Staffing shortages and “Great Resignation” causing clinical labs to suffer

February 24, 2022 – The “Great Resignation” has hit healthcare hard in the past couple of years, a labor phenomenon caused by the pandemic that has resulted in a large amount of healthcare workers to quit their jobs over anxiety from pandemic and extreme burnout. 

Tara Luellen, Vice President of Laboratory Director Services at Lighthouse Lab Services told Dark Daily that other causes like early retirements, graduating individuals experiencing more specialized training programs, and a shift in the way the current working generation views employment,” has contributed to clinical lab shortages.  

“The lab industry has been hurt at the greatest extreme from this Great Resignation just in terms of the dire need for lab roles and the small pool of correctly qualified individuals in many instances,” she said. 

Fewer new lab technologists and pathologists are entering the field as many lab professionals are exiting, further exacerbating the labor shortage issue. The new lab technologists that are coming into the field are more specialized than before, creating an experience gap for core labs that isn’t being filled. 

“We don’t have as many individuals who are more broadly trained; instead, they’re very specialized,” Luellen said. “So, it takes them years working at labs that do a variety of things to gain real-life, hands-on experience with other kinds of testing than that included in their specialty program, in many cases.” 

She encouraged lab recruiters to “carefully articulate to job candidates how an open lab director position or similar role may contribute to either the local or medical community.” Younger lab professionals are looking for more than a place to clock in every day; often, an engaging lab culture and community will be an incentive for new recruits.  

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