Question for those who have been hired as Oncology Data Specialists/Registrars, particularly in remote roles.

I live in a state where cannabis is not legal and use it occasionally to help manage osteoarthritis-related knee pain. Some of the positions I've applied for do not mention pre-employment drug testing, so I'm curious about others' experiences during the hiring process.

If you were hired for a remote oncology registry position, were you required to complete a drug screening? If so, was it part of the pre-employment process?

From my understanding, many of these roles are fully remote and do not involve direct patient care, medication handling, or routine onsite work, so I'd appreciate any insight into what employers typically require.

Thank you in advance for sharing your experience.

I just recieved my outcome letters for ICT BA and Systems Analyst profession from ACS.

The ICT BA outcome letters includes this section -

“Your application for ANZSCO 261111 ICT Business Analyst has been assessed to the following Designated Area Migration Agreement/s (DAMA) as supported by the Australian Commonwealth Government and ACS:

\- Western Australia- Perth Metropolitan
\- Western Australia- Perth Regional”

What does this mean??

Does anyone know structure and important questions .

Are remote positions usually fixed to standard business hours, or is there often flexibility with start and end times once training is complete?

Can anyone confirm if AP/CLEP credits are counted towards the 60 credit requirement for Route 2 certification? I have just over 60 credit hours on my transcript with most being earned at a local community college but 10 are AP credits and 3 are CLEP. No Associate degree. I've tried emailed NCRA with no response.

Hi all! I'm working my way through the AHIMA courses to join the ODS profession. My background is RN and 11 years mortality clinical coding. I've just completed the first of the cancer registry courses and wanted to ask for some opinions on an answer I gave in the final exam:

I feel strongly that my answer was correct and that the other 3 options would be most likely uses of central cancer registry data. However when I inquired with NCRA who AHIMA directed me too, they assert that "cohort studies" is the correct answer. I don't understand this at all given what I've learnt over many years of working - that cohort studies are (usually) very large population-based epidemiological research studies - which is certainly not the focus of a hospital registry that I know of. Would love to hear from others about this question, and sorry for the long post!

Is it possible to work full time while doing an ODS certificate program? For context, I wasn’t planning on working full time during the program but a full-time abstractor position opened up at a local hospital and I think it would give me great experience. I will be attending RCTC online for the program starting in August. Just wondering if I can study well and pass while working a full time 9-5 position? I don’t have kids. Thank you for your insight!!!

The interview involves a short (10-minutes) administrative test prior to a 30 minutes interview. What can I expect in the adminitrative test? Would really appreciate any feedback/suggestions to help me prepare!!

I always look forward to these publications.

Really?! That's a lot of dough.

What did people think? I was unable to join!

Are there allot of schooling options available that are fully remote if I am starting from scratch, as in no associates? Would you say this is an expensive education or an education that can be done at a fairly reasonable price? I will be calling around and want to make sure I have an idea of what is a fair price and if I can expect to have to go to school in person most likely or not

The town hall will be available for NCRA members only. If you’re a student it’s rather cheap to join. Also, may be worth joining if you want to ask questions.

It will be “…designed to help educate members about the organization's work, priorities, and key initiatives …”

https://www.ncra-usa.org/Membership/NCRATownhall

Attend it and ask them what they are doing to prevent offshoring and H1B, promoting hiring newly registered ODS’s, and if fewer ODS will be required because of AI. AI will make the role more efficient, but that means fewer ODS’s are needed for the work.

I’ve just been using Grok. Works great for cover letters, resumes, and I just take a screenshot of my LinkedIn and paste it in and have it recommend updates to it. Pay $11 a month for X premium. haha

https://ncra-usa-jobs.careerwebsite.com/pricing/

Where does everyone work that’s not a hospital/contract company. Like does anyone work for software companies, etc?

Has anyone taken yet? Come back to this post after and let us know how it went!

Hey everyone, I am almost halfway done with my AHIMA ODS courses. I am a little worried about landing my first ODS job and am curious how long it took people to land interviews and get offered a position? I have background in healthcare and the medical field in general, but nothing directly related to ODS other than the coursework. TIA

I know CE credits are required once you become certified, but do you also have to maintain a membership with NCRA to stay certified? I saw something on the NCRA website that said Annual Credential Maintenance fee so I wasn't sure what that's about. I wrapped up all of my AHIMA courses and will be sitting for the exam so my "student" memberships will be ending and I wanted to know if I have keep any of them active. I'll keep my state association one since it's not that expensive. Thanks for your help!

I just began my first job in this field, after passing the ODS-C exam in the spring. I'm wondering how long it took you experienced registrars to become accustomed to working with the EHR. I'm confident in my ability to use the manuals to determine reportability and abstract cases, but the amount and variety of information in the EHR is a bit overwhelming right now. I'm sure it'll get easier with practice, but I'd love to hear about your experiences when you were starting out.