© 2000 by Oxford University Press
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 92, No. 3, 187,
February 2, 2000
© 2000 Oxford University Press
NEWS |
Varied U.S. Therapist Training Programs May Prompt Legislative Action
In perhaps no other industrialized country is the preparation of radiation therapists more varied than in the United States. The largest number of U.S. radiation therapists are the product of 1-year certificate programs; others hold associate degrees from a 2-year college, and still others have a baccalaureate or even a master’s degree. And all it takes to become a therapist in 15* of the 50 states is to be hired because no formal educational or training requirements are on their books.
U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.) is expected to introduce a bill that would mandate educational or training requirements as a condition for Medicare and Medicaid coverage of radiation therapy services. (Medicare is the federal health plan for the elderly and disabled; Medicaid is the federal-state partnership for the medically indigent.) By putting the enormous purchasing power of these two programs behind the mandate, the measure would in effect—if it becomes law—ban entry into the occupation through apprenticeships.
The Society of Radiologic Technologists, meanwhile, has its heart set on a baccalaureate degree requirement for entry-level radiation therapists. The reasons are to be found in a lengthy, thoroughly documented report that is available on the ASRT Web site (http://www.asrt.org). It argues, among other things, that the degree requirement is warranted by the therapists having to be ready to: 1) deal with powerful, increasingly complex and ever changing technology; 2) closely collaborate with other members of the health team, most of whom have higher educations; and 3) become skilled in communicating with patients and their families.
The long and short of it, according to Sal Martino, Ed.D., ASRT’s director of research and education, is that because nursing, social work, physical therapy and other ancillary health care professions have moved toward bachelor’s degrees so should radiation therapy because patients deserve no less.
*Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
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