ASCP Education Grant Bolsters Joint Venture Hospital Laboratories’ Career Outreach Efforts

“This has enhanced the experience we provide to students at our events,” writes Ms. Taylor, who is Recruitment Liaison for JVHL’s Virtual Reality Exhibit and a member of the ASCP Laboratory Medicine Workforce Steering Committee. She adds that JVHL leadership “observed significant increase in foot traffic in our booths after implementing the headsets. . .and [an] increase in student engagement with hands-on activities. We are investigating the development of custom VR career exploration content with a local organization that specializes in workforce development.” 

Established in 1992, JVHL offers hospital and health system outreach laboratory programs an organization model designed to attract and administer health plan laboratory services agreements which were previously only awarded to commercial laboratories. JVHL is a limited liability company owned equally by several leading Michigan healthcare systems. 

Currently, more than 120 hospitals across Michigan and Ohio participate in JVHL laboratory service agreements. A primary goal is to provide outreach laboratory service relationships with payers to enable its network of laboratories to provide services in support of local hospitals, healthcare systems, and physician organizations.  

As a service to its members, JVHL develops and administers workforce initiatives designed to benefit both hospital laboratory recruitment and academic enrollment in statewide education programs. As recruitment liaison, Ms. Taylor works with JVHL’s volunteers to plan and staff events across the state. These initiatives impact both rural and urban communities. 

JVHL’s goals of providing visibility of the laboratory profession to the next generation workforce align with ASCP’s mission. “We promote visibility through a variety of means in our state, including direct student engagement and communication with K-12 teachers and counselors,” Ms. Taylor adds.   

JVHL also applied part of the education grant funds to its pilot Summer Immersion program for high school students in June 2025. In collaboration with Oakland University School of Health Sciences in Michigan and four JVHL member laboratories, students got to spend three days experiencing an MLS education program while exploring laboratory careers. During the remaining week, students each had a shadowing experience in a host laboratory. 

“Collaboration is a key strategy for making a lasting impact,” Ms. Taylor says. “The Summer Immersion program is an example of JVHL’s collaboration with our state workforce development agency, an established laboratory academic program and our network laboratories. We plan to expand the program in future years, thanks to the successful pilot in 2025.” 

One way that JVHL measures success is to monitor attendance at recruiting events, immersion programs, workshops, and classroom presentations. Its staff is already seeing promising signs of increased attendance and interest. While there are multiple factors impacting enrollment, JVHL leaders believe promoting visibility of the laboratory profession through targeted workforce initiatives will result in increased student numbers in Michigan’s laboratory education programs.  

“We have heard from program directors in our state that student applications are increasing as they engage in our recruiting events,” she says. “We are grateful for ASCP’s support of our work promoting laboratory careers and education programs in Michigan.”