RESTON, Va.-To meet the changing needs of health care, the SNM Technologist Section recently revised its "Scope of Practice for the Nuclear Medicine Technologist 2007." The updated, forward-looking scope-with its primary focus on public protection and acknowledgement of the evolving nature of technology and science-clearly defines a technologist's procedures, actions and processes in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.

"Scope of practice is a fluid concept. It changes as knowledge and technology advance and medical imaging evolves," said SNMTS President David Gilmore, who speaks for more than 8,000 nuclear medicine technologist members. "The dynamic work of nuclear medicine technologists has expanded into the rapidly emerging-potentially revolutionizing-field of molecular imaging. New tools are being made available as instrumentation, radiopharmaceuticals and techniques rapidly progress," he added. "Nuclear medicine technologists must possess the knowledge, skill and ability to perform their duties. Our scope of practice recognizes changes in medicine and technology and promotes better consumer care and competent providers," added Gilmore, who is the program director for the school of nuclear medicine technology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass.

"The scope of practice for nuclear medicine technologists now includes performing computed tomography (CT) scans and administering contrast (oral and IV)-with appropriate education-as well as in-vitro testing (blood glucose testing and urine pregnancy testing) and transmission imaging," noted Gilmore. The scope includes parameters for patient care, quality control, diagnostic procedures, radiopharmaceuticals, radionuclide therapy and radiation safety. This document will receive regular review for consistency with current knowledge and practice, said Gilmore, and aid states in defining licensure and hospitals and clinics in approving job descriptions. The updated scope of practice appears in the September Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology, published by SNM, the world's largest society for nuclear medicine and molecular imaging professionals.
"Our scope of practice is a generic description of the practice of nuclear medicine technology and includes information about the profession and its current and future status," explained Cindi Luckett-Gilbert, chair of the SNMTS special task force to revise the scope of practice. "It includes parameters to define the profession, such as federal and state regulations, institutional regulations and professional standards," she added. "The biggest change to the scope of practice was to include performing CT scans and administering contrast," said Luckett-Gilbert. "Since many of the state-of-the-art nuclear medicine cameras-as well as the positron emission tomography (PET) scanners-have CT scanners attached to them, performing CT scans becomes one of the nuclear medicine technologist's tasks," added the supervisor of PET/CT imaging for Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, N.C.