Tonight on the CBS television network, viewers of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – the top rated show on television – will receive a special promotion saluting pathologists and laboratory professionals by the show’s star and co-producer, William Petersen.
In a public service announcement, Petersen looks directly at the camera and says, “It’s National Medical Laboratory Week (NMLW). I want to salute pathologists and laboratory professionals across the country. Every day, they use their skills and knowledge to save lives and solve crimes. Today, there is a shortage of such heroes.”
The American Society of Clinical Pathologists and Petersen lobbied hard for the public service announcement and for CBS to produce it. In an interview in the March 2004 issue of Playboy magazine, Petersen said, “I was invited to receive an award at the American Society for Clinical Pathologists (annual meeting) in New Orleans. It’s the best award I’ve ever gotten – way better than an Emmy.”
The world of forensic science, particularly human identity analysis, has found a huge following among television viewers, and it has taken CSI, and its spin-off series, CSI Miami, to the top of television’s ratings and critical acclaim. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is only the third CBS drama, the eighth drama overall, and the first crime drama in television history to be the number one program of the season. CSI Miami took the title of best new drama of the season in its debut year.
“It’s a rare occurrence when a highly acclaimed television show can be a respected voice for your profession,” said Linda Fell, associate professor and associate program director of the UNMC School of Allied Health Professions Medical Technology Education. “CSI brings viewers into the laboratory. Today, 70 percent of the important medical decisions affecting a patient’s life involve a laboratory or pathology test.”
It’s hoped that the CSI promotions will help to inspire a new generation to see themselves among the nation’s next laboratory professionals.
The Bureau of Labor estimates that from 2002 through 2010, 13,200 qualified laboratory workers will be needed each year to meet the increasing demands for laboratory testing of an aging population and the losses of manpower due to retiring laboratory workers. The average number of graduates from accredited programs is currently about 5,000 per year, indicating an annual shortage of 8,200 professionals a year. National Medical Laboratory Week is April 18-24.
Sara McLaughlin, of Columbus, Neb., graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and worked for a research laboratory for five years before entering the UNMC clinical laboratory science program in 2002. She graduates next month.
“This is an exciting time to be a clinical laboratory professional,” McLaughlin said. “There is an explosion of new testing in molecular diagnostics and in the clinical laboratory. The forensic laboratory testing is performed by certified medical technologists, and there is an acute shortage of med techs/clinical laboratory scientists.
“I feel like I have a greater impact with patient care and the work is more rewarding. I don’t think a lot of people really understand our profession, and I hope to be an instructor myself some day and help our specialty gain even more public visibility.”
Raymond Baillou, a native of Freeport, The Bahamas, received a bachelor of science degree in molecular biology from the University of Nebraska at Kearney before coming to UNMC. After he graduates next month, he hopes to secure a position at the leading cancer center in The Bahamas. Not just in his homeland, but even in America, Baillou sees a great need for more people of color to learn about medical technologists and hopes his own success will set an example.
“I want to get deeper into the research on the molecular level and look ahead to where laboratory science is going,” Baillou said.
UNMC has a baccalaureate program in medical technology/clinical laboratory science. Students come to the medical center with three years of college. Many already have a BS degree in biology or chemistry. The program is 11 months in length and students earn a BS degree.
The UNMC program has a distance option also with clinical sites in Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney, North Platte, Norfolk, Casper, Wyo. and Sioux Falls, S.D. In addition to the UNMC campus, students also work at Creighton University Medical Center and Methodist Hospital. Distance learners never need to study in Omaha to complete their program for certification, Fell said.
“Our medical technology program is one of the most outstanding in the United States and has evolved into a regional educational resource,” said Samuel Cohen, Ph.D., professor and chairperson of the UNMC department of pathology and microbiology. “We are extremely proud of them and their accomplishments.”
The first official observance of National Medical Laboratory Week was held in 1975. Today NMLW is sponsored by 11 professional organizations: American Society for Clinical Pathology, American Association for Clinical Chemistry, American Association of Blood Banks, American Medical Technologists, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, American Society of Cytopathology, American Society for Microbiology, Association of Public Health Laboratories, Clinical Laboratory Management Association, College of American Pathologists and National Society for Histotechnology.
If anyone is interested in the laboratory professions, they can go to the Medical Technology Education Web site.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation airs tonight at 9 p.m. (CDT) on the CBS affiliate in Omaha, KM3 (Channel 3).