The Clinical Laboratory Workforce: Understanding the Challenges to Meeting Current and Future Needs


  • Abstract

    Laboratory medicine is a critical component of the complex U.S. healthcare system, providing patients and medical providers with information essential for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of health and disease. The clinical laboratory workforce (also referred to as the medical laboratory workforce) supports a laboratory system that provides a variety of objective information used in clinical decision making. The laboratory workforce is diverse in terms of their roles, the types of tasks they perform, the types of qualifications needed, and the level of educational experience required to enter the field. However, many of them share common challenges facing the current and future state of the field, such as a declining number of accredited education programs and resulting decline in the number of students entering these programs, shortages of qualified personnel, increased demands on the workforce, and unmet employer demand. More information about factors contributing to these challenges is needed.


  • Authors:

    Garcia E, Kundu I, Kelly M, Guenther G, Skillman SM, Frogner B

  • Journal/Publisher:

    American Society for Clinical Pathology (Washington, DC) and Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

  • Edition:

    Apr 2021.

  • Documents:

    Full Report

  • Citation:

    Garcia E, Kundu I, Kelly M, Guenther G, Skillman SM, Frogner B. The Clinical Laboratory Workforce: Understanding the Challenges to Meeting Current and Future Needs. American Society for Clinical Pathology (Washington, DC) and Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington (Seattle, WA), Apr 2021.

  • Related Studies:

    Identifying the Barriers and Facilitators to Strengthen the Clinical Lab Professional Workforce