Retaining and Recruiting Technologists?

[Napoleon1801]

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Has anyone had problems with retaining or recruiting lab techs and managers? We've been ramping up recruiting efforts, but have not been having much luck.

 

[Alteran]

Absolutely. The good ones have plenty of options and don't stay around for long. Oddly enough, the bad ones don't have that much harder a time finding a position after they leave either. The hardest for us to find and keep are histotechs. I get the impression they can make a phone call and be at a new job within a week, max.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

When you work in a rural lab it isn't much of an issue. Ain't no place else for em to go unless they want to drive.

 

[octopusprime]

yeah the good ones tend to turnover regularly; they either move to greener pastures or go on to some sort of professional school.

 

[Torsed]

Has anyone had problems with retaining or recruiting lab techs and managers? We've been ramping up recruiting efforts, but have not been having much luck.

Good f ing luck. Admin has took a total dump on ours. Pretty much F em and feed em fish heads. Can't even recruit phelbs. Pass the word. Don't let your admin F it up.... can quote me.

 

[yaah]

It's so hard to predict which ones will stay. Having options to move up, and having more graduated responsibility can help. But a lot of lab jobs don't have tons of advancement opportunities like in other fields like nursing. If you don't want to be a manager, even more limited. The ones that stick often have ties to the area or are in a relationship with someone in the area or the field. All you can do as a pathologist is fight for them with admin - advocate for better pay, hiring more respected managers, etc. The worst thing for lab employees is working under someone who doesn't respect them or treat them fairly. Pathologists as lab directors can set that tone by being available and being involved - lots of pathologists live in their closed-off offices and treat every inquiry like an intrusion.

But phlebotomists do get crapped on. They are the entry point to the lab for almost every patient - and the face of the lab. They are among the lowest paid employees in the hospital and everything they do is watched and reported on. They deserve better!

 

[Napoleon1801]

It's so hard to predict which ones will stay. Having options to move up, and having more graduated responsibility can help. But a lot of lab jobs don't have tons of advancement opportunities like in other fields like nursing. If you don't want to be a manager, even more limited. The ones that stick often have ties to the area or are in a relationship with someone in the area or the field. All you can do as a pathologist is fight for them with admin - advocate for better pay, hiring more respected managers, etc. The worst thing for lab employees is working under someone who doesn't respect them or treat them fairly. Pathologists as lab directors can set that tone by being available and being involved - lots of pathologists live in their closed-off offices and treat every inquiry like an intrusion.

But phlebotomists do get crapped on. They are the entry point to the lab for almost every patient - and the face of the lab. They are among the lowest paid employees in the hospital and everything they do is watched and reported on. They deserve better!

Agree wholeheartedly about the value of the phlebotomists. We're at 70% turnover for them right now...

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

If you are providing phlebs for physician offices make sure you pick the right ones. You can lose those accounts if you choose someone unreliable.

 

[yaah]

If you are providing phlebs for physician offices make sure you pick the right ones. You can lose those accounts if you choose someone unreliable.

Yes - and the caveat to this is you can also lose a good phlebotomist if you put them in a bad office environment - some offices can be abusive and this can't be tolerated.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

They hold the cards so you really don't have much say in how they treat your employee because they will pull their business. I've seen many OBGYN offices treat our staff like crap over the years.

 

[yaah]

They hold the cards so you really don't have much say in how they treat your employee because they will pull their business. I've seen many OBGYN offices treat our staff like crap over the years.

Some business is worth risking the loss. When the phlebotomists are hospital employees, the hospital can help. It has worked for us.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

I have never seen the hospital side with the lab when these isssues arise. Despite the offices being affiliated with the health system, I have seen the hospital allow them to use different reference labs. Once we stationed a phleb at an office only to have them refuse to send AP specimens. So we were only getting the CP work despite "giving" them a phleb.

 

[dingdong28]

Where are you all located because I want to work for you guys.

The lab has such a small glass ceiling. The farther you advance, the farther you get away from the bench and take on more admin duties. Ive been a tech for almost 6 years and am still looking for something else to do. We had a night shift position advertised for 3 months and only had 2 people apply for it. The hospital I transferred from over a year ago finally filled my spot. I don’t live out in a rural area so it shouldn’t be that hard to recruit new techs, especially since we have several MLT and MLS schools in the area. I want to do something else, but with the current shortage and a livable wage, I can put a point on almost any part of the map and get a job.

 

[deleted314957]

I have never seen the hospital side with the lab when these isssues arise. Despite the offices being affiliated with the health system, I have seen the hospital allow them to use different reference labs. Once we stationed a phleb at an office only to have them refuse to send AP specimens. So we were only getting the CP work despite "giving" them a phleb.

Why on earth would you allow that to continue? Don’t you have any control over the phlebs?

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Why on earth would you allow that to continue? Don’t you have any control over the phlebs?

Believe me I wanted to pull the phleb but they were content getting the CP work. Some of the "higher ups" thought that they would see our great service and magically decide to start sending us the AP work. Of course it has never happened. They were seduced by some obscure niche lab and believe that local pathologists are garbage.

 

[tradersluck]

My fiancee is an MLS. She felt like she was trained to do a job that was far more intellectually involved than loading analyzers. She didn't dislike the work, and she definitely didn't dislike the pay, but she was bored out of her mind. She hopped from core lab -> blood bank -> research + grad school and finally feels like she's doing something worthwhile.

You know what really pissed her off, though? No hospital would take her as an infection preventionist, but they'd bend over backwards to take a nurse. Is an MLS really going to know less about the nature of infectious diseases than a nurse? I don't think so. Not when an micro-specialist MLS is finger deep in infectious diseases all day. ... Now I made myself mad...

 

[LADoc00]

This is literally the age old dilemma as most CLS now are older than the cast of the original Star Wars movie.....

It either all will collapse or end up in full automation.

Then pathologists will be forced to bow before their robot overlords.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Agree with @yaah I left my previous big tertiary institution after 9 years of progressively increasing responsibility due to idiotic and unreasonable admins. I was getting great reviews from and got along well with the directors. I busted my tail on this project the directors and everyone else said should take 3-4 months but some admin decided should take 3 weeks. It wasn't happening, but instead of the lab manager tellung her superiors it wasn't feasible she lied and threw me under the bus. So I walked. I literally picked up the phone and had another job under a guy who trained me. The lab director apologized and said she had my back, but the power structure there seemed to have the directors pretty well neutered.

In the two rural places I've worked back home, turnover was often due to a fear to get rid of dangerously incompetent techs, so competent ones got fed up and left.

Lastly, at my current shop (i'm not a tech here), they'd staffed 5 Filipino techs. They were pretty good and had been here forever. The asked for a small pay bump (we weren't even paying regionally competitive wages) and asked to hire a night shift person so the weren't on call for a week straight on top of regular shifts. Admins said no. 4 of the 5 left within a 3 month period. Now they're paying a boat load of travelers a ton of money to cover the shifts, and paying for a night shift, and it's been non-stop issues in the lab. Very very short sighted, but these are the same admins that were paying our RNs $5/hr less than the two similar sized critical access hospitals an hour north and south of us.

 

[wholeheartedly]

My fiancee is an MLS. She felt like she was trained to do a job that was far more intellectually involved than loading analyzers. She didn't dislike the work, and she definitely didn't dislike the pay, but she was bored out of her mind. She hopped from core lab -> blood bank -> research + grad school and finally feels like she's doing something worthwhile.

You know what really pissed her off, though? No hospital would take her as an infection preventionist, but they'd bend over backwards to take a nurse. Is an MLS really going to know less about the nature of infectious diseases than a nurse? I don't think so. Not when an micro-specialist MLS is finger deep in infectious diseases all day. ... Now I made myself mad...

I'm sorry your fiancé had this experience. I'm actually doing infection prevention now. There are some places that accept both, but the field still heavily favors nurses. APIC certifies both, plus other fields so that's dumb. I've found it interesting that I'm seeing jobs posted for like a year because they're limiting themselves to just nurses. Dumb, because I have experience, I'm almost certified, and have an MPH in Epidemiology now, and am open to other positions. I know I'm not the only one. Sometimes it's the recruiters screwing up the job listing. I've seen RN Infection Preventionist in the heading but they take other backgrounds according to the text. My boss said she wasn't sure about a lab background but she's been incredibly impressed by my knowledge base. I think the big places with multiple Infection Preventionists do best when they pull people from different backgrounds to complement each other.