EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Register of Clinical Technologists

There's probably no harm in such a person joining the RCT (and it may be a "requirement" anyway) ... but I can't imagine how you would learn anything* by doing so.

In my experience, you learn "medical engineering skills" - almost every day - by actually doing the job!

Wouldn't you agree?

* Anything useful, practical or technical, that is.

I would hate to have had my career path determined by a voluntary body, especially one that is not recognised either by the government or any other official body within or outside of the UK

... not voluntary.

By who's authority?

I believe that the RCT and achievement of registration for a person is a good feedback measure for any EBME/Clinical Engineering department providing training for individuals as they progress through their career. With their successful registration, we have some external assurance for ourselves that we have provided for them an objective, recognised and balanced spectrum of experiences and knowledge. Which can only benefit themselves in future their career and the department going forward.

We have it as a desirable quality though not essential (as it is voluntary); I actively encourage all of our technicians to develop a portfolio of evidence from day 1, somewhat aligned to the RCT equivalence route criteria, to support their eventual RCT applications and evidence experience and competence. Older hands are a little less on board with the evidence gathering for sure but it is still encouraged and annually reviewed.

What's wrong with the "evidence" of hundreds of jobs (and maybe thousands of PMs) successfully completed over the period (year-to-date, or whatever)?

... the bullies in the playground.

PS: whose

I was a member of the RCT, but left as the fee kept going up with no noticible benifits.

As someone who has interviewed many times, I couldn't care less about if someone is on the register. It makes no difference to them being a competent technician, same goes for having a degree, having done the job for umpteen years etc... (some of the best i ever employed were ex-BT engineers) When you interview you look for the best candidate based on what you are looking for and setup the interviews to achieve this aim.

I was chatting with a couple of Openreach blokes* recently ... they reckoned that the majority of their colleagues were ex-Armed Forces.

* Both were ex-Royal Signals.

I felt it was going no where, and without true meaning. So i dropped it off even the desirable creteria for the whole team. I really wanted it to evolve into something useful but it never did.