Laboratory Staffing Meeting Today's Challenges
Continuing Education Credits
Objectives
- List challenges to laboratory staffing.
- Describe the impact of laboratory education programs.
- Discuss the age variation of laboratory workers and the corresponding impact on the staffing shortage.
- State the negative impacts of the staffing shortage.
- Discuss potential adjustments to traditional laboratory facilities and test flow used to accommodate staff shortages.
Course Outline
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Vacancy Statistics
- True or False: Vacancy statistics vary significantly between management and non-management personnel.
- Which of the following statements is true regarding laboratory tests?
- True or False: The COVID-19 pandemic did not create a significant increase in test volume.
- Which of the following statements regarding the 2022 ASCP vacancy survey, when compared to the COVID-19 pandemic statistics, is true?
- Contributing Factors to Staffing Shortages
- Aging Working Population
- Workload
- Burnout
- Education Programs
- Impact and Effect of Staff Interactions
- Bullying in the Workplace
- Bullying in the Workplace, continued
- Match the type of bullying to the behavior.
- Salaries
- Employees Seeking Alternative Employment Solutions
- Burnout is a serious problem in laboratory staffing. Which of the following is not a contributing factor to burnout?
- Which of the following represents a true statement regarding medical laboratory education programs?
- Which of the following is not one of the top reasons laboratory workers leave?
- Helping to Ease the Crisis
- Coordinating Internal and External Solutions to the Shortage
- Match the best group with the specific solution to the laboratory workforce shortage.
- Supporting Educational Programs
- Supporting Educational Programs, continued
- Temporary, Traveling, and Alternate Personnel Solutions
- Technological Solutions to the Staffing Crisis
- Benefits
- Morale
- When utilizing new personnel with alternate qualifications such as a biology degree with appropriate scientific coursework, what additional requirement(s) might be required?
- Match the type of solution for helping to ease the staffing shortage with the specific provision or action.
- References
- References
Additional Information
Level of Instruction: Basic
Intended Audience: Medical laboratory scientists, medical laboratory technicians, laboratory supervisors, and laboratory managers. This course is also appropriate for MLS and MLT students and pathology residents.
Author Information: Sheryl A. Whitlock, MA.Ed, MLS(ASCP)BB is the owner of ARK Laboratory Consulting, LLC. She served as the laboratory coordinator for the Student Health Services Laboratory at the University of Delaware for 15 years. She received her Master’s degree in Education from Arcadia University. She has more than 35 years of experience in laboratory science, including management and education. She has written and published textbooks and laboratory manuals, as well as contributed to numerous online and print articles in the field of laboratory medicine.Reviewer Information: Joy Gould, MS, SBBCM(ASCP)CCM, MLT, CQIA(ASQ), CPHQ received her master’s degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, and a Bachelor of Science from Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. She is a Teaching Assistant Professor and the Director of Academic and Corporate Initiatives for the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Biotechnology at Thomas Jefferson University. She also held the position of Transfusion Medicine Supervisor for both Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jefferson Methodist Hospital for 12 years. Joy has been in the medical laboratory field for over 37 years, 23 in a blood bank supervisory capacity.