics ranging from fostering an effective laboratory community to time management and coping with the imposter syndrome. Additionally, a faculty member from the University of Minnesota’s Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) program will talk about her career transition from working in a laboratory to academia, as well as the current workforce shortage and the declining number of MLS programs. There will be plenty of opportunities for attendees to network. To register for the conference, click
here.
The benefit of being involved in local chapters is the opportunity to connect with other laboratory professionals in the same region who may be dealing with similar issues. “Being in leadership can be lonely, especially if you are a laboratory manager at a small rural hospital or clinic,” says Jina Forys, MBA, MLS(ASCP), president of the Minnesota Chapter and director of Acute Laboratories at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. “You might not know what you don’t know. When you talk to colleagues working in other regions, they can be very beneficial in solving common challenges.”
The Chicago Chapter, which draws members from throughout the Chicago area and northwest Indiana, will host an educational event on October 5. In the morning, Sten Westgard, director of client services and technology for Westgard QC, will talk about changes to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and the challenges with proficiency testing. Mr. Westgard has edited and contributed to numerous books on quality, including Basic QC Practices, Basic Method Validation, Basic Quality Management Systems, Six Sigma QC Design and Control, Six Sigma Risk Analysis, CLIA Final Rules, Assuring the Right Quality Right, and The Poor Lab's Guide to the Regulations.
In the afternoon, George Krempel, MBA, MT(ASCP), faculty member at Rush University School of Medicine, will talk about strategic management. There will also be a panel discussion discussing the medical laboratory workforce shortage in the Chicago region and ways to support recruitment efforts.
“We are all experts in our respective fields. Sometimes, someone has thought of a solution to a problem and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” says Chicago Chapter President Abdel Abdelhadi, MBA, MS-CLS, director of Alverno Laboratories in Hammond, Indiana.
The Chicago Chapter has more than 175 members and offers a variety of educational and social events, along with a winter dinner and newsletters.
In contrast, ASCP’s Tidewater Chapter has a small but committed group of about 15 members. The chapter draws members from several cities in Virginia – Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth.
“A handful of us are dedicated to the cause,” says Tidewater Chapter President Alex Le, MBA, MLS(ASCP), Laboratory Operations Manager at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, in Norfolk. “Our board members are all heavily involved in the medical laboratory profession.”
Its members are very involved with two area community colleges, Tidewater Community College and College of The Albemarle, which have medical laboratory technician programs and the nearby Old Dominion University, which has a medical technology program. Several members serve on the board of these training programs and assist with interviews when they are selecting students for the programs. The Tidewater Chapter also maintains ties to a few hospital systems in the area, including Sentara and the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters.
“For us, it is all about providing education for those in our field in this region. We are trying to get other nearby hospitals to interact with us and always invite them to our educational seminars,” Mr. Le says.
The Tidewater Chapter presents at least two educational seminars a year. Every other year, it organizes a larger conference during the summer with a renowned speaker. In June, they hosted Sten Westgard, of Westgard QC to discuss QC roles and Six Sigma, which drew a large crowd.
“We make sure that our topics are relevant to the medical laboratory. A lot of times, it can be geared toward QC or geared toward managing a laboratory in this day and age. Or, how do you address the differences in the ages of your staff? We are fortunate that our large laboratories in the area, such as LabCorp, Quest, and ARUP have access to lot of speakers and can assist us in reaching out to them.
On October 25, the Tidewater Chapter will host an all-day seminar at Tidewater Community College, in Virginia Beach, featuring infectious disease specialist Laura Sass, MD, who is head of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters. She will speak about cystic fibrosis and the role of the medical laboratory, as well as antibiotic stewardship and molecular diagnostics.
To register, visit the ASCP Tidewater Chapter’s LinkedIn page, or contact Mr. Le at Alexander.Le@chkd.org
