Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Hassan Aziz, PhD, FACSs, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS President Our profession is facing difficult times recruiting and retaining the laboratory personnel required to do the work. Even with significant sign-on bonuses and incentives for openings, jobs remain vacant, and laboratories must decide whether to continue running their costly advertisements, pay…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Deb Rodahl, MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Today Editor Dear Reader, you will notice a clear theme for this issue of ASCLS Today around the topic of professional advocacy. The importance of advocating for our profession has never been clearer than during this global pandemic, with its particular impact on…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Constance Stager, MT(ASCP), ASCLS Region IX Director The theme of this issue of ASCLS Today, Professional Advocacy, is one that I have found myself giving quite some thought to lately considering the pandemic and the lab’s vital role in patient testing. The pandemic has provided an opportunity for…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Cindy Johnson MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Past President During my ASCLS presidential term (2019-20), I stressed the importance of advocating for the laboratory profession as well as the professional. I challenged you to find your “why”—your purpose, the reason you chose the laboratory profession. Then I encouraged you to…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Christal Lane, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Ascending Professionals Forum Let me set the stage for you … The year is 2020. It’s early in the year, around January. Laboratory professionals in their morning huddles gather to hear their laboratory directors bring up the new “novel” virus coming out of…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Pamela Meadows, EdD, MT(ASCP), West Virginia Society for Clinical Laboratory Sciences President Licensure of clinical laboratory professionals is a principal measure that signifies the profession’s focus on quality health care and patient safety. It is imperative that licensure be viewed not only as a means of ensuring adequate…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Rick Panning, MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM As a professional organization, ASCLS is well known for its advocacy efforts for the profession with state and federal regulators and legislators. Equally as important is advocacy efforts in the workplace with the executive decision-makers, the C-Suite. One of the expectations of laboratory leaders…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 DeAnne Maxwell, MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM, CLEC 2022 Steering Committee Chair On a snowy day in February 1994, I boarded a plane bound for Newport, Rhode Island, with fellow Indiana MLS program educators Linda Kasper and Bunny Rodak, to attend what would be my first, but definitely not my last,…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Stephanie K. Mabry, MS, MLS(ASCP)CMSCCM, ASCLS Political Action Committee Chair If you’ve ever been to a Joint Annual Meeting or the Laboratory Legislative Symposium, you’ve likely seen the ASCLS Political Action Committee (PAC) table. It’s hard to miss with the festive red, white, and blue décor! As you…
Volume 35 Number 6 | December 2021 Alex Shaw, ASCLS Developing Professionals Forum Councilor-at-Large As an MLS student and active ASCLS member, I have become more and more aware of the issues that plague the clinical laboratory. There are many laboratory personnel getting closer to retirement, not enough new graduates ready to fill those openings,…