What Time IS It?

Do you remember that song from long ago by Jim Croce? The title was, I think, "Time in a Bottle." Some of the lyrics went "If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do...."
I think there are different kinds of times throughout each day, each week, each year and season. We all understand "work" time: that time we necessarily devote to whatever we do to have an income to pay the bills.
There is also "spare" time. Now that is something most often in short supply! By definition that may be just time that has not been claimed by another activity or schedule, or is there due to a cancellation of something we thought we had to do. And how do we spend it? Do we automatically fill it with a "have to" we haven't found time for, or do we allow ourselves some space to do whatever comes along?
Then there is "value-added" time. These spaces are not "have to's" but a space we consciously allow ourselves to use that somehow adds to what and who we are. Such as spending an afternoon with a granddaughter. Or sitting on the beach listening to the waves. Or calling an old friend and catching up with all that is going on with your lives.
The time we spend nurturing our professional lives is part of the "value-added" time I think. When we spend time learning a new skill, adding to our understanding of medicine, using technology more effectively, learning how to advocate for our profession, it adds to our value.
Don't you think it is past time for us to get serious about spending the time to fully credential our profession? All around us in the heathcare field -- the coders, the cancer registrars, the records clerks, the lab techs, the phlebotomists, the nurses, the rad techs, the healthcare providers! -- practically every entity you can name is required to have a credential.
Can you do your MT job without a CMT or RMT behind your name? Of course you can. But committment to a credential also means committment to continuing education. And what might a speech recognition editor's credential do for your credibility? There is no arguement that healthcare continues to change, most often at the speed of light, and we are all challenged to keep up with what we need to know to stay effective.
There are critics of AHDI-promoted credentialing, saying that it is just a way for AHDI to make money. I promise you that nothing is further from the truth. Promoting, testing, verifying, tracking and recredentialing is practically a losing proposition from the standpoint of income. So why bother? Because it is the right thing to do.
When you look at the level of knowledge required to verify that the information in a healthcare document is accurate, and that our critical thinking skills are crucial to risk management, our profession puts us squarely in a tremendous seat of responsibility, whether you like it or not. It is a profession that should be credentialed. Not because it might earn us 4 cents more per line, but because our profession deserves the respect, consideration, inclusion and status accorded a credentialed professional workforce. Let's make the time to do this. I promise, it will be worth all our time.