Believe it or not, the southeastern chapter has three states with no imaging personnel licensure; Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. Georgia licenses equipment but not personnel. With hard work, two of those states could be turned around this year. Alabama has a licensure bill introduced to the state legislature and North Carolina is not far behind.
North Carolina decided to instate a rule that requires anyone operating a CT scanner for a diagnostic CT must hold a CT certificate from either the ARRT or NMTCB. SPECT/PET CT is in the nuclear medicine technologist’s scope of practice and there is no requirement to have a CT certificate to operate hybrid equipment.
Make sure you do not allow your CNMT or ARRT(N) credential to expire. Now more than ever you need to keep them current because hospitals and imaging centers are starting to require them. Many nuclear medicine technologists have allowed theirs to expire and are without jobs. If you have let them lapse, contact the ARRT or NMTCB as soon as possible to see what your options are to get them back.
Look to your state society’s facebook page as the SECSNMMI-TS Advocacy Committee will be posting information important to you on those sites. Keeping informed of current events is essential in our field and now it will be easier for you to know what is going on.
Cindi Luckett-Gilbert, MHA, CNMT, PET, FSNMMI-TS