Reflecting NCA’s Commitment to the Profession

  This year has afforded many opportunities for reflection. To begin, it is NCA’s 30^th year of operation. With every major anniversary comes time to think back upon what the organization has done and meant over the years.

But also, negotiations between NCA and the Board of Registry (BOR-ASCP) have reached a new level of a commitment to moving forward together. Any time that two organizations consider unification, it is necessary for both to reflect upon and present their own strengths.

As I have been reflecting this year, I have been proud to realize all that NCA has done. Over the years, NCA has lived up to its mission to be a body that listens to the needs of the profession and acts accordingly. At the heart of all that we do is a dedication to certification for the profession, by the profession.

Negotiations with the BOR, as well as preparation for the update that Susan Morris presented at the July ASCLS Annual Meeting, caused me to realize just how much NCA has exemplified its continued vision in 2008.

To celebrate our 30 years, we have created a Special Report that tells the story of 2008, a year that has demonstrated commitment to the mission that began in 1978.

We are excited to welcome you to join us in this celebration. Reflect with us, but also learn for yourself the implications of the NCA/BOR unification, how to certify online,  why NCA’s website keeps getting better, how NCA can help you find work, NCA’s history, and the benefit of NCA’s partnership with ADVANCE.

Click here to read NCA’s 2008 Special Report.

 

Sheila O’Neal

Executive Director

How Do We Retain Laboratory Talent?

We're happy to announce the first prong of the NCA and ADVANCE alliance, the debut of our column called "Ask NCA."

The column will discuss issues facing the laboratory profession, hoping to offer insight about where we have been and where we are headed as laboratory professionals. The column, produced in association with The National Credentialing Agency for Laboratory Personnel (NCA), will be written by a team of columnists, all certified by NCA and highly-qualified to cover a broad range of topics, including future issues,  leadership for the profession, workforce issues, professional practice and recertification.

The first column, authored by Susan J. Beck, PhD, CLS(I) (top) and Kathy Doig, PhD, CLSp(H) (bottom), discusses the challege of retaining laboratory talent ... clearly, a none-too-easy task in this employment climate.

They write, "At a time when people are constantly searching for better salaries, more convenient hours or better opportunities for career advancement, we wondered what keeps people in the clinical laboratory profession."

Be sure to check out the Jan. 14 issue of ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals (p. 10) for more, and be on the lookout for upcoming columns. In the Jan. 28 issue, Cindy Johnson, MS, CLS(NCA) and Jeremy Angell, CLPlb(NCA) will discuss how to stop the revolving door of laboratory support services employees.

Here's a preview:

Laboratory support services have been an employment revolving door in our laboratory that we recognized needed to be addressed. At CentraCare Laboratory Services (CCLS) in Saint Cloud, MN, recruitment and training were taking up a large portion of the laboratory management team’s time and energy.

A quarterly report from our human resources (HR) department indicated our turnover rates were running between 6-11 percent on a consistent basis for this category of laboratory personnel, with periods of even higher percentages.

It was common to have a new employee enter the team while losing another at the same time, which made training difficult and rushed while creating additional stresses on the support team.

To share ideas for a future column, e-mail nca-info@goamp.com. Also, please take a few minutes to make sure your subscription to ADVANCE is current. Visit www.advanceweb.com/mlp and look for the "Subscribe" box on the top right side of the page.

How Does Your Salary Stack Up?

Once again, ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals and ADVANCE for Administrators of the Laboratory are teaming up to conduct the ADVANCE 2007-2008 National Laboratory Salary Survey.

We’ve been told that medical laboratory administrators rely on our compensation analyses to set individual pay, adjust laboratory salary structures, and determine whether their labs are competitive, based on what employee incentives are offered at hospitals across the nation.

By participating in the survey, you’re helping to populate the data for an accurate picture of salary structures across the country. If you log onto our website at www.advanceweb.com/mlp between now and April 1, you can take part in the survey. As with our salary surveys of the past, we're looking to get a handle on how much money laboratory professionals are making these days; and how those salaries compare across lab sections, regions of the United States, levels of education and other factors. Such information can help you gauge whether you're getting paid what you're worth in today's market.

So what’s your incentive to enter? Everyone who participates in our survey can enter a random drawing for three $200 gift certificates to the ADVANCE Healthcare Shop.

--Matthew T. Patton, Editor, ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals

Legislative Issues and Your Certification

When you think about NCA Certification and legislative issues, what comes to mind?
Do you think first of state level legislation and regulations, such as the licensure requirements that differ from state to state?    Perhaps your interests are at a national level and you wonder if there are federal grants for research and development in your area of strength or specialization in clinical laboratory work. 

Are there legislative issues, right there in your city or county that have an impact on your NCA Certification?  Do you have a story you want to share with others in the NCA Certification community.

Post a comment on this blog in the space provided below.  Go ahead.  It's as simple as email.  Let us know which aspects of legislation have the most direct affect on your work and your NCA Certification.

Advancing Your Career Even When Your Employer Isn’t

I had two experiences within two days where others reinforced one of my views on the value of active participation in a professional association.

I am a professor in an academic clinical laboratory science program. We were discussing applicants to our graduate program. This is a very competitive process. We typically accept only 20% of the applicants because we don’t have the faculty capacity to mentor any more than that. Yet, I would say that virtually 90% of the applicants would be fine graduate students.

On this particular day, I was struck by the fact that we had at least 3 candidates to consider who were obviously very capable laboratory professionals. They had strong letters of recommendation from employers about their bench-level performance but that was really all there was to their application. Although they were working professionals for at least several years and in some cases held professional association memberships, they had not participated with those organizations beyond joining. I observed to our graduate director that I thought these candidates should be advised to join and actively participate in a professional organization in order to strengthen their applications. If their employers were not permitting them to demonstrate leadership in their jobs, then they could do that within the professional association. The graduate director said to me “That’s what I tell candidates all the time.”

The next day I was presenting a leadership development seminar for the Michigan Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (MSCLS). In that presentation I mention how MSCLS gave me opportunities to develop leadership skills, like organizing people to accomplish a task or budget management, that were not part of my job at the time. Yet these are skills I now use daily in my job. So I see that as a real benefit of professional association participation. One of the participants, a laboratory manager who hires staff echoed my view. She said (I’m paraphrasing), “When I review applications, if the individual’s job experience doesn’t demonstrate leadership experience, I look for participation in a professional association.”

If you are looking to get active in a professional association, the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science is a great place to do that. ASCLS has state chapters in each state and in some cases, those state groups have local chapters. So it is easy to “break in” because it is local. Believe me, if you call the state president and say “I’d like to get active. What can it do?” You will get a job to do. And then the benefits accrue of developing a professional network, knowing more of what is happening in your profession, developing a real sense of influencing the direction of your profession…I could go on and on.

For genetics professionals, the Association of Genetics Technologists offers the same opportunity because though it is a national organization without state chapters, it is relatively small. You get to know people and be known easily at the national level. Once again, an e-mail or phone call to the president, Helen Bixenman, would be welcomed.

There certainly are other professional associations you can join. If they are large and without state chapters, it will be harder to get involved. So I do clearly have a bias here. But the fact is, regardless of the organization you choose, if you want your career to go places – you just gotta join a professional association AND PARTICIPATE!

A Pathologist Brought Me To Tears

Don't get the wrong idea from that title.  This was not an interaction in which I was frustrated or angry or demeaned and brought to tears as a result.  Rather, this was a moment of amazing inspiration.  I am talking about the closing keynote address at the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) conference in San Diego in July 2007presented by Dr. Michael Laposata .

Dr. Laposata is an engaging and entertaining speaker under normal circumstances.  Still, he is not like the usual keynote presenters who are meant to provide up-lifting, inspirational presentations.  I mean, he's a pathologist talking about laboratory practice.  Still, he managed to move me in ways that no other keynote speaker ever has. 

His topic that particular day was "Going Beyond the Performance of the Laboratory Test: What the Patients Need that Only You can Give Them."  Dr. Laposata was promoting the idea that laboratorians need to do more than perform highly accurate and precise tests and report them in a timely manner.  He was saying that we need to be helping care providers select the right test to begin with AND interpret the results of the tests within the context of that patient's condition. He was advocating for a broader role for non-physicians in patients' clinical care.

Now, this is something that ASCLS has been advocating and actively pursuing in recent years as an advanced practice, clinical doctorate in laboratory science.  Most recently it has been codified in a position paper on Advanced Practice with a task force working to develop doctoral-level educational programs.  I expressed my own opinions about this in an op/ed piece in Clinical Laboratory Science several years ago and then when I was fortunate enough to speak to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) meeting last year. 

So Laposata's idea isn't new. What made his presentation so very moving, though, was having a pathologist speaking to non-physician laboratorians and saying "you can do this." Dr. Laposata recognizes the expertise of non-physician laboratorians and respects it.  He is encouraging laboratorians to help improve patient care and safety by providing interpretations of test results.  He showed some evidence from his own forays into this (that he also presented at CLIAC) that show that physicians do appreciate the assistance and that such interpretations can change physician behavior and affect patient care.  Dr. Laposata did not say that a doctorate is necessary for this BUT he did acknowledge it as a route to facilitate physician acceptance.

ASCLS acknowledged the importance of the doctorate nearly two decades ago in several position documents (1 and 2).  At the time, we were not able to articulate what the content of the degree would be.  Now that is clear in the task force documents and the time may be right.  The prospects for an advanced practice option for clinical laboratory professionals are now palpable. Making this a reality is an exciting proposition that will require strong allies like Dr. Laposata.  It is so energizing to know they are there to support us in this.  What Dr. Laposata did was to make me believe even more fervently that we can make this happen. So stay tuned...the best is truly yet to come for non-physician laboratorians!

Filling the Pipeline

On this gorgeous sunny Saturday of Labor Day weekend, I was at the local Home Depot for the materials I will use as I labor this weekend. On my way into the store, I passed the makeshift, low plywood workbenches set up for the woodworking workshop for youngsters. They were spread with hammers and nails and bottles of wood glue. Today’s project was an oval plaque to which 3 dowels were affixed to make a nice little rack for hanging coats.

You have seen moments from these workshops on the Home Depot commercials where they make a trip to Home Depot like a trip to the local summer festival – a real fun family affair. I will admit my cynicism about them at first, thinking it was really just a ploy to get parents there to spend money.  What struck me today, however, was the good sense of this strategy for the future of their business. Home Depot is helping to generate the next generation of Do-It-Yourself-ers (DIY-ers). And maybe some construction professionals along the way too. What a smart business strategy. And really it is no different than General Motors Foundation sponsorship of MathCOUNTS – a nationwide competition in mathematics for middle school students. In this case it isn’t meant to develop the next generation of car drivers, but rather the next generation of scientists and engineers so critical to GM’s business.

So the Home Depot example got me thinking about what we are doing to fill the pipeline with prospective laboratory science professionals. As a college teacher, my experience is that most students find laboratory science AFTER arriving at college. That means, if a young person goes to a college that doesn’t have a laboratory science program, the chances that he or she will pursue a laboratory science career are slim. So we really need to be reaching out to young people before college. And my point is – we need to reach out!

Here’s an example. The State of Michigan has job development centers located around the state. Healthcare is a big push and recently my local job development center sponsored a health careers day for young people at Impressions 5 Science Center. I looked at the planned program and the laboratory was not represented. Nursing, pharmacy, PT, radiography…but no laboratory. Rather than let it go, I just e-mailed the coordinator and asked if laboratory could be incorporated. She said sure…just that simple. Then I handed the ball to Rhonda Hensley who is the current chair of our local chapter of Michigan’s branch of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science  and she made it happen – recruited local volunteers and set up a table to introduce the kids to microbiology and the clinical laboratory.

I know lots of us answer the request from schools to participate in career days. What’s different here is that we invited ourselves to this event. If we had waited for the invitation, it wouldn’t have come and we would have missed introducing the clinical lab to several hundred youngsters. I bet there are opportunities in your community to bring the clinical lab into the lives of young people. Think about how you might do that. National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week is a perfect time and if you start planning now, you can be ready for April. We could learn something more than hammering from Home Depot. I can see it now…low, makeshift lab benches outside the Toys-R-Us strewn with microscopes and petri plates. What a beautiful site!

Share your ideas about introducing young people to laboratory careers with a response to this post.

Your friends are waiting...

I just realized, a bit late, that this is my 35^th anniversary year. Not for my marriage; it’s only 25 years for that. Rather I have been a member of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) for 35 years. NOW there’s a number that could make you feel old! But you know, it doesn’t. It doesn’t because those 35 years represent so much satisfaction. And I just can’t imagine what my career would have been without my professional society at the heart. But I also realize that my personal life is richer as a result too. And if you are an active member of a professional organization, don’t you feel the same way?

I joined ASCLS, then the American Society for Medical Technology (ASMT) as a student member in 1972. The blood bank supervisor (yes, we called it a blood bank, not a transfusion service), where I was studying was president of the Michigan society that year and was named Member of the Year. I was in awe of her. And being ambitious, I set a goal to achieve as she had. Anyway, Joann Gahan introduced me to ASMT and I joined. As a member of a winning team in the state and regional Student Bowl competitions, I won a free trip to the ASMT national meeting in Boston. WOW – I was blown away! It was huge and exciting. A special part of the excitement was to watch as the ASMT House of Delegates voted to add a student representative to the Board of Directors at the national level, with the state societies to follow. Even though I was finishing my student year and would not be eligible for this, it was still exciting and I identified with those who had pushed to make it happen. It was ASMT’s reflection of the college student activism of the times.

My membership in ASCLS created opportunities for personal growth that weren’t part of my work job description at the time. So I got to develop skills within ASCLS that made me more marketable in the work world. For example, my employers never gave me a budget to manage, so I learned budget management as finance chair and conference chair for the Michigan Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (MSCLS). This was a really valuable skill when I finally got a job with a real budget to manage. And of course, it has been essential as a board member of an organization like NCA where profitability is critical. With Carolyn Shalhoub as a model in MSCLS, I learned how to organize people to accomplish a goal. I got to practice that skill big time as chair of the annual conference for MSCLS and we made a profit of more than $20,000 that provided the seed money to support the Society’s licensing efforts. That skill at organizing people that I learned in MSCLS is what I use every day in my current job.

So part of the satisfaction of ASCLS membership through the years has been the accomplishments for the Society but also for me personally. And the latter includes the people and friends I have come to know. I never expected my profession to enrich my life in that way. There are the professional acquaintances that I know by name and reputation and can call for help on a professional/work matter. But there are the real friends who know the joys and travails of my personal life, who share theirs with me, and who I can’t wait to see at the annual meeting each year. There are the memories of the fun events and silly times together, with anticipation of new ones each year.  They are from all across the country and I never would have known them – except for my professional society activities.

So, I think joining AND being active in a professional society is essential to a productive, professional career. But more than that, I think it just another way to connect with people in a meaningful way that enriches your life. It takes more than just paying dues to make that happen, but every volunteer activity holds the opportunity for meeting more people. Society membership is a great investment that pays off for the profession and for you. So if you haven’t gotten started on your 35 years of professional society activity, start now with ASCLS or the Association of Genetic Technologists – your friends are waiting, and you don’t even know who they are yet!

Bridge Disaster Puts Lab Pros on First Calls

Although we had 13 extra staff in the lab on the evening shift (which normally has 20), we did not have to call anyone to come in.  They called us and said they were coming.  We needed them, but by the time the 11 pm shift started, the three extra people who showed up for that shift were sent home shortly afterward, as the emergency surgery was over by that time and no more patients were arriving.

The worst of the injured went to Hennepin County Medical Center, which is a level 1 trauma center and also the hospital closest to the bridge.  University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview is only a little further from the bridge and is in the process of being certified as a level 2 trauma center.  We actually saw more patients that HCMC did (about 35) and did three orthopedic surgeries that evening.

We are in the process of interviewing each staff person who worked that evening and night to be sure we capture all the learnings.  I am convinced that the disaster preparedness drills that have been done over the past 2-4 years are a big reason why things went so smoothly.  Years ago, there would have been chaos in this type of situation.

We know there are still things that can be improved in our response plans, but I really am very proud of our hospital and the whole Twin Cities in terms of how well all the players functioned as a team.

Kathy Hansen
NCA Past President
Fairview Health Services
Minneapolis, MN

"Lab" Response to Minneapolis Bridge Disaster

Wednesday, August 1 at 6:05 p.m. life in Minneapolis-St. Paul changed dramatically.  At that point, the primary traffic artery in the Twin Cities (4 lanes in each direction) collapsed into the Mississippi River with an estimated 70 cars on it.  You have all seen the pictures and the video.  For those of us in Minnesota it is somewhat surreal and you believe you are looking at a scene from somewhere else, not the highway that you used to drive to and from work every day.  Even though the injuries (approximately 70) and the death toll (currently 5 with 8 missing)is relatively small for the magnitude of the disaster, everyone is feeling it and is somehow connected to it.  Just today I found out that the cousin of one of our employees was one of those killed and another employee, a blood donor collections specialist, is one of the rescue divers attempting to find and recover the last victims.  She actually wanted to work today until 3:00 and then was reporting for her dive rescue shift at 4:00 p.m.

What I observed, from the perspective of an American Red Cross Blood Center is both an organization that knew what its purpose was and how it needed to respond and a hospital community that put all those repeated Orange Alert practices into action.  Although we will all learn from a few things that could have done better, it is hard to imagine that it could have gone any smoother.  In the blood center, our inventory management department immediately contacted our Twin City Hospitals to access their need and also called the hospitals served by our competitors to let them know that we had blood products if they needed a back up.  Ultimately the utilization of blood products was very low.  We provided extra product just in case, but it was not really needed.  But it was good to know that if it had been needed, we were ready and ahead of the game.

Operationally, our biggest impact was the surge of people who wanted to donate blood, even though this specific disaster did not require it.  The wanted to do something and donating a unit of blood was a relatively easy thing to do.  The media had a message out there that blood donations were needed and it was hard for us to get them to change that message.  Therefore it was incumbent on us to provide that message as people showed up or as they called to make an appointment.  And did they ever show up and call.  On Thursday, we ultimately collected about 60% more than we had planned for and our divisional call center which normal has 200 incoming calls per day fielded more than 4000 in about 30 hours..  We had appropriately added staff and extended hours for all of the expected walk-in traffic.  We were prepared to process it and to deliver it when and where needed.  But we also took the opportunity to steer as many as possible into donations for future weeks and providing the message that the need is constant and consistent.  None of the product we collected will go to waste.  All will be utilized to help patients.

There were gratifying things to observe in that our employee base stepped up to the plate to do whatever it took to serve the customer.  The FDA was actually on site at the time and observed that even though there was a donor surge, the staff stayed on task and continued to provide deliberate, quality service.  In addition the donors were patient and even though they had to wait, they understood why and they wanted to help.  They either waited or agreed to sign up for a future donation.  We took the opportunity to send the message for repeated, ongoing blood donations.  We were prepared for the worst in this case because of the ongoing blood collections.  If the worst had happened, the blood products were available.

Now the community moves on and struggles with the “why”, the sense of loss and also how they will function during a 3-4 year span when their main traffic artery doesn’t exist.  The amount of concern from across the country has been amazing!

Rick Panning, MBA, CLS(NCA)
ASCLS President and Chief Executive Officer
+ American Red Cross-NCBS +
100 South Robert Street
St. Paul, MN  55107
Phone:  651-291-6764
Fax:  651-291-3884