Addressing the Clinical Workforce Shortage by Retaining the Tenured Laboratory Professionals

Introduction: An acute shortage of pathology and clinical laboratory workforce, worsened by the pandemic, has created ethical concerns, notably unequal access to pathology services. To date, efforts to alleviate these shortages have primarily focused on outreach and increasing the profession’s visibility. However, a crucial aspect that has received insufficient attention is the retention of the more tenured workforce, a strategy that could directly impact the availability and equitable distribution of services. Objective: To assess the workplace presence and loyalty of a tenured workforce to the company compared to that of early-career workforce in lab medicine. Design: We analyzed a cross-sectional web-based survey to compare the tenure time at the current workplace (loyalty) and unexpected sick days taken (workplace presence) between the tenured workforce (ages 51-65) and the early-to mid-career workforce (ages 21-50). Additional characteristics such as job fulfillment and physical and emotional wellness were also assessed. Results: The study demonstrated that more senior laboratorians showed higher loyalty with significantly longer tenure at their current workplace at 20.5 years, compared to their younger cohort, who stayed a median of 3.0 years ( P < .001). Moreover, the more senior professionals also displayed significantly higher workplace presence ( P < .001), with fewer unexpected sick or mental days taken (0) compared to their counterparts (2). Finally, the 2 cohorts had no significant statistical differences in self-perceived levels of job fulfillment and physical or mental wellness. Conclusion: Instead of focusing mainly on high school and college recruitment, the study results suggest providing additional resources and efforts to retain the existing workforce. Specifically, successfully retaining tenured and more experienced laboratory professionals concurrent with current efforts may be a better strategy for closing the current workforce shortage gap in clinical lab medicine.