While I believe that certification is an important step in one’s professional development; I doubt very much that it will have an impact in how you are viewed by the C-Suite and other areas of the hospital. The reason is that while you work hard studying for your certification exam, in some hospitals people can take a two week course and become a certified equipment cleaner or floor technician. Others offer a three month course to become a certified care assistant. The term “certification” has become so cheapened that it has begun to lose its value. I once took a one day finance course and received a certificate in finance that was suitable for framing. In fact, a few people that I worked with not only had their certificates framed but they displayed them proudly on their office walls. I am not suggesting your certification is meaningless, but in a world where everyone is certified at something or I can get a certificate for a one day course, the whole concept loses its value.
I can recall a time in the 1950’s when being an electronic technician was highly respected. It meant that you were a person who had knowledge of technology and were capable of doing minor electronic design, building prototypes from schematics and sketches, analyzing problems and troubleshooting to the component level. By virtue of their skills, technicians had the respect of both the technical and non technical community. Unfortunately, the term technician was so well respected that everyone decided to become one. People of varying levels of training and skills began calling themselves technicians. Today you can find floor cleaning technicians, security technicians, and pest control technicians. When you bring clothes the cleaners, they may be cleaned by a dry cleaning technician.
When people can get certificates and be called technicians with very little training, it tends to cheapen the value of certification and the title of technician. In some countries the use of the term “Technician” or “Certified” is regulated and persons using those titles must undergo rigorous training and examinations just like BMETS. Unfortunately, in this country there are no standard requirements for the use of the word “Certified” and many of those outside of our profession have no idea of how much study you undergo to get certified and how much training you underwent to become a BMET. As far as they are concerned, you and the certified equipment cleaner may be equally trained.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome
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