This project provided a snapshot of the 2010 pathology workforce as reported by participating pathology workforce employers and employees. The project report identified a number of statistics relating to the pathology workforce, with only the main points included in this summary.
Grant Recipient
URBIS
Aim
to describe in complete and accurate terms the size and make-up of the Australian Pathology workforce in terms of key workforce groupings, demographic characteristics and workplace characteristics.
Objectives
review existing pathology workforce data collections, methodologies and survey instruments and incorporate the learnings into the development of an effective method on which to conduct the first ever national pathology workforce survey (Survey)
finalise the list of required data items for inclusion in the Survey in consultation with the project steering group and project reference group
develop Survey instruments to collect the data in consultation with the project steering group
develop an implementation strategy for the Survey with pathology providers/employers to negotiate agreeable data collection mechanisms and to make arrangements for data collection
collect/coordinate the collection of data and manage quality control
clean, process and analyse data
develop a current pathology workforce profile
conduct an audit of educational institutions in order to ascertain the current supply sources for identified workforce groupings
identify strategies for ongoing monitoring of the pathology workforce.
The aim and objectives were achieved by this project. Outcomes
The 2010 Pathology Workforce Survey captured data that covered the following groups through the use of an employer survey and an employee survey:
There were a total of 4,743 responses to the employee survey, which was reduced to 4,631 (Table 8) once the missing data points were excluded. This represents about 20% of the estimated pathology workforce.
* A breakdown of ‘Other pathology’ includes those mainly performing administrative functions (n=27) and assistant/aid functions (n=22). This was followed at much lower levels of mention by academic/teaching functions (n=13), clinical functions and warfarin (both n=13) and quality management functions (n=12). All other mentions were lower than n=10.
A total of 28 employer surveys were completed representing a 22% response rate of all the Approved Pathology Authorities (APAs) (Table 9) contacted (n=130)
TABLE 9 – NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN APAS
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
NUMBER OF APAS
CUMULATIVE NO. OF APAS
Fewer than 15
6
6
15-80
5
11
81-500
10
21
501-1,500
5
26
Greater than 1,500
2
28
One very large organisation (more than 1500 employees) declined to participate in the employer survey which may have acted as a discouragement to staff participation.
A brief audit of Australian educational institutions was conducted over an eight-week period to gauge the extent to which the education supply meets current and anticipated future workforce demand.
Findings
The estimated size of the pathology workforce is 24,157.
There were significant differences within age, gender and location between workforce groups between states.
Notable responses relating to job/workplace indicated that 43% of senior scientists intended to leave the pathology workforce in the next five years and 58% of specialist pathologists worked more than 45 hours per week.
It takes about 3.1 months to fill the vacant positions of scientists.
The main reason for pathologists intending to leave the profession were due to impending retirement (73.5%) compared to those in other pathology workforce groupings, and they were much less likely to be seeking a change/employment in another profession (1.5%) or feel they had limited career opportunities (0.0%).
The most pressing issue facing the pathology workforce is the shortage of skilled labour (particularly senior scientists and pathologists), which was mentioned by all APAs completing the survey. They also noted the general lack of interest among some scientists to undertake further personal development, and the need for senior scientists to step-up and run laboratories.
The lack of senior positions to progress and promote staff was also identified as a current ‘bottleneck’ exacerbating the skilled labour shortage.
There is also a shortage of health information professionals, possibly due to the acceleration of eHealth initiatives.
Other secondary issues include high staff turnover (particularly amongst phlebotomy, clerical and reception staff), the timeframes to replace staff, and the expense of providing practical on-the-job training.
There is an uneven spread of jobs across the States, with around 50% of laboratory technicians located in New South Wales, while there is a high concentration of laboratory assistants in Queensland and significantly fewer in Victoria and South Australia.
Other issues include insufficient incentive to attract the right people from metropolitan areas to move into and work in smaller regional communities (e.g. pathology registrars), poor Medicare rebates, high cost of wages in a market of declining revenues, difficulty staffing out-of-hours shifts, the desire amongst senior staff to work fewer hours and the need for more efficient work practices.
About 20% of employee respondents intend to reduce their working hours, with pathologists (34%) returning the highest incidence in this group.
The size and effectiveness of the future pathology workforce will be largely determined by the provision of suitably qualified entrants into the workforce, particularly at a senior level (e.g. pathologists).
Recommendations
There is a need to create more positions and workplace opportunities while also making pathology an attractive career choice in order to fill these positions. This need is more pressing at the highly skilled end of the job spectrum, particularly for pathologists and scientists.
To successfully attract new people into a career in pathology the profession needs to be made more attractive through positive structural change (internal focus) as well as the development of a marketing campaign to positively advertise and promote the industry. An important aspect of this should be the active promotion of regional/rural placements.
The Medical Benefits payable for pathology should be increased.
A flexible and effective management structure that allows for succession planning, intelligent rotations, provides work replacement for trainees, maximises the number of workplace training positions and aligns the strategic goals of the organisation with workforce issues should be provided.
Improve communication and coordination with tertiary course providers to ensure that graduates are better able to meet job requirements based on training that is relevant and practical. This process should also help APAs attract better graduates.
Create paid positions for scientists that are not directly related to result outputs.
Introduce initiatives to help overcome the significant shortage of scientists including the provision of scientist apprenticeship positions with the assistance of cooperative government funding, supporting medical scientists’ career structure initiatives and providing support for restructuring the award for scientists.
Provide sustainable training by allocating sufficient funding for training positions, and ensure training remains a top agenda item going forwards.
Continuing to lobby for industry best practice on a number of fronts including tertiary institutions (for better training/better qualified graduates), medical administrators (for better medical and pathology training) and to contribute to workforce reform and the separation of industrial versus professional issues.
Offer good remuneration and career prospects to attract new people into pathology, and to make it more appealing for part-time workers to work longer hours.
Key Project Learning
Developing an effective methodology for this project was challenging due to the fact there was not a direct and straightforward means of gaining access to all workers in the pathology sector. There were only a limited number of professional associations and industry peak bodies both able and willing to provide access to segments of the pathology workforce, but none which represented all pathology workers.
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