1 Grassroots explosion of VOICE, VALUE, VISION Official publication of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science ~ South Dakota Changes in ASCLSSD Stacie Lansink ASCLSSD President 20152016 This is the time when the weather changes and lately it has changed several times. It is often difficult to predict i it will be a white or brown winter. As with the weather changes, so will ASCLSSD change. The board of directors have voted to move the fall two day meeting to the spring as a twoday meeting. This was the result of the formation of a task force by the previous ASCLSSD President, Pat Tille and followed by several discussions with members, CLMA, vendors and Board Members. There are several regions for the change in schedule. First and foremost, meeting attendance is down and expenses have been reduced for many vendors and laboratory facilities. ASCLSSD meetings will begin to be scheduled so that the rotation keeps the meeting in a location that is easily accessible for vendors and prevents competition with the Region V Fall Meeting. The Region V meeting will be moving between the states in the region, which will start with Fargo, ND in October 2016 and then move into South Dakota for 2017. More information is available in the Region Director’s Column. The ASCLSSD meeting will be in a transition during 2016. The spring one day meeting will be held in Deadwood as scheduled, but the two day meeting in Huron will become a one day fall meeting so that members can still network and be provided with continuing education opportunities. In 2017, the spring twoday meeting will be held in Mitchell. Volunteers are needed to assist with planning and promotion of all meetings. Another change is happening at the national level. The national ASCLS meeting will be adjusting the dates to better coincide with AACC starting this year in Philadelphia. The meeting will start on Sunday and go through Thursday with the House of Delegates convening on Thursday. The National Leadership Academy will begin on Sunday and the Advanced Management Institute will begin on Monday. The students will be applying for the travel grant to attend the national meeting and they will tell you that the national ASCLS meeting is one to experience. There is a lot of change and excitement in ASCLS for the coming year and so it is a great time to become a member or to plan on renewing your membership. Membership matters!
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Grassroots explosion of VOICE, VALUE, VISION Official publication of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science ~ South Dakota
Changes in ASCLS-‐SD
Stacie Lansink ASCLS-‐SD President
2015-‐2016
This is the time when the weather changes and lately it has changed several times. It is often difficult to predict if it will be a white or brown winter. As with the weather changes, so will ASCLS-‐SD change. The board of directors have voted to move the fall two day meeting to the spring as a two-‐day meeting. This was the result of the formation of a task force by the previous ASCLS-‐SD President, Pat Tille and followed by several discussions with members, CLMA, vendors and Board Members. There are several regions for the change in schedule. First and foremost, meeting attendance is down and expenses have been reduced for many vendors and laboratory facilities. ASCLS-‐SD meetings will begin to be scheduled so that the rotation keeps the meeting in a location that is easily accessible for vendors and prevents competition with the Region V Fall Meeting. The Region V meeting will be moving between the states in the region, which will start with Fargo, ND in October 2016 and then move into South Dakota for 2017. More information is available in the Region Director’s Column. The ASCLS-‐SD meeting will be in a transition during 2016. The spring one day meeting will be held in Deadwood as scheduled, but the two day meeting in Huron will become a one day fall meeting so that members can still network and be provided with continuing education opportunities. In 2017, the spring two-‐day meeting will be held in Mitchell. Volunteers are needed to assist with planning and promotion of all meetings. Another change is happening at the national level. The national ASCLS meeting will be adjusting the dates to better coincide with AACC starting this year in Philadelphia. The meeting will start on Sunday and go through Thursday with the House of Delegates convening on Thursday. The National Leadership Academy will begin on Sunday and the Advanced Management Institute will begin on Monday. The students will be applying for the travel grant to attend the national meeting and they will tell you that the national ASCLS meeting is one to experience. There is a lot of change and excitement in ASCLS for the coming year and so it is a great time to become a member or to plan on renewing your membership. Membership matters!
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A Little Piece of Me
Matt Lauterbach ASCLS-‐SD Scientific Assembly Chair
Administration 2015-‐2016
Time…Measured by hands on a wall or the numbers on a screen – neither created nor destroyed. You can’t save it, bank it, back space it, or delete it. Time can be finite and infinite. You can’t create it or destroy it. Time can be measured, calculated, quantified, and studied, but it’s also enduring, relentless and ever present. Time is a commodity that we all have stock in. We are all affected by time. You see, time is our destiny in the sense that what we deem to be the most important, we spend the most time with. Those things that we spend the most time on, become life experiences that make us who we are. We give a piece of ourselves to each of the
Congratulations to Jennifer Keimig! Jennifer graduated from the Region V Leadership Academy and was presented her certificate at the Region V meeting in Alexandria, MN. L-‐R: Deb Rodahl, Jennifer Keimig, and Jean Bauer
Wishing all our members, colleagues, family, and friends a happy holiday season!
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items we deem to be most important, be it work, family, friends, church or other activities. Each one of those things gets a piece of us and the size of that piece is measured in units of time. Knowing that we are all made of a defined number of pieces, we must examine the placement of our pieces and how big said pieces are, i.e. where are we spending our time? What do we deem most important. First and foremost, make your ‘me’ piece the biggest. Take care of yourself – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If you don’t spend time with yourself, by yourself, for yourself, you won’t be any good to anybody else anyways. Secondly, give your time to your family/friends. At the end of one’s life, it’s not what you accomplished that matters most, but who you loved and who loved you. Make these pieces your defining pieces. While this may be a self-‐awareness/self-‐reflection piece, it is also a journey one must embark on in his/her professional career, especially if laboratory administration is in his/her future. Once the first two pieces are solidified, fill in the little pieces. If you desire to lead, spend your time preparing yourself to do so: read leadership books, have a mentor, set goals regularly, and seek out opportunity. Don’t wait for it. Although time can’t be destroyed, it CAN be wasted. To say you don’t have ‘time’ is to say that your pieces are in disarray. Rearrange your pieces, write down each piece of every day to determine what you’re giving your time to, determine what you deem to be important, and move your pieces accordingly.
This year the fall conference for ASCLS-‐SD was in Chamberlain. Members were able to network and gain continuing education credit along with
participating with students in Project Runway to raise money for the student travel grants and scholarships.
Registration table at the ASCLS-‐SD meeting in Chamberlain, SD. L-‐R: Jeff Kistler, Becky Aman, and Lori Meyer.
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Student members participated in Project Runway during the Vendor Exhibit to raise money for student travel grants to the national meeting and scholarships. The theme this year was movies from 2015. Pictured were the runway models. L to R: Ashley Clarke, Haylee Erickson, Madison Groettum, Charles Dibang, Alex McNamara, Andrea Wittmayer, and Nicholas Schaeuble.
There are no rivalries in ASCLS-‐SD; collaboration and cooperation makes our organization successful across many institutions! L-‐R: Brett Sherrill, Board Member at large and Pat Tille, Region V Director.
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Students that receive the travel grant to the national ASCLS meeting are required to present a session at the
annual state meeting in conjunction with the student forum representative.
This year was the first year ASCLS-‐SD awarded travel grants to students!
L-‐R: Wes Bonham, Amanda Horn (Travel Grant Recipient), Brendon Sato (Board Member -‐at-‐large),
Belinda Yam, and Alissa Neigel (Travel Grant Recipient).
Attendees preparing for the next session during the ASCLS-‐SD meeting in Chamberlain!
It's Time to Renew Your Professional Spirit!
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The Future of the Laboratory
Profession
Kelly Pesek ASCLS-‐SD Scientific Assembly Chair
Education
2015-‐2016
We, the lab professionals of South Dakota, have been very fortunate. Hospitals and clinics in other states have struggled to fill open MLT and MLS positions; we have not seen that struggle in certain areas of South Dakota. Most MLT/MLS positions were filled and new graduates have multiple choices and opportunities within the laboratory profession as some are quickly becoming lead or supervisors faster than most of us have experienced. I am sure the other MLT and MLS programs in the state have been experiencing the sense that we cannot put students out into the labs fast enough; our graduates are being snatched up quickly. Most of our students have jobs already lined up before they have completed their education. The number of phone calls and emails we get from facilities inquiring about graduates looking for a job is increasing. Lab professionals are well aware that our workforce is aging and the percentage of lab professionals nearing retirement is increasing, while at the same time, there are less new professionals to take their place. Why aren’t there enough new lab professionals to fill the openings? Though there are a number of reasons for this, I believe the primary reason is that people don’t know what an MLT/MLS does. At LATI, we regularly have groups of students that tour our program ranging from grade school to high school age. The first question I always ask is “what does a medical laboratory technician do?” I usually get 1 of 3 responses – “I have no idea”, “they draw blood”, and my all-‐time favorite, “isn’t it kind of like a nurse?” How can we bring new faces into the lab profession if few people know about it? I believe it may be time to take off our lab coats, step out of the lab door (remembering to wash our hands first), and go out and educate the public. I know you may be thinking, as a popular catch phrase goes – “ain’t nobody got time for that!” We have to make time. None of us are getting any younger and we all want well-‐educated, professional MLS’s and MLT’s to run our lab tests someday, correct? The future of our profession is at stake. I encourage each of you to take every opportunity you can to educate the public about careers in laboratory medicine. If you have a chance to take part in a science fair or health occupations fair at your local school, please do so. I can also say from my experience, there is nothing like seeing the interest and enthusiasm for science sparkle in a young person’s eye. It brings you back to what made you fall in love with laboratory medicine in the first place.
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ASCLS Region Successes and New Beginnings for 2016!
Pat Tille, Region V Director
2015-‐2018
Many new and exiciting things are happening in ASCLS! The Board of Directors is working diligently with the search committee to identify a new executive vice-‐president, as we prepare to bid farewell to Elissa Passiment! Elissa has served a vital role in the society for many years and although we hate to see her retire, new opportunities await! The National Task Force reviewing the ASCLS Code of Ethics has made significant progress and you will likely see a proposed new code at the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. This is primarily due to the response to Ebola and insuring that our code of ethics reflects the need to serve all patient's independent of all factors including type of disease, culture or values.
Happy Holidays from
ASCLS-‐SD!!
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As the new Regional Director, I have spent the last few months, working with the President's Council to allow time for their new boards to become established and to identify needs as well as initiatives for the coming year! One immediate change that should be noticable across the region is the change in branding of the Region V Symposium and Leadership Academy to reflect the membership of our states. Previously, both were termed the "Tri-‐State" venues. Our society represents inclusivity and the President's Council has affirmed that dedication by agreeing to remove the tri-‐state designation. Region V includes South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Region V Leadership Academy includes representatives from all four states with leadership experience and a desire to mentor new leaders within our profession and society. As a professional organization we are committed to providing new experiences and leading roles for our members who wish to take advantage of those opportunities. In addition, the Region V Symposium will now begin a state-‐to-‐state rotation beginning in Fargo, ND for 2016. This rotation will continue to follow the leadership rotation that was previously established. This upcoming year, the meeting will be held at the Baymont in Fargo. The meeting will be chaired by NorthDakota Member, Alice Hawley. The Vice-‐Chair, Kathy Anderson from South Dakota, will then serve as the chair for the Region V meeting in Sioux Falls, SD in the fall of 2017. Under the current rotation, Minnesota would be the host of the 2018 meeting. Continued discussion at the President's Council are underway to determine if the meeting will be in Minnesota in 2018, or if Wisconsin will rejoin the regional meeting rotation. I would like to also thank last years Chair, Janice Conway-‐Klaassen ASCLS-‐MN, and Vice Chair, Alice Hawley ASCLS-‐ND, as well as all of their committee chairs and members for an outstanding Region V Symposium this past October in Alexandria MN. Attendance was excellent and the speakers were educational! As was previously mentioned in the ASCLS-‐SD President's message by Stacie Lansink, there are several changes to the schedule for the Annual National Meeting. Please make note that these changes in dates and corresponding events is not simply a one time change. This change has been approved by the Board of Directors and will be carried through to all subsequent national meetings beginning in Philadelphia in 2016. This change was made in response to requests from the membership. As the newly elected Region V Director, it is also my responsibility to make appointments to Regional Committees. I have been working with representatives from all states and the President's Council to identify individuals to assume those positions. As we move into the new year, the President's Council will be reviewing the current Region V standard operating procedures and updating items as recommended by the group. This is to insure that the Region continues to represent all of our consitutent societies and provide an organization that is responsive to the membership of our Region. Last but not least I would like to thank our outgoing Region V Secretary Treasurer, Kristi Enerson from ASCLS-‐MN for her service over the past few years. She will be transitioning the position to the New Region V Secretary Treasurer, April Nelsen from ASCLS-‐SD effective January 2016. Wishing you all a prosperous New Year in 2017!