RT (R)(CT)

Well, yesterday I took my CT registry exam. I know I haven't said too much on the blog about it (more so on Facebook and twitter), but I was pretty concerned. For the practice exams I was fairly well stuck at 80 (while it is a percentage, they don't call it a percentage). That was better than the 64 I had when I first took a practice exam. But it's a lot less than I'm used to getting. So yesterday as the test started I was pretty nervous. I do well on standardized tests, always have. And I was fairly certain I would pass. The question was by how much. You need at least a 75. There are about 180+ questions (for our test you have to answer all the questions or let time run out, this is compared to the nursing registry where once you achieve a 75 they stop asking questions). So, after an hour and 15 minutes (we have 3 hours), I scored a 93. Booyeah! Which is slightly less than the 96 I got on the X-ray test, but I'll take it.

So, for now I'm done. In the future I may look at getting MRI (their pay is pretty good, but it's also a much different pace and a lot more actively controlling the scan). I would love sonography, however the limitations of a man going through the program are a little high (there are some highly invasive scans, for my practice/job I would need to have a female tech with me during those scans, a little cost prohibitive on the employment side). So it's an RT(R)(CT) for me. Reboot is done for now.

Which means it's only the CE credits (24 every two-years), hospital education (there is A LOT of that), and recertifications of the licenses I hold (which is also a pain). No more evening/Saturday classes, clinical time (internship), and stupid student hoops to jump through. Just the regular employee hoops.

Not that it frees up that much time, however it does free up some head space (I had to do all of those things before, and go through school and study for the registry, etc).

I don't want to jinx it, but I might be able to have a life again.

Now, as to the writing… I've had discussion about how day jobs affect and inform the writing. Working in health care is doubly so. I have experience working in a factory, working as a pro designer, working as a politician, with various levels and responsibilities in those, you'd think I'd have a lot more. But it's my experiences working at the hospital that I think have added to my ability to tell a story. It might be because those other areas were so well entrenched in my head by the time I decided to get serious about writing and that health care has all been upfront and new. I don't think that's all of it, though. Time (and the words) will tell.