title: Where's the support for clinical laboratory science education?
abstract: I frequently leave the biweekly program director meetings at our community college amazed at how health-care organizations are stepping up to the plate to support nursing education. Local hospitals are begging the college to increase the number of students in the nursing program, while I struggle to find clinical rotations for the students in our medical laboratory technology (MLT) program. Several local hospitals have initiated "Learn and Earn" programs to support individuals in their pursuit of a nursing degree, while it seems that every semester we lose at least one new MLT student because of financial difficulties. Two hospitals have even loaned nurse educators to our nursing program so that more students can be accepted. These nurses are being paid by the hospitals at the much higher industry salaries. I started to wonder, "Where's the support for clinical laboratory science (CLS) education?" We have a shortage, too. In fact, in 2001, CLMA declared a clinical laboratory staffing emergency. I decided to do some research to try to understand why nurses get all the attention and to compare what is being done to overcome the two shortages. The more I investigated, the more I could see that CLS professional organizations are developing a campaign to reverse the CLS shortage that is modeled after the nursing campaign. My concern is that I don't see many initiatives at the grassroots level. The professional organizations can't do it alone. They are primarily volunteer organizations with limited human and financial resources. If a national campaign is to be successful, each laboratory leader is going to have to mount a local campaign to support the profession and CLS education, the future of our profession.
authors.affiliation: Medical Laboratory Technology Program, St. Petersburg College, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Polansky
mesh_terms: D004517:Education, Professional / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D008004:Licensure; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel / Q000193:education* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D014481:United States