Congratulations to all the National Cancer Registrar’s Association (NCRA) 2011 award winners! Awards were given at the 35th Annual Education Conference held in Washington, D.C., in April, 2012.
A cancer registrar can experience setbacks for many different reasons. As the information experts in healthcare they must balance dwindling resources with increasing complexity in data collection along with increasing demands for their resources and expertise. As with any profession, it is not uncommon for a setback or challenge to get out of control and develop into a full blown crisis. However, while crisis is uncomfortable it can bring you face-to-face with what really matters and force you to clarify and take notice of something you might have otherwise missed. It is in these moments that the cancer registrars develop their resiliency and strength of character.
Here are five steps the cancer registrar can use as they deal with setbacks:
Know that everything you feel, when faced with a challenge, is valid. It’s OK to validate your feelings as long as you do not become consumed by them.
Share your feelings with someone who can be objective and help you to see around the obvious obstacles towards a positive solution.
Focus on the moments in your life, or types of situations you have experienced, that created a positive emotion. Hold on to these moments as you face the challenge – they are a platform for you to use as you move forward.
Surround yourself with peers or individuals that will actively help you focus on your goals and making the right decisions. Eliminate negativity in your network.
Never let a crisis go to waste. Analyze the lessons and insights and channel these into your strengths. These experiences will continue to serve you the rest of your life. Never forget that growth follows setbacks. Here are a couple of questions to ask: (1) What can I learn from this? (2) What is working, or what is right about this? (3) Where can I use my strengths to help me get through this?
Use these questions to generate meaning and productive thoughts. Don’t be afraid if the questions bring about an emotional outcome, use these to your advantage by creating something positive and turning them into a strength of character.
Lastly, decide to look at challenges and setbacks from a positive viewpoint rather than one of failure. Your attitude and mindset will determine which direction you go. Focus on what is working and the steps you are taking to reinforce positive actions. Let your emotions and behaviors amplify the positive intentions and outcomes you wish to receive.
Winston Churchill said, “When you’re going through hell, just keep going.” Cancer Registrars may identify with Churchill but more importantly they should adopt a positive mindset and determine to face challenges and setbacks with the intent of developing strength of character and resilience.
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http://www.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.
We all have a mission for our lives. It is our job to find and live our this mission by using our talents and skills to do important work that serves others. Fulfilling this mission is hard to do when you become complacent, apathetic or uninvolved with your life. Cancer registrars are not immune to these feelings.
So, here you are…what are your options? First, you can change what you are doing by quitting your job or getting a new job, finding new work, going back to school or maybe even taking a risk and trying something new … whatever. But, whatever you do you need to move yourself into a new phase of your life and one that is passionate about your work and committed to using your talents to serve others.
It’s not uncommon to jump into something new because we want to find fulfillment and end up missing the best opportunities that are closest to us. So, before you leap, your second option is to discover or rediscover how to serve others and how to bring meaning to what you currently do.
This second option is almost always a better solution. There are many different ways that we can bring service and meaning to our lives, right in our immediate reach. For example, if you manage or lead people, ask yourself how you can better serve their needs? Cancer registrar’s can ask themselves how they can better serve the members of their organization’s cancer program? Really focus on finding that one thing you can do to add value to their work and the communities they serve? How can you add meaning and value to people around you? How can you make life better for your friends or family?
Finding your passion will probably not require that you to sign up for foreign service. But, it does require you to re-examine your current situation and to reach for new opportunities available to you. Keep in mind that this is not an easy pursuit and those closest to you may question your motives, not to mention you might end up scaring the daylights out of yourself! But, this is your best path to lifelong success and true passion. Persevere through the challenges and setbacks, don’t give up or settle for less. As you emerge through the challenges you will be able to receive joy, passion, fulfillment and success!
Cancer Registrars have a secret weapon called emulation. This is a powerful tool, not to be confused with blatant copying, but rather an emulation and adoption of processes and methodologies used successfully by others. It is a bridge between the basic foundation and structure of a cancer registry department that can add value and meaning to the cancer program as a whole and, even beyond that, into cancer surveillance nationwide.
Here is how it works. Registrars should routinely take time to evaluate cancer registry best practices and the operations of other cancer registries and programs in your area or across the nation. Initially, gather as much information as you can to get a broad spectrum of ideas. Then, begin to study the processes and methodologies you like and envision as adding value and excellence to your registry and organization. Then, develop an implementation plan for putting the material into action. Tailor the plan to fit your needs and align it with the mission and vision of your organization. As you gather information look for elements that will inspire and motivate the team as you begin putting the plan into motion. Never underestimate the power of a seemingly small idea, or spart of creativity, that can turn the team’s interest and motivation into a fireball of creativity.
If you’re worried about copying, you don’t need to be. Although you did start with another person’s ideas, you have uniquely tailored your plan, built upon the original ideas and turned them into something that you can call your own by drawing upon your professional instincts and experience.
After practicing your new emulation skills you will be able to fine-tune your selection of ideas and methodologies and more efficiently develop your own unique action plans. You will get excited about your program and others will see your efforts as having a significant contribution that adds value and meaning to the cancer program. Instead of limitations or roadblocks you will begin to see creative options and multiple pathways to creating a successful cancer registry program.
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http://www.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.
In case you haven’t noticed, we live an a less-than-ideal world and most of us fall quite short of being perfect. As cancer registrars we have learned the value of having all the facts and data reviewed before we launch a new study or project. And, while that is still considered the ‘best practice’ it does not necessarily apply to everything that we do in our registry operations.
For example, if you are working on a draft of the Annual Report and you need something in hand to take to Cancer Committee, you may want to have as much information completed and ready for review as possible. But, as the day of the Committee comes closer you realize you didn’t have enough time to work on the report as you would have liked. Some will feel compelled to work overtime hours (usually without pay) or to let another deadline or target date slip to spend hours working on the report. What you may want to consider, instead, is whether or not your vision of the report for Cancer Committee really needs to as complete as your first envisioned, or would something less still be acceptable.
All too often we overtax ourselves and our systems trying to make something perfect or complete. When you find yourself in this situation evaluate what is really needed and what is important at that moment in time. This will help you make the right decisions. Your challenge is to get things done – maybe that’s why they call it managing. Don’t get bogged down by the idea of perfection. It does not exist, so take action instead of standing still.
“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’
Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools
Experiencing life through the five senses is a wonderful ability that cancer registrars and analytical thinkers can possess. This ability has potential for making a giant contribution to their lives. Just like the mind, our senses also gathers information and feeds it to our nervous system. But, this happens on a completely different level than pure mental analysis, it is a completely different kind of intelligence.
In reality, when our senses are fully engaged, our analytical thinking often comes to a grinding stop. It is in that moment that we can fully savor the moment or experience something special. For example, when you stop to smell a fragrant rose, or you step outside or from a shadow into the warmth of sunshine, what do you feel? Do you stop to analyze it, or do you just experience it?
Analytical thinkers, like everyone, need to take those few moments to savor life and experience something that brings alive your senses. Our mind does something wonderful in this moment when it takes a few moments to suspend its analyzing of information in order to let us experience and love life!
More to come on the wonderful characteristics of the cancer registrar’s analytical mind. We hope you enjoyed this post and encourage you to take a few moments today to savor the moment or to experience something special in your life!
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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 health care. Copyright 2010, Michele A. Webb, All Rights Reserved.
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.
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.
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.
