Volume 39 Number 5 | October 2025
Summary
Clinical laboratory professionals face unique stressors that impact mental health, from high-pressure accuracy demands to staffing shortages. Maria Sue Abiera highlights resilience as a skill built through emotional regulation, peer support, adaptability, and purpose. By fostering self-care, open dialogue, organizational support, and advocacy, medical laboratory teams can prevent burnout, strengthen well-being, and sustain high-quality patient care.
Prioritizing Mental Health in High-Stakes Environments
Maria Sue Abiera, MS, MLS(AMT), ASCLS Today Volunteer Contributor
Clinical laboratory professionals play a vital role in healthcare, delivering accurate diagnostic results that guide patient care. However, the demanding nature of our work—the pressure to keep up with turnaround times, learning new technology, implementation of recent CLIA changes, quality assurance activities, and shift changes or overtime demands due to staffing shortages, to name a few—can take a toll on mental health.
Resilience, the ability to adapt and thrive despite adversity, is not just a personal trait but a skill that can be cultivated. For lab professionals, fostering resilience is critical to sustaining well-being and ensuring high-quality outcomes in fast-paced environments.
As lab professionals, we face distinct challenges:
- Repetitive Precision Under Pressure: Constant focus on error-free results, that are always required to fall within turnaround times.
- Emotional Labor: Handling critical samples (e.g., cancer biopsies, confirmatory COVID-19 tests) that directly impact patient lives.
- Physical Strain: Extended periods of standing, eye strain from microscopes and computers, and exposure to hazardous materials.
- Workload Fluctuations: Sudden surges during outbreaks or staffing shortages.
- Shift Additions: Being asked to extend another shift or to work on a colleague’s shift due to emergency leave, which is often.
- Generalist Work Shifts: Being trained in several departments, including micro, with varying schedules depending on the needs of the lab.
These stressors, if unaddressed, can lead to burnout, anxiety, or compassion fatigue.
The Four Pillars of Resilience:
Resilience is built through intentional practices.
- Emotional Regulation—Mindfulness Breaks
Use short pauses between tasks to practice deep breathing or grounding techniques. If you feel lightheaded at the end of the working day, you may have been so focused on your tasks that you didn’t notice your shallow breathing or even the times you held your breath troubleshooting a couple of QC levels. Instead, take a break and do some mindful breathing. Or take a bite out of that chocolate bar you bought at the cafe during lunch.
Reframe challenges—view errors as learning opportunities rather than failures. If you’re a perfectionist laboratory professional, chances are you ruminate on an error you committed and repeatedly blame yourself. You’ve probably thought about what you could have done differently and played it again in your head for days on end. If you find yourself doing this, remember that this is pointless and can lead to burnout. Label it as a learning opportunity by extracting the lesson or wisdom from your error and move on.
- Social Support—Peer Networks
ASCLS constituent societies or lab teams can create “buddy systems” for emotional check-ins. Be sure that sensitive discussions are kept confidential by talking to people you trust or having your conversation outside of the lab. With the availability of Zoom or other video conferencing technology, you can talk to your best friend or buddies from other places if you feel you can’t talk to your co-workers.
Mentorship—seasoned professionals can guide newer colleagues through stressful transitions. Find a senior member of the lab willing to take you under their wing and become your mentor. Be interested in the learning process and ask questions.
- Adaptability—Flexible Problem-Solving
Rotate tasks during shifts to reduce monotony when possible.
Tech literacy—embrace new laboratory technologies to stay engaged and efficient. We tend to stay focused on tasks and routines that feel comfortable. Learning new things can add to your confidence, promoting positive self-talk, motivation, and a stronger sense of wellbeing.
- Purpose-Driven Mindset—Connect to Impact
Remember how your work aids in diagnoses and saves lives. This is especially helpful at times when you feel under-appreciated.
Advocacy—join ASCLS committees to shape policies that improve workplace conditions or advocacy efforts that have an impact on the clinical lab industry.
Strategies for Individuals and Teams
Self-Care Rituals. Prioritize sleep, nutrition, exercise, and hobbies outside the lab. A 10-minute walk post-shift can reset your mind.
Hobbies and exercise are underrated ways in sustaining mental health and resilience. While working for a start-up lab, I found myself overwhelmed by management and staffing issues. The only thing that motivated me through the work week was my visits to the stables of a Victorian-age mansion where I fed carrots to the horses. Horses were the only topic of our conversations there, so I could mentally detach from work every time I visited.
Skill Development. Attend webinars on stress management or time optimization. These may be given by non-lab teams.
Open Dialogue. Normalize conversations about mental health during team meetings. As lab professionals, we mostly limit ourselves to meetings that involve regulatory compliance or technical topics. It’s high time we include conversations about mental health and wellness in staff meetings.
Organizational Support. Resilience is a shared responsibility. ASCLS and laboratory leaders can implement training and provide workshops on burnout prevention and emotional intelligence.
Resource Accessibility. Promote free counseling via Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) or partnerships with mental health platforms.
Culture Shift. Recognize staff contributions openly and advocate for reasonable workloads.
Resilience isn’t about enduring stress silently—it’s about building systems that sustain both individuals and the collective mission of laboratory science.
ASCLS members are encouraged to:
- Personal Action: Integrate one resilience-building habit into your routine this month. Pick up an old hobby or start a new one that interests you.
- Collective Advocacy: Urge labs to adopt mental health policies.
By prioritizing resilience, we honor the critical role lab professionals play in healthcare while safeguarding their well-being. Together, we can turn challenges into catalysts for growth.
Maria Sue Abiera is Founder and Lab Consultant at Clinical Laboratory Scientist Consulting in Staten Island, New York.