Path residents doubling as med techs

[Med Director New England]

This from the CAP caught my eye…
Slippery slope in my opinion. But it may be better than CP programs that just have residents read or cover AP in some way

Clinical pathology selected abstracts - CAP TODAY

September 2022—Clinical laboratory workforce shortages are an issue, in large part because it is difficult to find qualified testing personnel. Pathology residents present a solution to this problem because MD and DO residents who have current training certificates or medical licenses and who...

www.captodayonline.com

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[wholeheartedly]

This from the CAP caught my eye…
Slippery slope in my opinion. But it may be better than CP programs that just have residents read or cover AP in some way

Clinical pathology selected abstracts - CAP TODAY

September 2022—Clinical laboratory workforce shortages are an issue, in large part because it is difficult to find qualified testing personnel. Pathology residents present a solution to this problem because MD and DO residents who have current training certificates or medical licenses and who...

www.captodayonline.com

I mean maybe they could try paying bachelors level MLS folks higher pay than LPNs, offer student loan incentives like other allied health professionals get, require state licensure in all states, stop with the lean engineers creating unreasonable skeleton staffing, and stop closing schools.

The push to count nurses education as equivalent to an MLS and allow them the ability to do high complexity testing is also a hugely disheartening and degrading blow to the profession. Most nurses have a fraction of the science coursework and it’s generally survey level. I’ve run the POC testing station for a nursing skills fair and OMG, more than half got at least one wrong in a way that would give erroneous results. Studies show they struggle to properly perform these tests. The number of ways nurses consistently demonstrate they are clueless about the lab is just mind boggling. Leave nurses to patient care.

I’d be fine with increasing pathways to the profession, but not just oh you have no background or training, here ya go.

I’d much rather have path residents pitch in, but it shouldn’t have come to this. It’s not like we haven’t known this was an issue for a long long time.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

It's easier to just bring some folks over from the Philippines. 90 percent of our techs come from there. None of them ever get arrested for running shine like some of our American employees.

 

[DoctorInQuotations]

I think this is fine. It's a great way to get comfortable verifying results. Now that I'm in practice, I wish I had some kind of experience like this in residency (thank god I got it in fellowship).

As long as it's not like genlab ****; I heard some programs had residents running COVID PCR tests during the first wave of the pandemic due to lab tech shortages.

 

[Med Director New England]

Could be a good experience - I agree if the residents are focusing on the science of the test, QA principles etc.

I imagine it won’t be long until they are just doing simple manual steps on the bench or data entry from a req in the CP labs, etc.

/r salaries med techs salaries are tied to lab reimbursement for testing performed and labs fighting for their share of DRG bundled payments. Not much most labs can do about this except outsourcing.

Would be nice if any health care employee no matter of profit status of employer would qualify for federal loan forgiveness. All of these folks serve cms patients….

 

[wholeheartedly]

Could be a good experience - I agree if the residents are focusing on the science of the test, QA principles etc.

I imagine it won’t be long until they are just doing simple manual steps on the bench or data entry from a req in the CP labs, etc.

/r salaries med techs salaries are tied to lab reimbursement for testing performed and labs fighting for their share of DRG bundled payments. Not much most labs can do about this except outsourcing.

Would be nice if any health care employee no matter of profit status of employer would qualify for federal loan forgiveness. All of these folks serve cms patients….

are nursing salaries tied to reimbursement like this, or rad techs, etc? i mean ultimately everything in a healthcare facility is tied to reimbursement, but see what happens if you try to say nurses can’t get appropriate pay cuz reimbursement.

its not just PLSF that’s the issue. there are other loan programs that cover hcw that exclude MLS. not unique to this stafe

Funding Details: North Dakota Federal Loan Repayment Program - Rural Health Information Hub

Loan repayment assistance for certain health professionals who agree to practice in a Health Professional Shortage Area of North Dakota.

www.ruralhealthinfo.org

None of these cover Med Lab professionals

Loan Repayment

www.health.nd.gov

 

[Med Director New England]

RNs have a lot more niches within healthcare in which they can work compared to med / lab techs who are a little more pigeon holed.

The exclusion of the lab industry from those ND loan programs is too bad, I agree this should not be the case. I guess more advocates / advocating needed. But Jesus f’ing chri…we are just coming out of Covid which put the importance of our field in the spot light (CP at least). If we cant get any love now will we ever….

 

[Ascintha]

I mean maybe they could try paying bachelors level MLS folks higher pay than LPNs, offer student loan incentives like other allied health professionals get, require state licensure in all states, stop with the lean engineers creating unreasonable skeleton staffing, and stop closing schools.

The push to count nurses education as equivalent to an MLS and allow them the ability to do high complexity testing is also a hugely disheartening and degrading blow to the profession. Most nurses have a fraction of the science coursework and it’s generally survey level. I’ve run the POC testing station for a nursing skills fair and OMG, more than half got at least one wrong in a way that would give erroneous results. Studies show they struggle to properly perform these tests. The number of ways nurses consistently demonstrate they are clueless about the lab is just mind boggling. Leave nurses to patient care.

I’d be fine with increasing pathways to the profession, but not just oh you have no background or training, here ya go.

I’d much rather have path residents pitch in, but it shouldn’t have come to this. It’s not like we haven’t known this was an issue for a long long time.

MLS here. Which state is this? Typically, states without state licensing are on the shorter end of the stick. MLS is a very lucrative job depending where you work. As for LPNs, I make 2-3x what they do though, but yeah, I feel bad for the nurses. Despite already being short-staffed, CLIA is still pushing to dump our share of the work on them.

 

[wholeheartedly]

MLS here. Which state is this? Typically, states without state licensing are on the shorter end of the stick. MLS is a very lucrative job depending where you work. As for LPNs, I make 2-3x what they do though, but yeah, I feel bad for the nurses. Despite already being short-staffed, CLIA is still pushing to dump our share of the work on them.

Several midwest locations, with and without licensure. In some cases not more for LPN but close to even, which is still a slap in the face.