Advances and Innovations

Extract

Representatives from twelve professional clinical laboratory organizations and two government agencies participated in a June 2000 summit to address the shortage of clinical laboratory personnel. The summit was sponsored by the Education Scientific Assembly of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS). The shortage was noted by Bureau of Labor Statistics, which projected that for the period from 1998 to 2008 there will be 53,000 new jobs in the field of clinical laboratory science and 40,000 vacancies due to retirement an average of 9,000 per year. The National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS) estimated 4990 graduates from all CLS schools in 1999. There have been additional summit meetings hosted by ASCLS for the development of strategic plans to address the shortage and tactics for data collection, recruitment, marketing, and financial assistance.

The documented shortage presents opportunities for innovation: changes in educational modes of delivery, methods of recruitment, and more. Colleagues at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bruce, Behm, and Hammami, developed an interdisciplinary health professions course for high school juniors and seniors and college freshmen via the Internet. Kanuth and St. John from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston describe an intensive on-campus student laboratory as a component of web-based curriculum. They explain their method for clinical laboratory technicians in rural Texas to obtain additional education to become clinical laboratory scientists.

Finally, while online education grows in volume and sophistication, various methodologies emerge to improve instruction. One such improvement…