Yes, the educational requirements are the biggest problem. You do
NOT even need to graduate from high school to sit for our exam.

The lack of education requirements keeps your salary down.

The NCRA Council on Certification is currently reviewing the
eligibility requirements to sit for the exam, so this may change.

--- In cancerregistrargroup@yahoogroups.com, c_carter_ctr
<no_reply@y...> wrote:
> I'm in the process of trying to identify a title for the Cancer
> Registry and the positions held within it that is in line with the
> national trend.
>
> I think that we're all in the same boat when it comes to not being
> able to compare one facility or registry to the next because our
> titles differ nationwide.
>
> The definition of a registrar from the American Heritage Dictionary
> is:
>
> NOUN: 1. One who is in charge of official records. 2. An officer in
> a college or university who keeps the records of enrollment and
> academic standing. 3. An officer of a corporation responsible for
> maintaining records of ownership of its securities. 4. An admitting
> officer in a hospital.
>
> I think that our role is so much more than this definition but will
> have difficulty in convincing our HR department in changing the
> titles if I can't provide any backing on the local, state or
> national level.
>
> Our Health Record Services department just changed their name to
> Health Information Management. I think that Cancer Data Management
> or Cancer Information Management would be more appropriate with our
> role but having the title of Cancer Registrar changed to Cancer
Data
> Manager becomes a problem because HR relates the word "manager"
with
> somebody who supervises employees and not just data.
>
> I'm sure that other registrars would benefit from a discussion
about
> this particular issue. The educational requirements necessary to
be
> a CTR also hinders some of the changes that we need in our registry
> to be able to compete with other positions in the hospital that
> require so much less than what we're responsible for. Any help
that
> you all can offer would be so appreciated!!!
>
> Thank you in advance for sharing!
> Charla Carter, CTR
> Cincinnat, OH