By Chris Wolski

Summary: CLP Chief Editor Chris Wolski reflects on best long-term solution to the laboratorian shortage, getting and keeping kids engaged in science.

Takeaways:

  1. The shortage of laboratorians is due to factors such as lack of training programs, poor pay, and insufficient recognition.
  2. Short-term solutions include enhancing training programs, recruiting from overseas, and better career incentives.
  3. Long-term solutions focus on inspiring children to pursue science careers through engaging educational activities and providing clear career paths.

A few months ago, I was invited to present a webinar about the causes and solutions to the laboratorian shortage. 

I hit all the typical culprits for the shortage’s cause: lack of training programs and ways to encourage young people to enter the field, poor pay, lack of opportunities, lack of recognition. Nothing new there.

Short-term Solutions to the Laboratorian Shortage

And then I talked about the short-term solutions: improving training programs and feeder paths to clinical laboratory careers, AI as a stop-gap, recruiting from overseas, better pay, career paths, more recognition within the health care enterprise itself. Again, about what you’d expect.

It was the long-term that I let my imagination soar. I proposed encouraging kids to pretend to be clinical scientists with toys and school activities that see them in white lab coats, sitting at a bench, peering through a microscope. In other words, make being a laboratorian real and exciting. That’s what we do with policemen, firemen, doctors, astronauts, and teachers, right? I’d stake money on the fact that most everyone reading this had fantasized about being one of those when they were a kid. (For me, it was astronaut.)

Presenting a Simple Formula

I might be wrong—but I don’t think so—that there is a simple formula for solving the laboratorian shortage. Get kids interested in science early and keep them interested. And along with that, make them aware of everyavenue they could follow with a science career, giving options beyond the obvious. 

The benefits to the kids and society would be immeasurable. I think we’d have a generation of curious, intelligent, engaged, civic-minded young people who would want to make a contribution to society as a whole while having careers that they could find satisfying and enjoyable.

Magical Thinking End to the Laboratorian Shortage?

Now, you could argue that I’m leaning a bit into wishful or magical thinking. Maybe. But having grown up at the tail end of the space race, I witnessed how a handful of scientists, technicians, and explorers came together to take the first baby steps to space and beyond. It was thrilling for a young kid to watch—hence my nascent astronaut career path.

Nurturing a life-long love of science is just the first of the long-term steps. It has to be paired with opportunities to do real science, be mentored by professionals and teachers, and have clear educational and career paths to follow. The worst thing we could do as a society is to offer no support to a young scientist. That’s the recipe to perpetuate the laboratorian shortage.

And, again, before you call me an out-of-touch idealist, shortly after the webinar, I was contacted by BioBuilder—a really intriguing organization that is doing exactly what I’ve suggested above—giving kids real opportunities to do science, and providing the tools to teachers and professionals to keep these young scientists engaged and interested in the natural world. Check out my discussion with BioBuilder’s founder, Natalie Kuldell.

But here’s the hard part. The laboratorian shortage won’t be solved overnight—it’ll take time, commitment, and vigilance on all our parts. But it’s worth it.

Chris Wolski is the chief editor of CLP.