A cancer registrar is an important aspect in the Health Information field. Maintaining a cancer registrar guarantees that healthcare facilities have precise and well-timed information of cancer patients while guaranteeing the accessibility of data for treatment and research. Cancer registrars have unique education requirements, qualifications and credentials, work settings, and job responsibilities. “It takes educated and knowledgeable registrars to ensure captured data are accurate, precise, and specific to the cancer site” (Journal of AHIMA, 2008). Cancer registrars is an exciting field to learn about and to be a part of.
About Cancer Registrar
Education Requirements
In the beginning, cancer registrars were educated on the job by health
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care facilities workers who would partake in cancer treatment. Today there are official education programs at colleges to educate about cancer data management. “Curricula include cancer and its management, medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, biostatistics and epidemiology, cancer data abstracting, database record management, cancer program management, cancer registry procedures, among others” (National Cancer Registrars Association, 2014). Like all professions in the medical field education is very important and is required as well. “To be eligible to take the CTR (Certified Tumor Registry) exam, candidates must meet education and experience requirements” ( To become a certified cancer registrar there are three paths one could take.
A Path is a certain route a student or profession can take a part of to become a certified Cancer Registrar. On Path A, is to successfully complete an associate’s degree in Cancer Registry Management or Cancer Information Management from an NCRA accredited program. On Path B, one must successfully complete an associate’s degree in any field that is similar to Cancer Registry Management or Cancer Information Management and to attain a certificate in Cancer Registry Management or Cancer Information Management from an NCRA accredited program. Path C, is one must successfully complete an associate’s degree in any field and to partake in two semesters of Human Anatomy and Human Physiology. There are three, three week long testing periods that candidates must take and submit an application for as …show more content…
well. Experience Requirements Along with having an educational background work experience is a requirement for having credentials to be a certified cancer registrar. AHIMA prefers “6 months experience in cancer registry abstracting; Prior inpatient and outpatient coding experience using ICD-9-CM and CPT-4 preferred” (Cancer Registrar, 2015). Although, every accredited program might approve of different work experience lengths. For Path A and B, some accredited schools require up to 160 hour clinical practicum. For Path C, 1,950 hours are required which is equivalent to one year full-time job experience in the cancer registry field. Credentials. “The CTR®, Certified Tumor Registrar, credential marks achievement, fosters professional pride, and is nationally recognized in recruitment and retention of registry personnel” (Cancer Registrar, 2015).
Credentials in any health care facilities is very important and most the time mandatory. There are several two year colleges that offer an associate’s degree in Cancer Information Management to become a certified Cancer Registrar. If you have an associates or bachelors in Health Information Management or Health Information Technologists than there are certificate programs that is available to be specialized in Cancer
Registry. Work Settings Like Health Information Management and Technologists, Cancer Registrars can work where needed. Cancer registrars can work in hospitals, labs, private offices, government facilities, consulting services, educational settings, software vendors, and pharmaceutical companies. It is more common for a Cancer Registrar to work in hospitals, government facilities, and private offices. “Pharmaceutical firms, software vendors, regulatory agencies, accrediting organizations, and researchers are all looking for qualified cancer registrars” (HealthCare Pathway, 2014). Cancer Registrar’s are becoming more demanding for research facilities as well to help catch cancer before it starts or to help treat cancer. Job Responsibilities Cancer Registrar is a very multi-tasking job. The responsibilities of a Cancer Registrar is almost a never ending list. One must review patient’s records for accuracy and completeness, gather and structure data from both inpatients and outpatient records, pathology reports, death certificates, as well as autopsy reports. A strong knowledge and understanding of medical terminology is almost required. Cancer Registrars are required to participate in various medical staff committee conferences and assemblies to provide specific and collective data for the medical staff to make accurate and more beneficial cancer treatments plans. Other responsibilities naturally include following up with registry patients to observe and record progress, protecting patient information and assisting with assigned special projects. Conclusion Cancer registrars is an exciting field to learn about and even more to be a part of. A cancer registrar is an important aspect in the Health Information field. Maintaining a cancer registrar guarantees that healthcare facilities have precise and timely information of cancer patients while guaranteeing the accessibility of data for treatment and research. Cancer registrars have special education requirements, qualifications and credentials, work settings, and job responsibilities. The Cancer Registrars field is predicted to grow within the next 10 to 20 years and is guaranteed to stay in the healthcare field.
This is substantial because employers would rather hire registered sonographers. Slone Career Cornerstone Center states that although no state requires licensure in diagnostic medical sonography, organizations such as the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) certify the skills and knowledge of sonographers through credentialing, including registration. Because registration provides an independent, objective measure of an individual 's professional standing, many employers prefer to hire registered sonographers. Sonographers registered by the ARDMS are Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (RDMS). Registration with ARDMS requires passing a general physical principles and instrumentation examination. Sonographers must complete a required number of continuing education hours to maintain registration with the ARDMS. Registered medical sonographers are more likely to get the job and pay they desire and
To become a CRNA, you must first receive a bachelor’s degree in nursing and attain the licensure of a registered nurse. You must also have at least one year of critical care experience, which is obtained in areas such as the emergency room or intensive care units. Once you have received licensure and critical care experience, you have to be accepted into an accredited anesthesia program with a typical duration of two years or longer. Once you successfully complete the program, you then take the national certification examination. To become specialized in specific patient populations, such as pediatrics or trauma, you would need to work at a specialty hospital. As of right now, there are no scholarly programs to become certified in subspecialties. There has been recent discussion focused on changing the crit...
Life’s experiences, work, and education have prepared me to further my education. I will achieve this goal with the ability to analyze situations, make informed decisions, and provide my patients with the best evidence based care possible. I will also have the ability to impact change in quality improvement, policy and procedure, and overall patient care with evidence based
Breast cancer has always been a common thread among the women of my family; especially on my mother’s side, including my Grandmother whom passed away due to this disease before I could ever meet her. More so, my mother was gravely affected by this disease early in my life. Thankfully, she was able to stop the cancer from spreading; the doctors were able to find the cancerous cells and remove them. Due to this grave, but powerful impact on my life, I have been determined to becoming a biomedical scientist to assist on the research and treatment of this deadly disease. Although this acts as my principal driver, to study in this field, I have also been intrigued and driven by the idea that I could aid lower setting regions to receive health benefits using studies in translational medicine and
The leading cause of death in America is lung cancer. Lung cancer is ranked top 10 fatal cancers in the United States. There are many types of ways to get lung cancer. There is radon gas it occurs outdoors naturally. Then there is second hand smoke that comes from other people smoking. People are even getting lung cancer from cancer causing agents, this happens from carcinogens. You can also get it from air pollution indoors and outdoors. Also there are gene-mutations that form cancer causing cells. Then there is the one everyone blamed lung cancer is smoking.
Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is the most common type of acute leukemia in adults. AML is a heterogeneous disease which results from genetic alterations in normal hematopoietic stem cells. These alterations induce differentiation arrest and/or excessive proliferation of abnormal leukemic cells or blasts [1]. Recent genomic studies have identified that recurrent somatic mutations in patients with AML blocks differentiation and/or enhance self-renewal by altered transcription factors [2,3]. The genetic or the epigenetic changes acquired by AML cells disrupt the key growth regulatory pathways and changes will make the normal cells to attain certain malignant characteristics which include inappropriate proliferation in the absence of normal growth signals, indefinite self-renewal in a manner analogous to a stem cell, escape from programmed cell death, inhibition of differentiation, aberrant cell cycle checkpoint control and genomic instability [4].
Leukemia is a cancer of the white blood cells. It begins in the bone marrow, the soft tissue inside the bones. Within the bone marrow is where white blood cells are created, that help fight off bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms within the body that cause infections. The disease develops to when the white blood cells are being produced out of control. The cells that are being produced do not work properly as they should, they grow faster than a normal cell would and don’t know when to stop growing. Overtime, if not treated properly, the white blood cells will over crowd blood cells, creating a serious problem such as anemia, bleeding and infection. Leukemia cells can spread to the lymph nodes and other organs in the body causing swelling and pain.
This paper will identify the use of Electronic Health Records and how nursing plays an important role. Emerging in the early 2000’s, utilizing Electronic Health Records have quickly become a part of normal practice. An EHR could help prevent dangerous medical mistakes, decrease in medical costs, and an overall improvement in medical care. Patients are often taking multiple medications, forget to mention important procedures/diagnoses to providers, and at times fail to follow up with providers. Maintaining an EHR could help tack data, identify patients who are due for preventative screenings and visits, monitor VS, & improve overall quality of care in a practice. Nurse informaticists play an important role in the adaptation, utilization, and functionality of an EHR. The impact the EHR could have on a general population is invaluable; therefore, it needs special attention from a trained professional.
Diagnosed with lung cancer, now what!? Time to do some research. Lung cancer is the number one cause of deaths in males and females. The causes, diagnosis, and treatment of lung cancer have advanced recently with new technology available to scientists and the medical profession. Lung cancer develops when the cells grow abnormally and tumors form instead of healthy lung tissue. It can take place in one or both lungs, normally the cells that line the air passages. Not all tumors are cancerous, the ones that do not spread are benign tumors. The more tumors that develop in the lungs will cause the lungs to work less efficiently. The metastatic tumors spread to other parts of the body passing through the blood stream or lymphatic system.
Cancer has been seen in humans as one the most potentially fatal disease for thousands of years and only in the recent couple of hundred years have we discovered that most information necessary to bring us to today’s understanding and knowledge (Kenny 2007, Weinberg 1996) was achieved by extensive research of cells, DNA, and epidemiology studies. As we know, currently cancer is acknowledged as having over a hundred different diseases, and is known to be the result of mutations of the genes and almost similar DNA which are responsible for the amount of cell division and production (Kenny 2007). Restraint of cell growth modulators can be a direct lead and result of certain tumours being developed and subsequently allow these tumours to acquire the ability to attack and occupy the bloodstream and essentially be able to travel via the bloodstream to other parts and organs in human bodies which is known as metastasis (Loeb et Al 2003). Once this has occurred , the cancer is then categorized as malicious and becomes a dangerous and serious threat to the carrier (Weinberg 1996). In this essay I will describe and explain the process of this and how our genes mutate and lead to metastasis of cancer cells.
In life we come across many struggles and hardships. Some have more struggles then others but we all have them. Breast cancer could be one of those struggles whether male or female. Breast cancer is not just something that a woman can get like most people believe. Anyone can get it. In this essay you will about what breast cancer is, some symptoms, how it is treated, and my personal experience with it. Most people do not know what breast cancer is they just know that it is cancer in the breast.
Ostrow, N. (2011). Screening for lung cancer with chest x-ray doesn’t cut deaths, study finds. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-26/screening-for-lung-cancer-with-chest-x-rays-doesn-t-cut-deaths.html.
Cancer is a deadly disease that affects millions of American families each year. In cancer, cell division isn't controlled. Usually, cells have to go through a set of checks and balances before they divide, in cancer that is nonexistent. The cells just keep duplicating until they eventually form disorganized clumps called tumors. Tumors can either be, benign, meaning that they do not possess the power to metastasize to surrounding areas. If a tumor has the power to metastasize, it is classified as a malignant tumor. In simple terms, a benign tumor is not cancerous, and a malignant tumor is. Cancer cells cannot perform the necessary functions they were created for. Some types of cancers, like pancreatic cancer, cannot be cured. Other cancers such as melanoma and breast cancer have high survival rates when caught early. The four major types of treatments used to treat cancer include, surgery to remove the affected organ, radiation, chemotherapy, or biological treatments.
Cancer has become leading cause of death across world in the class of non-communicable diseases. This has led to massive research in cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Diagnosis of cancer in early stages could prevent its spread to other organs of the body and possible cure of the patient. More and more different types of cancers are being identified and mostly they have to be treated differently. Cancer classification plays a very important role in cancer diagnosis. Earlier strategies used for cancer classification: morphological and clinical had some limitations. They were not able to predict cancer subtypes accurately. It has been identified that giving treatment according to the tumor type is more effective for the patients. Tumors of a particular type of cancer differ at the molecular level, i.e. the genetic level.
Breast Cancer is a type of cancer originating from breast tissue, most common from the inner lining of milk ducts. The most common type of breast cancer is called Ductal Carcinoma. Another type of breast cancer is Lobular Carcinoma, which begins in the lobules of the breast. Breast Cancer can occur in all men and women, sometimes male breast cancer is rare to happen. Breast Cancer can be two types it can be invasive or non-invasive. Invasive means that it has spread from the milk duct to the other parts of the breast and non-invasive means that it has infected other parts of the breast.