Volume 40 Number 4 | August 2026
Summary
This article emphasizes that effective advocacy for laboratory professionals begins with fostering understanding and changing perceptions through authentic conversations and personal interactions. These connections lay the groundwork for policy changes and professional recognition by helping legislators, healthcare administrators, educators, and students appreciate the value and expertise of medical laboratory professionals.
Advocacy Begins with Understanding
Jesse Day, MHA, CHT(ACHI), MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Government Affairs Committee, ASCLS Director
When I joined ASCLS in 2018, my understanding of advocacy was fairly straightforward. Advocacy meant legislative visits, policy discussions, and organizing efforts to influence decisions that affect laboratory professionals, patients, and their families. In that time, I have had the privilege of participating in government affairs activities, attending the Labvocate Symposium, and serving in leadership roles. These experiences have shown me the importance of organizing and advocacy and the impact it can have on our profession.
Yet some of the most impactful advocacy I have experienced has not occurred in legislative offices or during long board meetings. It has happened in authentic, ordinary conversations that began with understanding.
As laboratory professionals, we often think about advocacy in terms of the outcomes. We advocate for workforce development, professional recognition, state licensure, Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) reform, and high standards in practice. And these are worthwhile goals that deserve our attention and effort. However, achieving those goals depends on something that comes first: helping others understand who we are, what we do, and why this work matters.
In many ways, our battle is not about changing policy. It is about changing perception.
Every meaningful advancement for our profession depends on someone truly understanding our value. Legislators must understand the consequences of workforce shortages. Healthcare administrators must understand the expertise required to operate a clinical laboratory. Educators must understand the opportunities available within laboratory medicine. Students must understand that laboratory science is a rewarding and impactful healthcare career. Before any of these individuals can advocate for us, they first need to understand us, and that rarely develops through an exchange of position statements or policy discussions. More often, it develops through formed relationships and real conversations.
“When we mentor students, participate in interdisciplinary teams, engage with our community, or just simply explain our work to friends and family, that is effective advocacy.”
For the last year, I have participated in career fairs with local high schools and universities. Throughout the day, students stopped by my booth with varying degrees of familiarity with healthcare careers. Very few of them knew much about laboratory professionals. As we talked, I watched their assumptions evolve into curiosity. Questions about laboratory testing became conversations about the science, problem-solving, instruments, patient care, and career opportunities. None of those conversations resulted in a new law or regulation, but each one had the potential to influence how someone views our profession moving forward.
Many of us measure advocacy by major achievements: Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) regulations updated, PAMA cuts delayed, or a laboratory workforce bill sponsored. Those accomplishments matter, but they are the result of countless smaller interactions that occurred long before a decision was made. A legislator who supports laboratory workforce initiatives likely does so because they have spoken with laboratory professionals and understand our challenges. A hospital leader may invest in the laboratory because they know quality care starts with us. A student may choose a career in laboratory medicine because someone took the time to explain what we do and how we are trained.
The common thread is not a policy. It is the connection.
One conversation that seems to come up repeatedly among laboratory professionals: “Why don’t people understand what we do?” Whether the discussion is about visibility, recognition, or professional respect, the frustration is often the same. And while those frustrations may be justified, they also present significant opportunities. If we want others to understand our profession, we must step up, step out, and define it ourselves.
Every interaction is an opportunity to shape understanding. When we mentor students, participate in interdisciplinary teams, engage with our community, or just simply explain our work to friends and family, that is effective advocacy. We are helping others see beyond the result to the expertise, judgment, and scientific rigor that make the result possible.
Of course, personal advocacy does not exist in isolation. ASCLS plays an essential role in organizing professionals and advancing our goals through legislative and regulatory advocacy. This work is critical and deserves continued support. However, the strength of those efforts ultimately depends on you: the thousands of individual laboratory professionals who serve as ambassadors for our profession every day.
Advocacy and influencing decisions go hand in hand, but the reality is that the process begins much earlier. It all starts with influencing understanding. Long before policies change, perceptions do.
Jesse Day is Assistant Professor of Allied Health Sciences at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee.