{"id":1468,"date":"2011-04-26T05:57:32","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T11:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2016-03-09T08:45:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T14:45:48","slug":"happy-national-medical-laboratory-professionals-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/2011\/04\/26\/happy-national-medical-laboratory-professionals-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\"><p><strong>The clinical laboratory professional is a key member of today&#8217;s health care team.<\/strong> Laboratory professionals have the skills to unlock important medical information that is pivotal to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ascls.org\">www.ascls.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>April 24-30, 2011, is National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (NMLPW)<\/strong>, which recognizes the work of the medical laboratory scientists who perform the tests that influence more than 70 percent of the medical decisions doctors make. A recent survey shows that most Americans know that laboratory tests are important and nearly two-thirds expect their lab results within a day or less for some tests. A growing demand for medical tests and a shortage of medical laboratory professionals, however, may make it difficult to meet demand in the future.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Consumers Know about Lab Tests<br \/>\n<\/strong>Based on a survey sponsored by ASCP in March 2011:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>74 percent of adults say that at least half of doctors&#8217; decisions are based on lab test results;<\/li>\n<li>84 percent recognize that tests are conducted by laboratory scientists;<\/li>\n<li>57 percent expect to get routine test results within a week or more and 41 percent expect them in a day or less; and<\/li>\n<li>63 percent expect the results of biopsies that test for serious disease within a day or less and 37 percent expect to wait a week or more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Shortage of Medical Laboratory Professionals<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The demand for laboratory professionals throughout the country far exceeds the supply. Half of all laboratories nationwide struggle to hire laboratory personnel.<\/li>\n<li>According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 138,000 new laboratory professionals will be needed by 2012, but fewer than 50,000 will be trained.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>About Medical Laboratory Professionals<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Medical laboratory professionals are <strong>key members of the health care team<\/strong> who work behind the scenes to perform the medical tests doctors order for their patients. Laboratory professionals include the staffs of hospitals, free-standing laboratories and other healthcare providers who analyze fluids and tissue to diagnose disease; manage treatment and determine a person&#8217;s risk for developing a medical condition; and draw blood.<\/p>\n<p>Laboratory professionals perform a variety of functions in providing test results. These professionals include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Medical laboratory scientists, who analyze fluids such as blood and urine;<\/li>\n<li>Pathologists, doctors who specialize in laboratory medicine;<\/li>\n<li>Phlebotomists, who draw blood;<\/li>\n<li>Cytotechnologists, who examine human cell samples, such as those in Pap smears that test for cervical cancer; and<\/li>\n<li>Histotechnicians, who prepare sections of tissue for examination<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Taken from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ascp.org\">www.ascp.org<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"display: none;\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/voicedwhispering.php\" title=\"gvSfTjQ  TlhchlwxZSi c\">gvSfTjQ  TlhchlwxZSi c<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The clinical laboratory professional is a key member of today&#8217;s health care team. Laboratory professionals have the skills to unlock important medical information that is pivotal to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. (www.ascls.org) April 24-30, 2011, is National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (NMLPW), which recognizes the work of the medical laboratory scientists who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clinical-laboratory-science","category-clinical-perfusion","category-cytotechnology","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4476,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions\/4476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}