How do we make a laboratory safe, accessible, and fun to young students who want to learn about the medical laboratory science profession?
MLS Education Coordinator Lauren Schiefelbein has some “out of the box” methods, including designing props, games, and various laboratory analogies that can be physically taken into high school and college classrooms.
“Laboratory recruitment suffers by being almost entirely biohazardous in nature – most high schools don’t want you to bring live, infectious bacteria inside,” says Lauren.
In August, she was one of three presenters featured in the online event ASCP: Path to Chicago session titled, “Non-Traditional Recruitment Methods for the Next Generation of Laboratory Professionals.”
Last Saturday, the MLS program held Shadow Saturday on the UNMC Omaha campus. It’s an in-person event where participants experience an in-depth, hands-on look at the MLS profession and explore how diagnostic testing influences health care.
With the help of some current MLS students and faculty, Lauren walked some high school and college students through a case study that touched on different areas of the lab, such as hematology, clinical chemistry, microbiology, and urinalysis.
Participants were engaged in solving a mysterious illness. Spoiler Alert: Not everything is as it seems, but…
“I don’t think I’ll give out my secrets,” says Lauren, “since I use this case pretty regularly, but it’s not at all what it seems and asking questions and getting data is of the utmost importance… and having a profession who finds that data!”
Photos from the event below are on Flickr.
