Speak Out Now!
When I get some downtime during the day, I like to peruse the health sections of news Web sites to look for story and blog ideas. I was looking on Florida's
Sun Sentinel Web site when I found a slideshow called
"How much Florida health-care workers are paid." Hmm, I thought.
I wonder if medical laboratory professionals are on here.
But even though there were 21 slides displaying 21 different medical professions, no, laboratory professionals were not featured at all in this slideshow.
The Web site got its information from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. I decided to dig a little deeper and see if I could find information about lab professionals' wages on the Web site.
I searched for "medical laboratory professional" and found almost 25 different entries for medical and clinical laboratory technologists/technicians.
If there was all this information to choose from, how did medical laboratory professional not make it to the Sun Sentinel's list?
I think this boils down to the average person not knowing what laboratory professionals do. But how are they supposed to when the media writes these features but then ignores the laboratory profession? It's easy to make an assumption, then, that the media doesn't know what laboratorians do either.
ASCLS Past President Mary Ann McLane, PhD, MLS, has a mantra about the laboratory profession: "provide the face." She wants laboratorians to be seen and heard; she wants people to know what laboratory professional do and how they save lives.
And when the face is missing, laboratory professionals need to help provide it. If you see an article in a local or national newspaper, magazine or Web site where laboratory professionals should be mentioned and they aren't, why not send a Letter to the Editor and make sure your voice is heard?
Maybe you'll convince the editor to print your letter or even do a feature article on laboratory professionals, shining a light on your profession and hopefully getting potential new recruits.
In the case of the Sun Sentinel slideshow, I urge Florida residents (or even non-Florida residents) to send the newspaper a quick e-mail asking why laboratory professionals were left out of this slideshow and explaining the importance of your profession. I've even done part of the dirty work for you. Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor to the Sun Sentinel.