Re: BOR exam

From:Marsha R Price

Tim, 
Yes sir, Tim. I feel as though I have been recruited for Uncle Sam. Good
speech. Have you ever considered going into Politics?

All kidding aside, I am talking to them at the local college about the
possibility of starting a histotech school in our area.

Marsha


On Fri, 31 Aug 2001 10:17:33 -0400 "Morken, Tim"  writes:
> Marsha wrote:
> 
> < please
> tell me what is the answer to this particular problem in histology? 
> >>
> 
> Those of us in the USA need to look outside the lab to see what is 
> really
> going on. In the US, at least, there is a shortage of workers in all 
> fields,
> from computer technology to manufacturing to fast food service. All 
> types of
> businesses are feeling a worker crunch. Even nursing and medical 
> schools are
> seeing a decline in applications. It has to do with a lower 
> population of
> young people. In the medical field it is only going to only get 
> worse
> because our older population is growing and more people are going to 
> be
> using medical services than ever before. On top of that the 
> percetage of lab
> techs reaching retirement age is accelerating. so it's not just the
> histotechnology field that is feeling the pain.
> 
> There are limited technical ways to deal with this. We can automate
> everything possible or we can limit testing to the essentials (yeah 
> -
> right!). 
> 
> In the long term, however, the only way to deal with it is to market 
> the
> field to bring in more people. I think the lab profession, and 
> especially
> histology, has failed miserably in this area. How many on the 
> Histonet have
> ever done anything to help recruit new people. I am not completely 
> blameless
> in that regard.
> 
> I think, however, that pathologists and laboratory directors have to 
> take a
> large share of the blame for our situation. In the past it was usual 
> to
> simply pick a random person and get them to start working in the 
> histo lab.
> In the past a person could work in a histo lab for decades and never 
> do more
> than cut sections, do H&E's and a few simple special stains. Now 
> days, of
> course, we do much more complicated testing, but the general method 
> of
> recruiting seems to be the same: If someone hangs around a histolab 
> and
> shows a bit of interest, they may very well end up becoming a 
> histotech.
> 
> Pathologists and laboratory directors (people who have the official
> responsibility for the lab) have failed to let schools know that we 
> need
> people in this field. As a result, even though there is a huge 
> shortage, and
> the pay is pretty good, no one from high school through college even 
> knows
> the field exists. 
> 
> I would challenge all of you to do something to help recruit people. 
> Work
> with your local or state histo society to present information at 
> recruiting
> fairs. Make presentations at schools (science teachers are always 
> happy to
> have someone give practical examples of the applications of the 
> things the
> teach). Offer tours of your lab. NSH and ASCP have recruiting 
> materials
> available. If WE don't do this, who will?
> 
> Tim Morken
> Atlanta
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marsha R Price [mailto:mprice26@juno.com]
> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 6:33 AM
> To: Sayeed@www.urol.bcm.tmc.edu
> Cc: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject: Re: BOR exam
> 
> 
> Sayeed,
>  What you are saying is true, there are some techs who have not been
> successful at passing the written part of the BOR, that  have superb
> skills.
> 
> I think we are all in agreement on this :
> 1. The two year training program is a necessity, it is a great 
> program
> 2. We need to add college courses to the 2 year ojt program to 
> prepare
> these individuals for the written exam.
> 3. We need to form more histo schools to help with this extreme 
> shortage
> and offer incentives to encourage people to become a histotech, like 
> they
> do the nurses.
> 4. I think 4 hours in the histo lab and 4 hours in the class room 
> would
> be good (Plus the students could help with the busy morning workload
> while receiving their training)
> 
> I did not realize how serious the shortage was until I started
> interviewing for a job recently. I decided to resign my supervisory 
> job a
> little over a year ago to obtain more college education. I then 
> thought I
> might try to work a little prn or part-time or even relocate if the
> perfect job in the perfect place came up.
> 
> What I am witnessing out in the histo world is sad and I feel for 
> all you
> supervisors and Pathologists that are trying desperately to fill 
> these
> spots. I have had all kind of offers but none that I would uproot my
> family over or that would benefit me whatsoever.
> 
> Have we stopped to ask why are these vacancies still there? I 
> answered
> that in the above paragraph, there are not enough attractive offers 
> that
> will motivate someone to relocate or even work prn etc.
> 
> For example, this one place I applied at was offering to pay RN's to 
> go
> to school to become an RN if they would agree to sign on with them 
> for 1
> year after the completion of the RN program. This particular 
> hospital was
> also desperately short on histotechs (I couldn't help but notice how
> desperate they were because they practically grabbed hold of me and 
> asked
> if I could start right away like this moment, I was trying to 
> politely
> pry there arms off of me without making them breakdown in tears) and 
> had
> one of the few histology schools available in our country but were 
> not
> offering to pay histotechs to go to school nor were they offering
> relocation fee, sign on bonus etc. The supervisor was nearly in 
> tears and
> said that she not only was finding it difficult to find histotechs 
> but
> IMPOSSIBLE.
> 
> I am seeing this particular scenario in the story I described above 
> in
> practically all states that I have interviewed in.
>  
> So, please tell me what is the answer to this particular problem in
> histology? I know that I am apparently not the only one declining 
> their
> offers, or they would not have the need to interview me. 
> 
> I would love to hear some feed back on this.
> 
> Marsha Price
> 
> 
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