The whole world is facing a severe and problematic shortage of qualified laboratory and medical personnel. Third world countries are suffering because their doctors and medical staff are immigrating to meet excess demand for high-paid medical positions in Europe. It is more difficult for medical professionals to come to America, however, and the United States is facing the same challenges of a shrinking medical community. According to the American Society for Clinical Pathology, over half of all US laboratories report difficulties hiring new medical testing personnel. The US Department of Labor projects that the country will need 13,200 medical laboratory professionals through the year 2010. This number cannot be filled by the fewer than 5,000 people who graduate from training programs each year. At the same time the average age of the medical workforce is rising steadily. Younger, newly trained medical workers have not entered quickly enough to keep pace with retirements. These problems could be attributed partially to the fact that training facilities for these medical professionals have been closing and declining in number. School closings in the last five years have reduced the number of training programs by 30%. This decline in training programs affects small rural areas as well as big cities. Los Angeles and Miami have no accredited clinical training programs for medical technologists or medical laboratory technicians. The shortage is growing so bad that senators are looking at legislation to defray the costs of training for medical personnel. |
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