If you don't register now you may regret it; registering now is easy and cheap, after the voluntary register closes registration will be much harder.

Consider this - by the time Clinical Technologists are State Registered you will be employed as a Clinical Technologist - MTO titles will have gone - and if you are not registered you will not be allowed to be employed in your (by then) current post.

It has been said that the only reason the state wishes to register people is so that they can be struck off, if you do not register, or fail to keep up your registration, you could be said to have struck yourself off.

So what happens to people who strike themselves off? Well they get a choice - they can go home on no pay, or they can do most of there job but get paid less, e.g. a theatre sister at a local hospital (who know personally, this is not apocryphal) failed to renew her SR a few years ago was offered temporary employment as an auxiliary - I seem to remember she stayed home for a month or so - I'll ask her.

Will we ever be state registered? Med Phys Techs (i.e. the patient contact guys) will certainly be, but "engineers" (even those currently calling theselves Med Phys Techs) only maybe. As I understand it the HPC is insisting that there must be at least one university offering an approved degree in "Clinical Engineering" by the time of registration and if there isn't it cannot go ahead (they can hardly insist on future registrants having a degree when there isn't one!).

Another thing that wil stop SR for biomeds is an objection from somewhere, and guess what, there has been an objection (more than one?) from Estates type BME people. Basically these guys say we don't need a degree, not required, not paying for them to go to college, can't be bothered, etc (such people have also been heard to say that people with degrees are pillocks and don't know one of a screwdriver for the other, and so on). Of course people are entitled to an opinion just as I am entitled to an opinion of their opinion.

I say this, maybe a degree is not the be all and end all, but people in professions which require a degree will eventually get more than those in jobs which don't.

To make it easy I will put this in the form of a multiple choice question

Who decides what we get paid? is it
(a) the inverse interlectuals who decry the need for a degree
(b) the HPC and the like who don't
(clue - the correct answer is not (a))

If we wish to be viewed as professional we must wear the professional's clothes, adopt the professionals' attitudes and aspirations (or walk the walk and talk the talk).

The recent Amicus information showed that Phys Med Techs are likely to do better than us under A4C. Did they achieve this by talking down the interlectual rigour of their jobs? "Oh, sticking these electrodes on is about the same as working the tills in Asda" or was it "Oh yes Doctor my DEGREE in physiological measurement adequately prepared me to understand and undertake the vital and highly skilled task of ......."?

So radiographers and nurses have degrees and radiography aides and auxiliaries don't, which do you want to be? Which gets paid more? Do you want to be electricians and wear your (metaphorical) boiler suits or you want to be technologists and wear your white coats (and your degrees) with pride.

You should bear in mind that most of us now in post won't actually need to distress ourselves with the tedious business of proving that, when it comes down to it, we do know what we are talking about. In case you wonder, I think the sharp end goes onto the screw...

Thanks, that's cleared up any misunderstandings.
(Thanks for the clue on the multi choice.)

At the moment it will cost you £10, or you might not be able to continue with your present salary.

Come on guys & girls join the club.

You can't prevent the inevitable.

As far as I understand it the state never pressed for us to be registered. IPEM were the driving force for pushing us along this path. Now I don't know who IPEM are or they can justify speaking on my behalf. I have no desire to be state registered I am quite happy the way I am. Does anyone seriously know what happens after registration ? Will it be like the Clinical Scientists where designing a form for out of hours working gets you so many CPD points ? What a farce. I don't need points to tell me how good I am at my job. One further thought how many state registered nurses have been done for murdering patients lately. Obviously registration made their patients completely safe !!! Say SOD OFF to the beauracrats. Anybody like to tell me how wrong I am.

Grahame

If an individual is not registered they would be unable to work unsupervised. I am currently on the clinical scientist grade but am in the process of an application to HPC. I can currently work undersupervision of my line manager, if I don't manage to get state registration by the time the HPC close the transitional arrangements in July I simply call myself something else as it would be illegal to claim to be a clinical scientist. I have discussed this with my line manager and he said I could call myself an equipment manager as this is not a protected title and work under his supervison (using the term loosely).

Yes state registration is important but by not having it won't automatically put you out of the job. It just means you will have to work under supervision (well on paper at least) and call yourself something other than Clinical Technologist as that will be a protected title. I suspect EBME technologist would be acceptable as this is not a protected title.

Bioman,
If you work under supervision you are puting yourself down as far a AfC grading is concerned And as we all want to score the most points we can surely it is better to have in your person spec "able to work unsupervised".

I am registered as a clinical scientist not becasue I had to but because I wanted to. The more bits of paper and recognition you have the further you can go, I want to progress in my career. If Bill wants to say "up yours" to the beaurocrats that is his decission and his career. I agree with Graham we can either play the game and raise our profiles or be left behind only looked upon as grease monkeys.
I was a nurse in the early 80's when they were low paid skivies to doctors. That profession has since raised its profile, made the standard qualification a degree equivalent and are doing very nicely thank you.
May be we could learn from them.
Robert

Thanks for your comments Robert, you may note from my previous post that I am in the process of registring as a Clinical Scientist. I agree it will help with the AfC process, I was merely pointing out the ways round the state registration issue as Graham was painting a picture of people putting themselves out of a job without the required bit of paper.

I like you am seeking SRCS because it will benefit not only my AfC chances but also my career prospects as this seems to be a requirement for C grade appointments. It is also seen as a requirement when going down the MIPEM/CEng route.

Re nursing, my wife was a sister and left the profession a few years ago due to the fact that degree qualified nurses feel it was beneath them to do basic nursing duties. She can count stories where she has asked a student or recently qualified D Grade to change a bed or empty a urinal only to be told I didn't do a degree to do THAT sort of thing. So yes the profession has raised its profile but at the expense of basic patient care.

In the end she gave up battling with the new breed of nurses, it's not very nice being looked at by a D Grade who has 0 years experience with the I'm better than you because I have done a degree attitude. However this was only the minority but as you can imagine it can get very tiresome fighting those sort of attitudes. And the ironic thing was that my wife did a nursing degree to keep up with the times.

Do we really want to learn from them?

Have I missed something Grahamedriver. Have they published the requirements for state registration and I missed it? How can anyone say that it will be more difficult to join if you are not a member of the voluntary register if they don't know what the criteria for state registration.
This great voluntary register that we keep hearing about is basically nothing more that a petition that you pay to sign and has no bearing on the final State registration.
I have nothing against state registration but until something is actually put in writing laying out criteria for joining I believe that anything 'voluntary' is a waste of time and money.

If anyone can actually explain how this voluntary register will make it easier to sign up for state registration (when it arrives) then please let me and others here know.

TNBT, If the voluntary register is no more that a paid petition in your opinion and you have stated that you are not against registration then why not pay this 'petition'? There are numerous organisations that people pay to support, the union is one example. Isn't showing you support for what you believe in a worthwhile thing to do?

Slight tangent but if a nurse of any grade or experience said that to some of the Sisters in the hospital where I work they would to quote a well-known phrase 'get their head in their hands to play with'. If any individual is asked to perform a task by a line manager which is within the remit of their job then the person should do it whether they have a degree or not, state registration or not.

I'm not suggesting that people should not question what they are being asked however the job that they have applied for is the job that they should be prepared to do. Although the job profile may have risen, it doesn't necessarily mean that the basics skills/ task of job is any different is what was required in years gone by.

There are two reasons for joining the voluntary register.

a) it forms the petition for creation of a State Register

b) even if you don't care about SR, or even are hostile to it, if it does happen you are better in it than out of it. Past experience is that people on the voluntary register go through on the nod whereas other people have to apply and pay a lot more.

As an example I am SR Clinical Scientist I was not on VR, applied late, paid £300 for the application, people on VR got in for £20. OK?