Regarding recruitment and hiring - in my humble opinion - -

 Yes.

 (at least from my experiences) They offer far better pay.  Better hours.  Better schedules.  Better incentives.  Far better opportunities for advancement.  Better educational opportunities. 

Perhaps the laboratory environment should start to catch up and take notes from a profession that has individuals on waiting lists to get into their [nursing] schools.

There are new 20 and 21-year old grads that are making considerably more than some of our techs that have been at this for 30+ years.  Not to mention that more than likely within a year these new grads will be able to find a job (making more) that will enable them to get off of their night shift job and resume a normal M-F human schedule. 

Aside from offering better benefits, what else do you think the nursing profession offer that makes it attractive? Is it the direct patient care? The recognition, or tradition? Better advertising? What do you think?

I do agree with you but would like to offer an observation of my own, after 30+ years in the lab.  We laboratorians are a stoic lot.  We may have strong feelings of displeasure with our current position, but we just put up with it.....for YEARS!  I was recently told by a laboratorian in Atlanta, that nurses will move to another job for a pay increase of .25/hr.....yes, that is twenty-five cents.  This tale was related by an MT, who is currently working part-time, needs full-time hours and was fuming that the hospital will not give her a full-time job.  The hospital is sticking to its budget and she is just hanging out waiting for that to change.  This is in Atlanta, a market with lots of options for her.  I find her typical of the laboratorians I meet all over the country, in my consulting role.  We just complain but rarely take action to improve our position.  Management is counting on us to stick it out.  They know we will continue to do a good job, because we are dedicated.  Why should they change the pay scale?    

I see exactly what you are trying to say.  I have moved a few times from facility to facility for mainly pay and better schedule offerings. 

However, many people may be stuck in a rut where they are at, mainly because of benefits.  They may be the sole benefit bread winner for their family and cannot afford a lapse in benefits to take another job where health, dental, etc. may not kick in for 30-90+ days.  PLUS positions for nurses within a system or single hospital facilty far outnumber those that a mere laboratorian are apt to apply for ( or have a chance of getting). 

 Looking at a number of positions posted locally at a few facilities in our area, positions that I may have some interest in have qualifications that are not covered by a MT background, or many say Information Tech, RN, BSN, etc required.   Many of these are for educational, instructional, IT, etc. positions that offer far better opportunites than a laboratory position.  Unfortunately, many laboratorians are unable (for a variety of reasons) to be able to further education or skills to be able to have a shot at these positions. 

I keep hearing the looming shortage will drive up our wages... the looming shortage --  pish posh..   the only amount my wage goes up is the pittance yearly COLA.  LPNs make as much as we do.

They don't just have better recruitment strategies but THEY ARE UNITED, unlike us, VERY FRAGMENTED! Look how many organizations and certifying bodies we got?

From my prospective i think that the nursing profession does have better recruiting strategies than the lab. If your a graduate nurse your not put through all the red tape to get hired like some of us laboratorians are. Nurses don't have to deal with certification agency competition. There's so much discrimination and favortism going on in the hiring of laboratorians. With nursing one does not have to worry about getting a job. Nursing recruiters are doing more to dampen the shortage of nurses. Lab managers are too judgemental with regard to hiring and training certified entry level applicants. If the applicant is not certified by their preferred certification agency or has no clinical experience then the applicant is overlooked. This does not happen in nursing.

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Richard Covington

Efren Ventura:

They don't just have better recruitment strategies but THEY ARE UNITED, unlike us, VERY FRAGMENTED! Look how many organizations and certifying bodies we got?

 

I have to agree with Efren but I am glad the certifying bodies have merged.  Perhaps this will help but I still see there will be continual problems with our own image of ourselves if we keep putting up as being second rate to nurses.  We're just as important and maybe in our own nature we don't tend to toot our own horn.  I see them having their own cheerleading squad/office for recruitment, continuing education, and recognition in our hospital.  For lab week, we see only informational placards that get ketchup splashed on in the cafeteria tables.  I applaud everyone who takes part in educating people about our profession.  I finally got my own parents to understand that I DON'T NEED TO BECOME NURSE/PHARMACIST/DOCTOR to have an important role in healthcare.  I know even that is not enough but every little bit helps.  Every time I talk to a doctor/nurse on the phone, I answer their questions but also take it a step further to explain things that I know come up often.  I also ask them to pass on that knowledge.  Know how important you are and pass it on.

Lynda, I could not agree with you more, about the idea that we laboratorians are actually our own worst enemy sometimes. The major reason why nurses have the power that they do is because they have chosen to be VISIBLE...at the patient bedside, at committees within the hospitals, in the community. Our insistence on remaining INVISIBLE, by never interacting in person with anyone in our workplace other than our colleagues, never getting our names, experience, education known on hospital committees, never speaking to our legislators when they are discerning topics about healthcare reform or medicare spending, why are we surprised that the role of the clinical lab professional remains a "black box" to so many? It is not hard to ignore a black box, and not pay a black box what it's worth when the black box doesn't even make the effort to get itself known more. We insist on people being mindreaders, and we will forever, as a profession, be invisible if we do. I am working very hard this year, as the 2009-2010 President of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, to turn that around and break open that black box once and for all! Come join the effort!