Texas laboratory healthcare workforce: Meeting the needs in 2015

The purpose of this research was to study groups of students and young professionals in the clinical laboratory science field using exploratory discovery and inductive logic regarding the attitudes of four groups in Texas: (1) 3rd and 4th year college biology students, (2) students currently enrolled in Clinical Laboratory Science/Clinical Laboratory Technician (CLS/CLT) programs, (3) young CLS/CLT professionals (1-2 years post education), and (4) mid-career CLS/CLTs (4-10 years post education). It was also a comparative study looking at these four groups and their attitudes and perception regarding: career selection factors and legislative incentive measures which might attract individuals to an allied health care career, the field of practice and factors needed to keep individuals in the chosen field of practice. ^ The study found that the career is attractive to individuals who enjoy laboratory work and find the various areas in which to choose to work very attractive. Government programs offering grants/scholarships or loan forgiveness programs offered by health care institutions would be beneficial in attracting students to study in the clinical laboratory sciences. Students are unsure if there is a viable career ladder associated with the field and are anticipating the possibility of going on to other fields in the future. ^ While young and mid-career professionals share many of the same points of view on some aspects (skills used, trends) of the CLS/CLT profession there were a few areas were opinions diverged; perceptions of the field itself and if they plan to remain in the profession for the next 5 years. The mid-career professionals had a much more negative outlook on the profession (low salary, no visible career ladder, lack of respect from other health care professionals) and only a small number plan to be in the field within the next 5 years. ^ The lower salaries in the profession as compared to other similar health care careers, lack of a career ladder and lack of respect from laboratory and institutional management and other health care providers are critical missing pieces to the retention of CLS/CLT professionals. ^

Policy implications of public health workforce development for disaster preparedness in the United States

Public health efforts were initiated in the United States with legislative actions for enhancing food safety and ensuring pure drinking water. Some additional policy initiatives during the early 20th century helped organize and coordinate relief efforts for victims of natural disasters. By 1950's the federal government expanded its role for providing better health and safety to the communities, and its disaster relief activities became more structured. A rise in terrorism related incidents during the late 1990's prompted new proactive policy directions. The traditional policy and program efforts for rescue, recovery, and relief measures changed focus to include disaster preparedness and countermeasures against terrorism.^ The study took a holistic approach by analyzing all major disaster related policies and programs, in regard to their structure, process, and outcome. Study determined that United States has a strong disaster preparedness agenda and appropriate programs are in place with adequate policy support, and the country is prepared to meet all possible security challenges that may arise in the future. The man-made disaster of September 11th gave a major thrust to improve security and enhance preparedness of the country. These new efforts required large additional funding from the federal government. Most existing preparedness programs at the local and national levels are run with federal funds which is insufficient in some cases. This discrepancy arises from the fact that federal funding for disaster preparedness programs at present are not allocated by the level of risks to individual states or according to the risks that can be assigned to critical infrastructures across the country. However, the increased role of the federal government in public health affairs of the states is unusual, and opposed to the spirit of our constitution where sovereignty is equally divided between the federal government and the states. There is also shortage of manpower in public health to engage in disaster preparedness activities, despite some remarkable progress following the September 11th disaster.^ Study found that there was a significant improvement in knowledge and limited number of studies showed improvement of skills, increase in confidence and improvement in message-mapping. Among healthcare and allied healthcare professionals, short-term training on disaster preparedness increased knowledge and improved personal protective equipment use with some limited improvement in confidence and skills. However, due to the heterogeneity of these studies, the results and interpretation of this systematic review may be interpreted with caution.^