Excellent post and viewpoint

• When MTSOs overhire, this is what happens: - Sitting idle
  • I find that this is usually an indication that - REASONS FOR OVERHIRING
  • Excellent post and viewpoint - NM

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I think sometimes, in our zeal to get hired, we throw everything into the pot.  We declare that we possess every skill that might help us to make the cut over other applicants.   We're a nurse, we transcribe, we can make coffee, can get grease spots out of a Brooks Brothers suit, drop his kids at day care on the way to work - no!  it's no trouble at all, really! - whatever.  In this case, having your office nurse also be your Transcriptionist probably seemed an attractive prospect, until the doctor's wife figured they were paying twice for what she thought they should be paying for only once. Now these very skills have been turned against the worker.  So your points 1, 2 and 3 are particularly valid. 

I have seen ads for MTs in local papers and the description of duties sometimes says, 'medical transcription, reception duties, appointments, filing, other duties as needed.'  Then I know I don't even want to apply for the position, as I have no idea how I could be MT as well as receptionist.  How frustrating it would be to have my concentration constantly interrupted!  This practice wants a secretary/receptionist they can make transcribe as well.  Lots of luck getting someone who can do both well. 

Any professional should balk at being told that a salary covers 'anything the boss expects' them to do.  Especially if this throws out an established arrangement and doubles someone's work load.  While we all like to be team players, if only the  owner gets a tropy this diminishes our team spirit considerably.

I'm of two minds on this.  I would either agree and simply not bust my butt getting the transcription done until it was piled so high SOMETHING had to change.  Certainly there is a limit to how backed up this practice will allow its reports to become?  Meanwhile I'd be looking for new employment.  Of course, as the reports piled up, you have to know the office manager would be timing your trips to the bathroom with a stop watch and accusing you of wasting time on her dime (as seems to be her nature) but I'm sure you could perform all your usual nursing duties with just a bit less alacrity in order not to appear idle.  Or I would simply call their bluff and refuse to go along (which might be shooting myself in the foot unless I had another job to go to. )

I would like to bring up the new technology of VR where the use of word Expanders no longer has the impact that they have with straight typing. 

I am doing editing and when I talk to others they were doing 300-400 lines with straight typing and word expanders.  Now they are editing that same work and perhaps doing an average of  400 lph and yet making half as much money.   It is an entirely different skill set learning to navigate quickly and get the work edited for speed, something which I am struggling with.  I would love it if editors would share their speed tips but usually all the posts I get go something like this:  I do 500 lines and hour and make more money editing OR I had to take a pay cut editing but no specifics as to why or how to build speed.  So that is not really helpful as to why there is more or less $ with editing.  I use my keyboar and not my mouse.  I am working as hard as I can but I only can do maybe 100 more lines tops with editing than I can with straight typing but my pay has dropped by 50%.  I don't see editing going away so to that end it seems as if the pay is dropping in transcription.  Does anyone else see where I am coming from????

like you think the MT's control the pay in the MT world? Either you need the job and you take it for the pay or you have another option. MT's without another option will take the job at 6 cpl, or 4 cpl or whatever. When working at McDonald's becomes an option that is equivalent to MT work, then MT's will choose McDonald's. 

The Transcriptionist is just ONE cog in the wheel of the whole industry. If people continue to look at only the MT's part, they miss the big picture. If all it took were people saying Let's all stand up together and demand better wages, then why couldn't the cashiers at the grocery stores across the US do the same thing? They can't. Because it they don't cashier for $8 an hour, there's somebody else who will. Same thing has happened with transcription. If you don't take the job at 6 cpl, somebody else will. It might be somebody from India (which you so quickly discounted) but I'll let you in on a little secret. The people from India who are doing MT typically have 2 master's degrees. They are hungry for work. They are intelligent, competent individuals, willing to work hard. They might have a little bit of a quality issue right now because of the language barrier, but it won't be long before you have lots and lots of Indian MT's with 2 years experience, who have learned from their mistakes, who have learned American idioms... and then you are really going to see the bottom drop of out the market.

and I don't think the top was *disrespectful* as the other poster said - it is a well-known fact that our current prez cannot form, for the most part, a proper sentence....

and to the ones who don't believe the sentence problems - suggest y'all start watching the news and/or David Letterman's first 10 minutes nightly.....or go to youtube or any other the other free video sites and/or Google some *bushisms* as they have *fondly* became to be known as.....after 6-1/2 yrs in office.  LOL

I have never heard of the other school, so I can't compare the two, but I have nothing but good things to say about M-TEC.  Once you graduate they have pages upon pages of companies that will hire you if you graduate with a good GPA, and that is key, as it is very hard to get a job as a newbie in this field, as many companies require 2 or more years of experience. M-TEC has a great reputation for turning out skilled graduates that many companies will waive their experience requirements.

It's definitely not an easy course, but it prepares you very well for the extremely challenging career of medical transcription.  I have heard that Andrews School is good too but maybe a bit more expensive.

I would recommend checking out the schools' websites if you haven't already to get more info.  M-Tec has a great message board that should answer many of your questions.  Let me know if you have any more questions and good luck in your choice!

p.s. I saw your other post asking if you think it's worth it to get into this field, and only you can answer that, but for me it was.  I paid a relatively small amount of money to go to school, I don't have to pay for gas to and from work, "fancy" work clothes, daycare for my children, and I work the hours I choose in my own home as an independent contractor and therefore have lots of freedom in my day to day life, which has always been a dream of mine.

On the other hand, I am pretty new to the field and find the job really challenging sometimes, and it is extremely difficult for me to get my work done with my 2 kids around, but each month it gets a little easier, and as it gets easier I am slowly making more money too.