Background/Case Studies: The clinical laboratory profession is experiencing ongoing labor shortages due to a significant number of retirees, labor competition due to increased inflation, and high employee turnover. In addition, vacancy rates in clinical laboratories currently often exceed the number of program graduates. The cultivation of resiliency in medical laboratory science (MLS) students is expected to help graduates be more successful in a stressful workplace environment. Additional aims of this training program were to equip students with skills to cope with challenges and setbacks that they may encounter in their academic, personal, and professional lives.
Study
Design/Methods: After obtaining informed consent, participants (n=56) enrolled in undergraduate immunohematology courses completed an anonymous pre-training questionnaire to establish their baseline knowledge of resilience, self-efficacy, and mindfulness techniques. The training consisted of completion of a resilience self-assessment, and video presentations on resilience, mindfulness, and self-efficacy, after which the participants were asked to journal their self-reflections. After completion of the training, the participants completed an anonymous post-training survey. Quantitative data from both surveys were collected and analyzed, and the qualitative data from the journaling exercise were codified for thematic analysis.
Results/Findings: Of 56 survey respondents, 43 (76.8%) were currently employed in a clinical laboratory. Few respondents (12.5%) indicated they had previously completed training in resilience or self-efficacy. The most common theme to appear in the journal entries was the impact of the 3 x 3 method for mindfulness. Additional important themes were the importance of support systems, a positive mindset, and maintaining self-care practices. The results of the post-training questionnaire indicated the training was effective in teaching the concepts, with 96% indicating either a good to excellent understanding of self-efficacy and mindfulness, 100% of respondents self-reporting good to excellent ability in recognizing factors that influence their resilience, 94% self-reporting good to excellent ability in setting and achieving goals, and 100% indicating good to excellent ability in recognizing factors that help manage stress levels. Conclusions: The results indicate that this resilience and self-efficacy training program can have a positive impact upon students’ abilities to recognize factors that influence their resilience, to set and achieve goals, to recognize stress levels, and to apply mindfulness techniques to manage stress. After receiving the training, all participants reported feeling more confident in being resilient in the face of adversity.
Importance of research: Due to ongoing labor shortage issues impacting clinical laboratories and the stressful nature of the work in immunohematology and transfusion medicine, it is crucial for medical laboratory science program graduates to be resilient, display self-efficacy, and possess stress management skills in order to be successful in the workplace and to reduce employee turnover.
