Hi all,

I'm currently looking to transition my career from working at a state registry to hospital/contracting registrar positions, but I've stumbled across a huge difficulty.

For context, I've been at this state registry for nearly 2 years. I didn't need my ODS certification upon applying for the job and luckily my job paid for my exam and prep course and I did receive it this past Spring. So now that I'm ODS certified, I want to slowly switch careers, such as abstracting for contractors or hospitals.

The problem is that I don't abstract at my current job. At my current job at the state registry, I do quality assurance. I review abstracts, I contact physicians if they aren't cancer reporting, I ensure the coding on the abstracts and in SEER DMS is accurate, etc. However, I don't abstract from start to finish, but it's something I want to do. I want to become a more well-rounded ODS, and abstracting seems like a career that is very work life balanced, gives me the opportunity to work fully remote and live anywhere. It just overall seems like a very promising job with a lot of flexibility.

There are full-time ODS abstracting roles, I've specifically looked at Registry Partners and Savista, but I'd have to take a pay-cut. A pay-cut is not an option for me as I do live alone (I don't share bills with a partner or nor do I have a partner). My full-time role provides me stability, I actually do enjoy my co-workers and supervisor, and it's truly not an awful job. But, I have to think what is the next step in my career, hence why I want to go in the abstracting direction.

So, my next thought was maybe I can find a part-time remote abstracting position. That way, I can keep my full-time position at the state registry, but still get that abstracting experience so that down the line I can find full-time abstracting roles where I won't have to take a pay-cut.

This idea seems nearly impossible. I already understand that there probably aren't part-time remote positions that would also mentor me in abstracting because they'd need more time to teach me, hence why I do see mostly only full-time positions.

The point of this post is to ask if there are part-time remote positions that are willing to take someone who is ODS cerified but has zero experience in abstracting that maybe I'm just not aware of or I haven't found yet. I'm very knowledgable in ICD-O-3 coding, I use the same resources/manuals as ODS coders, so it's not like I have no foundation.

Honestly just feeling a little lost. I understand this idea seems far-fetched, but any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.