I was reminded by a recent phone call from one of our CYTOPATHNET-eers to put down some ideas and thoughts about the future of our profession in order to stimulate thought and discussion. In addition, I have recently been reading some non-medical books of interest that deal with a shift in our overall culture from the "left-brain" to "right-brain" dominance. What I mean is that we have pretty much refined the technical aspect of our profession (left-brain) to the point that everyone has the same access to technologic advances and this no longer distinugishes us from each other. What will begin now making the difference is in the right-brain aspects of how we conduct our business. So, are we seeing the pendulum swing back the other direction? Perhaps.

The ASC in 2006 appointed the "New Profession for Cytotechnologists Task Force " to investigate possible career threatening trends for its members. The Task Force recommended utilizing a strategic counseling firm to analyze trends and whether this justified a new cytology profession.�

The complete report, published in June 2007 by the Forbes Group, can be downloaded here, http://www.cytopathology.org/website/navdispatch.asp?id=1201.

I agree with all points brought up in the previous posts.
I am disappointed in Cytology too.
There is a glass ceiling over Cytology. Persons who have had to take the same classes as Med Techs and have competetive GPA's in order to be admitted to Cytology Schools get out and find out that Cytotechs aren't even given a chance to supervise their own departments. Labs find a way to get around making any Cytotech a "General Supervisor" but require him/her to do the much of the general supervisor's job while screening 60 to 80 slides per day. It is no wonder Cytotech wages had to go up, no one wants to do it.

I don't think there is much of a future in Cytology and I would not advise anyone to go into it. I imagine that with automated screening and HPV typing fewer and fewer Cytotechs will be needed and eventually, Patholotists will be doing most of their own cases.

Eventually, I think that pap smears as we know them will justfall by the way side.

Cytonana

I reposted this from the comment section for better visibility. Admin

Bowenn
by Bowenn on Tuesday 26 of April, 2005 10:16:34 Score:0.90 Vote: 1 2 3 4 5 () ()

Well, I wish I could give you some good news, but I cannot. About a month ago, myself and 5 of my compatriots were "downsized." You see, 18 months ago we had our workloads fall off by about 60%. We plugged along, trying to drum up new business, but to no avail. It was painfully obvious that the company needed to decrease staff by at least 25%. The techs were always discussing this. In fact, we were resigned to a layoff, and were just wondering who, and when. Paranoia and anxiety levels were high, and, of course, error rates increased. Several people, myself included, were placed on 100% QC, where we were left languishing for 6 months. Personally, I requested assistance in getting my miss rate under control...three times verbally, and three times in writing. The last time, I was informed that there was no assistance available, and stop bothering the medical director... she doesn't have time for you.

I had 4 false negatives in 4 years (thats with a retroactive review)... after I was placed on 100% QC, I had 9 false negatives in 6 months... approximately one miss every 500 slides... mostly 1-3 cell LSILs and no feedback was given except "screen more to dilute your stats." Screen What? We didn't have the cases available.

Anyhow, at the end of February, we were informed that a new statistics prgram was being implemented... it was rolled out, and we found that it was strongly based on Six-sigma, and that it was a rolling 5 years, so that a miss 5 years ago would still count against us. The following day all 22 of us were taken in individually and shown where we fell on the graphs. Six of us were informed that due to the new policy, we were no longer qualified to work there... 10 more techs were informed that they were in danger of being terminated if they missed any more.

So, six of us were terminated for performance issues, and yet we were each given a severance package of one month salary and benefits.
In my life, I have NEVER heard of a severance given when one is fired for cause. So, was I downsized, laid-off, or determined to be incompetent??? I DO know that a good reference from this employer of 4 years is problematic at best... so, what do I do? I have a family and a mortgage, and I am having a hell of a time finding work as a cytotech (Who'da thunk it???).

I digress... This treatment wrecked the morale and the self-confidence needed to do Cytology work, and skewed my criteria, badly.
The other cytotechnologist positions I have had in my career also involved emotional abuse, "backstabbing," and underhanded behavior on the part of my employers (hospitals AND private labs). Cytotechnology seems to only result in depression, anxiety, neuroses, and paranoia.
Now, I find myself without the resources to cover my own proficiency testing, and employers are starting to make it a prerequisite to employment.

I don't know what to do... and I could never, NEVER in good conscience, suggest cytology as a career, to anyone.

If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now... I would have avoided this field. I would retrain for another career, but that would only use up valuable time and rack-up more educational debt.

I am greatly disappointed in cytology

 
Re: Bowenn by admin (Score: 0.00) on Friday 29 of April, 2005 07:42:50

I moved this from Comment area so as to be better seen. Admin
by cytocox on Saturday 02 of April, 2005 15:38:24 Score:0.00 Vote: 1 2 3 4 5 (Remove) (Edit)

I would like to play devil's advocate in this blog.

The cytotechnology schools have great hype on what all a student with a degree in this field can do other than sit and screen 80 plus paps a day, every day for 30 years or so. But in reality those of us in the field know that aside from a few supervisory positions created on an as needed basis basically nothing has changed in cytology practice for most of us. Nor will it change unless we go back to school and probably leave the field. Pathologists who manage labs as well as reference labs and hospitals only see a financial advantage for these very high-priced employees if put to maximum use screening paps. Any crosstraining is pretty much out of the question in most situations. It is not cost effective for a cytotech to do other work if another person can do it for less. Yes, there are exceptions in smaller labs and other situations but these are exceptions only. The reality of CLIA mandates of only allowing those individuals who have low false-negative and descrepancy rates to screen that many slides is largely ignored. I hope many folks who read this can prove the contrary. We shall see. How many managers are going ot want to pay two employees the same when one can screen 80 and another "only" 60 slides a day? If that 'slow-poke' has no false negative all year at that rate they would still be seen as a financial loss to the company. And what about the new technologies? These have always been viewed as a way to get the tech to process more slides in less time. But I think most of us do not want to have to screen 100 Thinpreps or Surepaths a day!!

This situation has led to the dead-end nature of full-time screening. I have to state that young motivated folks with initiative will have to leave this field to achieve job satisfaction. The only techs I have ever heard say that really like their jobs are the ones who attend FNA procedures, do some cytoprep, and perhaps other duties as well. The rest just screen day in and day out until retirement. Lets face it the salary is good enough to keep you coming back to this. But is there a future in it? Let each decide for themselves.

I wanted to create an area for discussion on the future of cytology. This might an area of interest for our teachers and students.