Distance Education in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences: Part of the Solution to the Professional Labor Shortage

The purpose of this paper is introducing research conducted about issues related to influences and barriers to the potential use of distance education for mitigating the clinical laboratory sciences labor shortage. Diagnostic careers such as those in the clinical laboratory sciences remain a mystery to many people because they do not have the same prominence or visibility associated with therapeutic careers. Clinical laboratory science courses often have both didactic and laboratory components. Coursework with laboratory components require additional faculty time for preparation. When health care education is offered in traditional university or college settings not affiliated with a teaching hospital or clinical setting, laboratory costs are higher due to purchasing supplies, reagents and media. Issues are further explored in a brief series of papers addressing them. Using DE for delivering diagnostic clinical educational is a potential viable solution for addressing national diagnostic labor shortages.