Poll: school vs. OJT, etc.
Posted By: MT student on 2006-02-23
In Reply to:
I was just curious....
How long have you been an MT?
Did you attend an MT school, or did you receive on-the-job training?
That's all for now. 
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
posting for the poll
SS and also proud of it!~
Poll/question
If you were offered a job working for a company run by someone in another country such as India at .27/line would you take it ?
can we poll Heartlanders? Who has a job yet and who has a job that is better than the old one?
x
Best MTSO Poll
Who thinks they work for the best MTSO? Of all the companies, lets see who gets the most votes. I vote for Transcend.
That's why it's a poll :) . Trying to find out about
nm
Let's take a poll-which platform are
you using at WMX? Enterprise or Chartmatrix? I think that's where the problem is. I am thinking one side has no work and the other does.
Poll: Take or pass
After reading posts below here's the situation: IC at company presently for a while which has lots of work. Decided to take E-Trans plus for security of employee position. Husband provides benefits. After reading warnings below:
1. Take and try out anyway, despite the negative feedback.
2. Keep IC job and do as much as possible, as it has not been a problem there and no need to stir the pot.
Just confused and seeking feedback since new information has popped up on the board. I am like the newhire below and do not want to waste time if job no good! Thanks in advance for your advice.
ELECTION POLL
They are conducting a poll on the politics board. Please vote on it.
Poll question
As some of you may recall, I recently retired from MT. I was wondering if the companies y'all work for would be more likely to hire newbies if they had an experienced mentor working with them? I'm not trying to sell the service of mentoring but by way of explanation, I met a gal via the internet who is just finishing a course. I think she would make an excellent MT and I would like to help her. As we all know, a graduate of many of the schools don't have a snowball's chance of getting hired. I would appreciate your thoughts.
Taking a poll about VR
Do you use the mouse or the keyboard to maneuver through your VR documents? Which one do you think is faster?
MDI Poll: How many MTs have resigned since the
nm
Poll -- or pole dancing
Sorry had to give you a bad time. All you are paying extra as an IC is 7.5% of the social security and you should be able to write off part of that. You need to look at both, see if the IC offers something to make up the 7.5% you will be paying. You also have to know that you have the capability of putting aside your own taxes and paying them if you do not have a husband that can overwithold them for you. But again if it boils down to the scare of the taxes -- you only pay 7.5% more as an IC for the social security. As an employee they withhold the taxes for you -- you still pay them.
POLL: Best Company You Ever Worked For!!
Nm
Is the OSi I saw down further under the poll for the worst companies
the one in Atlanta? I just accepted a position with them and when I researched the archives, I saw good reports only about a month or so ago. Tell me this isn't the same one I am going to start working for!
Transcription platforms: A poll
What company do you work for?
Is your transcription platform easy to learn and easy to use? Do you have to go to multiple, multiple screens to enter data?
How much downtime do you experience a day? How many times a day do you have to work with tech support to straighten out problems? How many times a day do you have to either reboot or fix problems that occur that you have learned how to do yourself?
How many lines an hour or a day do you average?
Poll: Is your MTSO low on work (please name it).
nm
POLL: Which companies are currently using Voice Recognition
I am currently looking to change companies, and from the posts I have seen, VR does not seem to be too popular, with a huge cut in cpl, so I want to put those companies at the bottom of my list. 
Could everyone please list their COMPANY NAME and if they are
 Currently using VR
 Planning to switch to VR soon
Any comments about cpl, how long it took to get back up to previous pay, and if you like VR would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.
POLL:Worst company you ever worked for and why?
nm
Poll: What % of base rate does your company pay for ME?
MQ - 70% of base rate for ME.
Poll: How long does it take your MTSO to cancel
nm
preference poll ~ DocQscribe or Extext
nm
First poll on what constitutes fair MT wages
The numbers are in from the weekend USMLSU poll regarding fair compensation for full-time US MT employees:
BY THE LINE: All work types
- $0.11 per line base starting pay for MTs with 10+ years experience and scores of 95% or higher on pre-employment testing.
- $0.095 per line base starting pay for MTs with 5-8 years experience, and scores of 95% or higher on pre-employment transcription testing.
- $0.085 per line base starting pay for MTs with 3-5 years experience and scores of 95% or higher on pre-employment testing.
BY THE REPORT - Radiology and Pathology
- $1.10 per report for plain film radiology, CT, MRI, ultrasound
- $1.25 per report for interventional radiology
- $1.25 per pathology report
HOURLY PAY FOR MANDATORY BABYSITTING NO OR LOW PRODUCTION ACCOUNTS
Hourly pay would benefit those of us who spend countless mandatory scheduled 8-hour shifts babysitting overstaffed, underproducing accounts with little to no transcription work to be done. As it stands now, in order to sit in front of our PCs for 8 hours doing little to no work (because there is none), in order to be paid for this mandatory idle time we must work weekends or night shifts to make up pay and quota for benefits, or request to use precious PTO time in order to be paid to sit idely for 8 hours to fulfill an unreasonable request promised to the client by the company:
- $18.00 per hour base MT pay to monitor an account with little to no work - 10+ yrs experience and 95% or greater on MT pre-hiring test.
- $15.00 per hour base MT pay to monitor an account with little to no work - 5-9 years of experience and 95% or greater on MT pre-hireing test
- $12.00 per hour base MT pay to monitor an account with little to no work - 3-5 years of experience and 95% or greater on MT pre-hiring test
Please email your comments/suggestions/opinions.
This was a limited poll. Post your comments on
the Initiative web site, which I cannot post here because they keep deleting it, so ask around.
The more voices that are heard, the more input received, the more realistic the figures will be.
The person that posted that there are union MTs making $28 hourly with full benefits must have typed that during cocktail hour. It's not happening any where, especially not for at-home MTs who are paid by production and paid nothing when there is no work.
Poll on ChartScript- Would you mind telling your likes and dislikes? nm
nm
Well, in J-school...
they taught us to NEVER hyphenate after any word ending in a "y"...but who knows if that applies in MT land...
What's the name of that school?
xx
Yes, but are you just out of school? sm
I understand it being possible with experience, but it is presented as being available from home directly out of a course. I have yet to hear of or see that happen. If so, please share! I see more often than not people having trouble even getting that first job out of school. I've been working my butt off with no raise and no appreciation now for almost a year and am sick of it. I am currently starting a job with a new company and hopefully will find things better there. Hopefully, for me and others, I just had a really crappy first experience.
If the school was A or M, you would have SM
had a job coming out the door. I am guessing the school was C, and now you are finding out why C isn't the great school they make it out to be.
Which school did you go to?
A and M, as you put it, open the doors to companies that otherwise would not speak to a newbie, and I did not have a problem securing a job. You missed the point because you did not take the time to read my message. Instead you judged me!
It is not fair or realistic to expect an MT that has just graduated to be as good and productive as someone that has been an MT for several years. It is not right to ask the applicant to reveal social security and driver's license numbers along with granting permission to do a background check and to test before the applicant receives basic information about the company and/or job. Also, a number of companies, recruiters and MTSOs have been complaining about the bad quality of some MTs, that they do not show up for work or constantly need time off while at the same time there are numerous graduates from the top two schools that are eager, willing and knowledgeable that are not given a chance despite the good name of the schools and a good GPA. Many companies overhire which leaves some MT to find an empty queue at work sometimes. Account managers make promises to give you more accounts but never find the time to do so. It is also very difficult for a newbie if the QA people have less knowledge of the BOS, grammar, punctuation and terminology.
Many new grads post on the various boards that they send out a number of resumes and/or tested and never hear anything or after several weeks. Any honest MT with several years' experence will confim that even after going to one of the top two schools it still takes up to a year before it clicks. You never stop learning as an MT. How is a newbie supposed to learn if he/she receives no feedback? Some companies post on their website that they accept newbies but that they will treat them like MTs with experience. Like the other responder stated, they seem to have forgotten what it is like as a newbie. These people forget that at one point in their life they started as an MT with no experience. How many of those people were grateful for that opportunity that enabled them to get where they are today?
I see an opportunity to build a whole new generation of willing and capable American MTs. If we want to have better working conditions, if we want to be treated better, then we need to have an excellent education and be reliable. We need to deliver, and then we can make demands. Companies and MTSOs make promises they do not keep. What is so wrong about letting an MT do discharge summaries if that is what he/she prefers and train them on other reports and accounts when work is a bit slower? What is so wrong about limiting the number of doctors the MTs transcribe for? Why don't companies that require the MT to use their computer provide an up-to-date spellchecker and drug database? How can a company offer 5 cpl for an IC job? Why doesn't anybody approach the doctors about their dictation practices?
Why can't we all just work together and try to change those things so many people are complaining about on these various MT boards?
Which school?
M-TEC and Andrews are heads and shoulders above Career Step.
I know I am old school but it seems to me
that if you cash a paycheck from someone, you should not badmouth them at the same time. I hated the Q, yes, I did, but I left. I did not keep on taking their money while bashing them. Just sayin', that's all.
When I went to school for this MT career
What happened? I barely clear $30,000 a year in this field working for a national. I'm in debt up to my eyeballs. Someone please help me.
Both. If you do school, expect to do OJT anyway. nm
x
I'd concentrate on school first (sm)
and don't even concern yourself on which companies allow flexible hours. You would be more concerned at that point on getting hired somewhere as a newbie. If you're serious about being an MT, then concentrate on school. Start now before the baby comes and see how far you can get. It's not just a few month endeavor. Then, when you have finished school and have hopefully done well, that's the time to worry about where you are going to work and the hours they will let you work. There are the big nationals, and also smaller MTSOs that might give you the work in the morning and expect it back the next morning, and you work on it when it's convenient for you as long as you get it back. But...the big thing will be completing school AND getting hired.
It's not so much the school, it's the individual.
x
Nursing School
I never think it's too late to do what you really want to do!. I am an R.N. and can tell you that there is a severe shortage of nurses who really care about the people.
Go to school! Make a difference in somebodys life!
Never too old to go to nursing school sm
When I was at the hospital, there were new grads there in their 50s. Go for it. Plenty of jobs out there in nursing.
That's about the age my mom was went she went to nursing school.
Plus, whether you go to nursing school or not, you're still going to be 41. Why not spend this time following your passion?
Less than average school
But why would someone settle for a less than average school? Do they want to be content with producing less than average work? As a businessperson, that is what I would be concerned with in hiring such a person. I would want someone who cared enough to get the best education out there from one of the big 3.
I am getting a job driving a school bus.
That cannot be taken out of the country. They start at $13 an hour. Give my brains a brake, I mean break.
I have a boring last name, and when I was in school I always - sm
secretly wished a had a long, difficult to spell-and-pronounce last name, just so I could sit there and watch the teachers stumble over trying to pronounce it.
This is like in high school where
Why are these companies wanting to have initials for their names? Do they think it will make them more popular? For example, TTS, TT, MQ, KS..... There are others doing the same, and looks like this one that doesn't pay wants to be FST now so they sound more important and fly under the radar as Four Seasons known as a nonpayer. Professional to me equals proper name, and isn't that what the BOS preaches? Let's be professional insteady of like small children with little nicknames that are like baby talk!
Doing QA right out of school with NO experience????
That just doesn't sound right to me. Most companies require at least 2-3 years of experience just to transcribe! I can't believe anyone would hire a brand new MT fresh out of training to do QA!
Not just out of school. Are they hiring?
I have been working for over 6 months. I know that they say 3 years' experience, but that's what my present employer also said and they hired me right after graduation. I'm working in acute care on 3 different accounts and do basically every work type and subject matter. I am doing more than 12,000 lines per pay period (every 2 weeks) with 99.6% accuracy on my last random review. I would like to try to convince them to give me a shot if they have open positions.
You can do it ... (school + work) (sm)
I transcribe for 3 clients AND I go to school full time and have a family. It's doable ... difficult but doable. Keep your chin up! :)
In high school
my very first typing class (and we were talking the 1960s, Remington manual typewriters) one of my fellow students, who had never touched a typewriter before, was effortlessy typing 100 WPM within a week. Just a natural talent, I guess. Not a talent I possess, apparently. I am in awe of anybody who can do this!
willing to go back to school?
If you are willing to go back into 3-9 months of training there is this thing called Scoping - which is basically VR for the legal industry. Most courtrooms use VR instead of a traditional court reporter - the job of the court reporter is now to verify that the VR is working properly and is picking up the important people in the courtroom. The pay is pretty decent - about that of an experienced MT. The catch is you have to learn short hand because if the audio isn't working properly the reporter has to pull out her ShortHand machine and type it out - then you AR paid to translate it into a court report.
Search around for scoping jobs - there was one listed a couple of months ago on the job seeker's board, that's how I heard about it.
Old school gone internet
I've been at this a long time, 25+ years, started on a typewriter. I was hospital trained, learned out of a Dorland's. After working 5 years in-house, I started working at home. Again I worked with books; this was before AL Gore invented the internet ;) But, back in the good ol' days, the couple of services that I worked for over the ensuing years provided the reference materials, although you were responsible for buying your own drug book each year. So back in 'the day', I didn't have to invest in the books anyway, and that was even when I made better money. Now it would be pretty much impossible to go out and by those same books.
I also question whether you learn anything more from a book than you do the internet, though. My fave book back 20 years ago was the Medical Word Book by I think it was Tesio or something like that. Great book, I found my word almost every time, but I really didn't learn anything about the word I was looking up. However, and maybe this is just the way I confirm I've got the right word, I'm not just plunking HAYGAR DILATOR into google, I'm plunking HAYGAR DILATOR GYNECOLOGY into google, and will turn up Hegar dilator. And at this point, and maybe this is just the way I learn, I've connected Hegar and gynecology in my head, and learned more than if I ran my eyes down a column of H's in a book.
And that isn't something that you can just lay at the feet of the MT schools. I think good searching on Google is almost intuitive for some of us fortunate folks. But we are the exception, apparently. I know at UCLA, one of the classes my daughter was strongly encouraged to take in her first year was how to do proper internet research, how to judge the source of information, etc., and I believe they are starting to teach this at least on a rudimentary level in the elementary and secondary schools, too.
I do, however, agree 100% that grammar and spelling wise, these 'yunggins' are pretty weak. Spelling I blame on the advent of spell-check, and the only thing I can think of as responsible for the grammar is teacher apathy and/or the 'just move along' attitude prevalent in too many schools.
Sorry so long!!
Going back to school
I am going back to school so I will just get out of transcription completely.
going back to school
I've been thinking for a long time about going back to school, just kind of a vague someday-I-will sort of thing, mostly because I have known for quite a while that I'm not going to be able to make a lifetime career out of MT with the changes the industry is facing, but I always put it off. Now I'm starting classes at my local university in January and what finally got me motivated to get it going was starting on VR. Has anyone else noticed how quickly VR has been taking hold in companies the last year or two? It's just all over the place now, including MDI, and while the VR at MDI is pretty decent it's just been a wakeup call to me that I need to get in gear and get an exit strategy out of the business. The other big factor is EMR and the federal mandate for electronic records by 2012. I don't think that means all transcription will be eliminated by then of course, but I think as more clinics are forced into a system anyway a lot of them will go with something that does help them eliminate their MTs. So... EMRs taking over clinic jobs and the acute care MTs fighting over the VR lines to get the paycheck they need... it's just a dead end.
If you can go to school, I'd do it for sure. Keep on part-time with MDI if you need to or want to, but the best thing you can do for your future is make sure that there is a job there for you.
Going back to school
I know exactly how you feel about being sure you make the right decision. I am going back to school for nursing, after having been able to stay at home, full-time, for the last 15+ years as an MT. I'm going through a little anxiety at the thought of getting back out there in the workforce. While it served me quite well in those years and allowed me to be home to raise my children, unfortunately I agree with the other posts as far as MT'ing eventually being a low wage career in the near future. With VR, it is a nice break from typing but the pay is severely low and seems to be getting lower across the board for both straight typing and VR work. So, my 2 cents is it never hurts to train for another profession, if nothing else to fall back on if you need to. Go with your gut...it's usually always right. 
|
