Part-time, flexible hours a big plus for this working mom.

Once you know how to read medical records and assign codes, your career possibilities are practically endless. Today, let’s meet Jennifer McBride, who works as a ]]> Part-time, flexible hours a big plus for this working mom.

Once you know how to read medical records and assign codes, your career possibilities are practically endless. Today, let’s meet Jennifer McBride, who works as a cancer registrar at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, UT.

What Jennifer Does at Work: She “abstracts” the charts of each cancer patient who been diagnosed with or treated for cancer at her hospital. She assigns codes to communicate particular information about each patient, and that data goes to a database available that cancer researchers use. She works with the ICD-9 codes that other hospital personnel have assigned, as well as her own profession’s ICD-O codes.

What Jennifer Likes Best About Her Job: She enjoys learning about cancer and the new treatments and trends. ”The work I do provides valuable information that helps doctors provide better treatment and survival for cancer patients,” she tells My Coding Career.

Biggest Challenges: The job requires a lot of focus and brainwork, she reports. “Sometimes the information I code is subjective, so it sometimes can be frustrating to provide the most accurate information … even after doing it 11 years!” (Sound familiar?) Also, the coding rules and guidelines change constantly. (Sound familiar?)

A Big Perk: When Jennifer began working as a cancer registrar 11 years ago, she worked full-time. But she’s been able to reduce her hours as her young family grows and changes. She’s enjoyed both a three-day-a-week and a one-day-a-week schedule. At this stage of her career she only abstracts, but there are lots of other things that full-time cancer registrars do.

How She Got This Gig: In college, Jennifer took some anatomy and medical terminology courses, and earned a bachelor’s degree in health promotion. She applied for a cancer registrar opening at the hospital, and got all her job-specific training on the job.

Some day, she might try to earn her CTR and become a “Certified Tumor Registrar,” but at her workplace there are no salary incentives to do so. ”From what I’ve heard, the test is somewhat difficult and has about a 60% pass rate the 1st time,” Jennifer says. “But most people that I know in Utah have passed it the first time.”

“My advice to anyone considering a career in cancer registry is to find out exactly what the job entails — maybe shadow someone for a day.” Jennifer suggests. “It is a good job that allows lots of flexibility, provides lots of learning opportunities, and for a full-time worker provides a variety of responsibilities.”

Coming to a city near you: Back-to-Basics Coding Seminars.

One career option for health information professionals (that’s you, coders and…