PRESIDENT ’ S MESSAGE / CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER ’ S MESSAGE
In Praise of the Backbone :
The Public Health Laboratory Workforce
Denise Toney , PhD President , APHL
We sometimes get used to doing things a certain way , especially if the process is working well and while public health laboratories are always engaging in critical thinking and evaluations , our response to COVID-19 really forced us to think outside the proverbial box .”
Scott Becker : Eighteen-plus months into the pandemic and I feel like there are so many lessons learned and so many things that we are still stepping into that we do not necessarily know . But the one thing I am sure of is that our workforce has been the bedrock to whatever success we have had — they are the key to the future . It is not only about the people who are doing the work , it is about the people who we are serving . So even with all of the challenges we have faced , what are some of the successes that we ’ ve seen ?
Denise Toney : The pandemic , more than any other public health emergency , has truly highlighted the critical work that public health does , and the role that we , as laboratorians , play in responding to something that is impactful to our communities . With the current workforce , and definitely with the younger generation , I have noticed more interest in public health and public health careers . So many individuals are reaching out to us wanting to find out more because they see the great work we are doing , and hear our public officials talking about it . We have more people than ever before wanting to join us in our work , which is so exciting . Now is the time to capitalize on that attention — strike while the iron is hot , because people know so much more about public health and we need to use that knowledge to our advantage to expand our reach .
S : I do think that is really important right now , especially how tired the current public health workforce is . We are tired but I also know how resilient we are . This has been the most stressful experience in our professional lifetimes , and I continue to be concerned about our mental health . APHL partnered with other public health organizations and CDC to encourage a
large-scale study — the first of its kind — of the mental health status of the public health workforce . And the results were not surprising . At some point in the next few months , APHL will be able to get a more definitive report on the responses from the laboratory community . Through that , we will be able to develop programs and have more dialogue on things that we can do to support this very important segment of the workforce . CDC also extended the opportunity to APHL ’ s staff and other public health organizations to participate in a similar study , which shows the critical role that our staff has played in supporting our members .
D : Another critical success is the amount of cross-training that organically happened during our response to the pandemic . Even though it started out as a necessity for laboratories to respond , the fact that we were able to implement a new model of thinking and learning during an emergency emphasizes the fact that we can entertain a new mindset about how our workforce can expand . Bringing in folks who may not have the same training and competencies and get them up to speed to where they are contributing , is a best practice that needs to continue moving forward . In Virginia , we are trying to look at how we can not only be more efficient , but more importantly , how we can make our processes more efficient so that no matter what happens next , we are prepared to streamline how we do things . We sometimes get used to doing things a certain way , especially if the process is working well and while public health laboratories are always engaging in critical thinking and evaluations , our response to COVID-19 really forced us to think outside the proverbial box .
S : Thinking about it from the association ’ s standpoint , one thing we are going through right now as an organization is wrestling with this idea of a hybrid workplace and how to best support our own workforce . APHL is a membercentric organization and always will be . Our members enjoy coming out of the laboratory and visiting a physical place called APHL and collaborating with not only association staff , but with other laboratory leaders as well . So we will be looking very closely at what the future will look like for us from a work perspective , a member service perspective
2 LAB MATTERS Summer 2021