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By Michele, on October 8th, 2010% The cancer registrar’s thinking ability is a remarkable gift that allows them to accomplish great things in their work and personal lives. While the human mind is a one-of-a-kind problem solver, it is also eager to provide the cancer registrar with the answer to any question or a solution for any challenge. Here’s how …
As soon as the registrar forwards a question to their mind, their brain goes to work analyzing and calculating. It searches its memory files for relevant information. It rapidly picks out patterns, similarities and trends while it concurrently builds a resource library of related data.
This analytical thinking ability can be used for just about anything and can serve the registrar well as they develop partnerships in their health care organizations. Whenever they make plans for cancer conference, cancer committee, the annual report, or their next quality study, their mind will jump into analytical mode. Essentially, the cancer registrar’s mind becomes an efficiency expert, much like a heat-seeking missile, that is looking for ways to make improvements.
Cancer Registrars need to understand, develop, use and even protect their analytical thinking abilities. It is their tireless and ever-ready toolkit that is revving its engines, ready to instantly take off to face a challenge or solve a problem. This ability is powerful when used in collaboration with their organization’s vision and goals or when exploring trends in cancer data that require study to better serve the needs of patients.
This is just the tip of the iceberg! In future blog posts we’ll talk about other aspects of the cancer registrar’s analytical mind that will help them communicate more effectively and freely.
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http://RegistryMindset.com/. Michele Webb, America’s Cancer Registry Coach, is a nationally recognized, certified cancer registrar (CTR). She cares passionately about her work and enjoys helping others to become cancer registrars and grow professionally. She is a motivational speaker, published author, trainer and netpreneur in the exciting field of cancer registry and oncology healthcare. Copyright 2010, Michele A. Webb, All Rights Reserved.
By Michele, on October 8th, 2010% Jean Campbell is a two-time breast cancer survivor and former director of the American Cancer Society’s New York City patient Navigator Program. Her story is compelling, from the heart and could even make you chuckle. As cancer registrar’s we are very aware of the many heart wrenching stories of people who are diagnosed with this horrible disease. However, with the bulk of our work happening behind the scenes, focusing on data collection and quality control we can become insulated against what is really happening to women and men who are diagnosed with this disease. And, even with all the knowledge that we have, when it happens to one of us, or a member of our family, or friend, we react with the same emotions as everyone else. Take a few minutes to check out Jean’s website and blog to put our work into perspective.
By Michele, on September 24th, 2010% Are you blessed with an analytical mind? If you are, you could be a cancer registrar as well. Cancer Registrars are the information experts in cancer care and the analytical mindset provides a perfect foundation for collecting high quality data. However, in your workplace people may perceive your mindset as challenging or you as someone who slows the process down until it every aspect is explored or things are “perfect.” Not so good!
You don’t want to destroy other people’s ideas or have them tune you out, but you do want theories to be sound, data to be correct and projects to run smoothly. The cancer registrar’s mind is constantly working and producing insightful analysis. But others may not be aware of that or even value that.
Find the best way to express your thoughts or to share information, keeping it short and to-the-point. Some methods include: writing, one-on-one conversations, group discussions, or presentations. Instead, put value to your thoughts by communicating them clearly, succinctly and in a such a way that it solves a problem and meets the goals of the group and vision of the organization.
By Michele, on September 20th, 2010% It’s September and time for the CTR Exam again. We want to send our best wishes and thoughts out to all the candidates who are still scheduled to take the exam. By now you should be well prepared for the exam and you have some experience “under your belt.” Before your exam review those sections of the exam that you are less comfortable with, get a good night’s sleep and get your books ready to go. When you arrive, take a deep breath and methodically work through the test relying on your study and experience. You probably know far more than you give yourself credit for, so don’t panic! Steady and methodical will get you through. Some of you have already shared with us that you passed your exam – so a huge congratulations goes out to you! We’ll see you at NCRA in Florida for the CTR ceremony. Good job and best wishes everyone!
By Michele, on September 16th, 2010% Take a few moments to look at back on your career. During the past ten years what do you wish you had not given up on or quit? We don’t like to look at our failures, but this is an important step in your success as a cancer registrar. You may be thinking of a moment that now makes you shake your head and ask, “What was I thinking?”
Here is the answer. It is easier to quit than it is to see challenges through. It’s easier to walk away from conflict than to stick it out. It’s easier to blame someone else than it is to take accountability for your own actions. And, it is definitely easier to not participate in an activity than it is to face people that you think are not supportive of you or your work. But, when we choose to quit, we pay a very high price for our actions and many of us have already paid that price.
So, now is the time for cancer registrars to stop quitting, stop walking away and stop avoiding challenges. It is time to be accountable, self-assured, knowledgeable and comfortable with who you are, what you do and what you know. Ultimately, challenges are good for us and help us build endurance which is a powerful tool in the cancer registrar’s arsenal.
How do you build endurance? You do this by learning how to crash through those quitting points. Here’s what I mean. You’ve spent the last three days and 40+ hours working on your annual report. You’re tired, frustrated and just worn out. You grab your report and head over to Cancer Committee where you present your results. One member of the team sighs, throws his pen down on the table and says something like, “Why is it that every year, year after year, we have to listen to you make excuses for why the data is not right? Are you the cancer registrar or not? What is wrong with you? I’m done with this program and I’m fed up with not getting paid to sit here and listen to this nonsense!” Sound familiar?
At that moment you are definitely at a quitting point. You want to throw in the towel, walk away, or quit your job. But, quitting is not glamorous and does not build character or your professional reputation. So, what do you do?
You take a breath, straighten yourself up and determine that you are going to take the situation one step further and to crash through the wall and quitting point. You resolve to step through the problem with your head held high. You decide, at that moment, that you are not going to let another person’s tirade determine who you are or what your capabilities are, and that you are stronger and worthy of everyone’s trust and support.
When you adopt this mindset of crashing through the quitting points you will be amazed at how you will grow, develop your professional reputation and earn the trust of others. You will be more creative in your problem-solving and be more successful for having gone through it. That’s what crashing through a quitting point is all about.
http://www.cancerregistrytraining.com/. Michele Webb, America’s Cancer Registry Coach, is a nationally recognized, certified cancer registrar (CTR). She cares passionately about her work and enjoys helping others to become cancer registrars and grow professionally. She is a motivational speaker, published author, trainer and netpreneur in the exciting field of cancer registry and oncology healthcare.
By Michele, on September 14th, 2010% As adults mature, their curiosity and sense of awe or wonder tend to decline. Yet, it is these very characteristics that drive innovation, change and long-term success. Albert Einstein said, “I have no special talents, I am merely very curious.”
Cancer Registrars cannot afford to lose their curiosity or sense of wonder. In today’s rapidly changing environment lack of curiosity or sense of wonder of all the technology and innovation in healthcare will render a Registrar’s skills and expertise useless or outdated. Don’t let this happen to you!
Develop the habits to stimulate your curiosity and growth. Do not tolerate complacency and, instead, opt for encouragement, exploration and even pushing, yourself and others, to do things better and differently.
With the economic downturns, hospital administrators and the leadership team are now focusing their attention on restarting growth, developing better relationships with patients, families and employees and changing up programs and services to meet the needs of the customer. Cancer Registrars who want to remain in the field will adopt the organization’s mindset and develop new attributes that will secure their role in the organization of the future.
By Michele, on September 10th, 2010% Once again it is time for cancer registrars who took their CTR exam in the even-numbered years to start pulling their files together with all the documentation for their CE units for the past two years. For some folks they have an over-abundance of credits and never worry about this process. But for others, you may be worrying about whether you have all the right documents in place, or if you even have all the credits you need. If you find yourself in this latter group, then read further!
 There is a revolutionary cancer registry continuing education program available to you! This program is 100% online meaning you can get CE credits, eligible for NCRA credential maintenance, from the comfort of your home or office. Yes, it’s THAT simple! This program is designed by, and for, cancer registrars and offers a monthly CE course, equivalent to 0.5 to 1.0 credit hours. All you have to do is go to the website, sign up, pay for your subscription and then every month you get an email announcing the new course. Once you take the course there is a CE quiz and you print your certificate of completion. Viola!
Then, to make this an even better program, there are some bonus materials by way of audio or video programs, downloadable PDF documents and other resources that you can use in your registry. These are all provided in addition to the monthly membership. Memberships require a very reasonable investment that is more than competitive with the going rates for cancer registry webinars and other educational programs.
So, what are you waiting for? Go check this out by clicking on the title above, or click here. You have nothing to lose and can only benefit from this exciting program! BTW – in the next 2-3 weeks we will redesigning the website with a great new, streamlined look. Stay tuned for more updates.
By Michele, on November 25th, 2009% Beginning January 1, 2010 new reportability requirements for the data collection and reporting of hematopoietic and lymphoid neoplasms go into effect. The Hematopoietic Working Group (SEER) have developed the new rules and an electronic database that cancer registrars will be able to download and use.
Casefinding for heme and lymphoid neoplasms can be confusing given the variation in how physicians and pathologists document the diagnosis and treatment process for their patients. However, the cancer registrar can now take advantage of some new educational presentations developed by SEER to understand the requirements more fully.
By clicking here you will be redirected to the SEER website and links to the educational presentations. Presentations have been approved for CEU credits and additional presentations will be posted by SEER through December, 2009.
Tell you friends and fellow registrars about this new program!
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