Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Maddie Josephs, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS President In June of 2019, which seems like a lifetime ago, I delivered my president-elect candidate presentation to ASCLS Joint Annual Meeting (JAM) attendees. I discussed the visibility of our profession, and what I outlined was certainly no surprise to anyone present. We…
Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Deb Rodahl, MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM ASCLS recognizes Cheryl Caskey for nearly 20 years of service as ASCLS Today editor. In January, ASCLS President Maddie Josephs posted an item in the ASCLS Open Forum: For as long as I can remember, and certainly for my entire tenure on the ASCLS…
MLS Students Fill in the Staffing Gaps for COVID-19 Testing Program Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Jessica Bankey, MPH, MLS(ASCP)CM “An AMAZING opportunity!!!” That was initially how I proposed the idea to the MLS senior class. What started as a simple request through email, a COVID-19 testing program began to take shape on…
Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Beth Warning, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, AHI(AMT), ASCLS Region IV Director While we hear about mentoring young professionals within ASCLS, have you considered mentoring even younger individuals who have an interest in a healthcare profession or laboratory career? Often, we find that our field is not one that jumps onto…
Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Kaylin Viccellio, MLS(ASCP)CM This article first appeared as a post for the ASCLS Ascending Professionals Forum blog, The Labora-Story. As medical laboratory professionals, most of us are usually confined within the four walls of our labs—no windows connecting us to the outside world, and no face-to-face contact with…
Leveraging Social Media to Promote the Profession Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Tera L. Webb, MLS(ASCP)CM, CPHQ, ASCLS Education Scientific Assembly Chair Take a moment to reflect on the medical laboratory profession in the media. When represented in media, the essence of our field does not always reflect reality. The medical laboratory profession…
A Competition for Cooperation and Learning Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Lisa Hochstein, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Region I Director Inter-professional education has become increasingly popular in the health science professions. It is important that students in these professions learn with and about each other. Introducing these students to inter-professional education early on will…
How the Internet Can Be Used to Promote the Profession Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Joanna F. Miranda, MLS(ASCP)CM, and Byanca Narro, MLS(ASCP)CM Who would have thought that a little over six months after our graduation from Texas State University, a pandemic would ensue and change the course of the rest of our…
Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Aymen Alsaihati Clinical laboratories are essential to medicine and fundamental to modern research. Laboratory professionals are usually unnoticed and silent due to the fact they are mainly in laboratories and not seen by others. However, lab professionals produce results that make “70-80 percent of decisions in diagnoses” (Islin,…
Volume 35 Number 2 | April 2021 Patient Safety Corner Brandy D. Gunsolus, DCLS, MLS(ASCP)CM The COVID-19 pandemic has done many things, including shining a spotlight on laboratory testing like it has never had before. Unfortunately, what it has also brought is much confusion as both clinicians and the general public struggle with what is…