How long does it take for a graduate to get a job? It all depends on the graduate!?

• getting a job as a medical transcriptionist - BRANDY
  • oh, they want want to hire you, - uhhuh
  • How long does it take for a graduate to get a job? It all depends on the graduate!? - Kate
  • Newbies - Dianna
    • Please...... - Kate

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I just finished school back in Nov. of 2005. I've been looking and looking for a job online and still have had no luck. The only response I seem to get bac from anyone is that I don't have enough experience. Does anyone have any pointers on what I should I do, or how I should approach this field? Please help me!!! I don't know what to do anymore!!

I graduated this year from a community college which used the Career Step program in addition to some other courses.  It was all done online.  I have been working for 3 months, and have learned almost as much from working as from school so far.  The difference is that you are doing 800-1200 lines a day so you are exposed to a lot more information.  However, I don't believe I would have passed the entrance exams without everything I did pick up with the schooling. 

I would definitely encourage formal training of some sort because it is such a competitive industry.  I honestly don't think you could get hired from home, or pass an entrance exam without a good deal of training.  The 98% accuracy they are looking for on their tests is tough to hit without very strong grammar, med terminology, and AAMT/AHDI standards knowledge.  I am not making much money now, but I know within a year it will be different.  I am home and that is invaluable to me!

Good luck! 

student loans and a rural setting normally will not pay as much.  Maybe the practice is small and enough patient's don't come in, maybe lots of them done have insurance or the insurance companies don't have a set fee across the country that they will approve, but what is the norm for a particular region.  More and more larger practices are adding hospitalists so that doctors aren't having to make rounds now, but there was a need to have the office close to a hospital before.  If doctors do surgery or don't have hospitalists, being close to a hospital is important so they can get there quickly in the event of an emergency.  Some docs want to specialize and there might not be enough interest in rural areas.   I also living in a rural setting, though the doctors in our area aren't very good and I would never go to one of them.   I think there are still doctors who want to practice in a rural setting, but they just can't afford to. 

how many in your party and if you are flying or driving. It can be anywhere from $1500 and up. Stay away from the mid July and August months because that is when Disney literally has thousands and thousands of teenage Brazilian tourists that visit and will drive you crazy. It's like their senior trip but with 100 times more people included. Each group has a specific color shirt they wear to the park so all you see is a sea of people with the same color shirts with the name of the tour on it to identify which group they are with. They cut in line, they are verbally abusive when you ask them not to cut in front of you, they pretend not to speak English when you just heard them speak English. If you stay at the hotels when they are there, they are running up and down the sidewalks and all over the hotel all hours of the night. Plus the heat is crazy during those months and you'll want to stay in the pool the whole time you're here.

I used to make $70,000 and up a year and did so for most of the late 80s and 90s (one girl used to make six figures a year working 7 days a week!)  Because we were making more money than the supervisors and Medical Records Directors in hospitals, they began to switch to transcription services which were sprouting up all over the place.  Plus AAMT came into existence and even though in the beginning it claimed it was to fight for transcriptionists (although assured us it was NOT a union), they eventually morphed into an organization that was more management friendly.  They developed the "guidelines" and the 65-char line.  That was the beginning of the end for those high-end wages.  Then all those mickey mouse transcription schools popped up, and now outsourcing overseas.  YES, we're complaining. 

I'm very sorry that your lines are 90 characters line and you get paid by gross lines.  You are cheating yourself - that's not my fault.  You cannot change the definition of a gross line.  So I gues I'm not understanding what you are trying to say.  Now if you are trying to say that your line equals 90 characters and that's how you figure your lines, than you are not using gross lines.  You have defined a line to be 90 characters, whereas most MTSOs define a line as 65 characters.  If that is the case, then I must say again, you are cheating yourself.

So which is it, do you get paid by gross lines or by a 90 character line?

I have one female who sounds as if she has cotton stuffed up her nose and she has just returned from the local pub.  Instead of correcting, she just rambles and you have to figure it out. For example:  "Social history is significant for review of systems noncontributory and mother with diabetes.  Pt has never had this before." 

I do find the female ESLs easier than the male ESLs however.

which of my cats is looking for attention. 

Otherwise ... around 90 minutes, I suppose. It's up to my fingers.

x

I was divorced at 30 and remarried at 31.  No, I wasn't looking, but along he came and he was only 26 and had never been married, fresh out of college and ready to settle down.  I'm glad it happened then because at 31 you can still get a good guy quite easily.  I had a 3yo and it has worked out magnificently.  She's almost 18 now and he has been Dad for a very long time, as her father moved across country and she only visits a couple times a year.  But blended families more often than not are rocky.  I was very lucky.  If my kids were older than 3, say school age, I would be more inclined to wait until they are raised.  It's too hard for them to adjust at that point.  As for remarrying now in my 40s?  Probably not.  There's not much out there except all the leftover and discarded "toads" I'm afraid.  A few lucky ones find a great guy in middle age, but I'm afraid your chances of getting struck by lightening are probably higher.

I actually prefer doing consult letters over all other kinds of dictation.  Some doctors are concise and to the point, and some are long-winded (just like anything else).  I have found that there they mostly say the same things over and over, so it is a good way to use a lot of Instant Text and boost your LPH.  You still have the basics (CC, HPI, PH, SH, FH, Meds, etc.) but you are working in paragraph format instead of using all the headings.  Remember to ask for a sample of how they want them done in particular.   

The only downside is that you will have to edit them for grammar and tense issues rather than just do verbatim transcription, but it's not a hassle by any means. 

I've known other transcriptionists who hate letters, but I really enjoy them!  Good luck!