I'll write it..I am a professional freelance writer as well as an MT
Posted By: mg on 2007-06-11
In Reply to: We need to get a consensus here of as many MT's... - dinosaur
Let the ideas roll!
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Meant professional writer. Know what HIM is. Sorry. nm
X
Maybe I'll write a mystery
A murder mystery. Where a doctor is found strangled. Everybody in his office loved him. His patients loved him. His wife was crazy about him. Nobody can figure out why anyone would strangle ol' Doc whathizname.
The detective is totally stymied. He's looking around the guy's office. He goes to the hospital. He's trying to get a handle on the guy's personality. Everybody at the hospital is so bummed out. Except in the transcription department.
Or maybe I'll write a short story about the people who crash land out in the wilderness. Among them are a first year medical student and a transcriptionist. One of the others gets pains in the right lower quadrant. The Transcriptionist has done so many appendectomies she can recite it verbatim, which she does while the student takes out the appendix.
Or maybe....
Why not freelance? (sm)
Check out elance.com. It is one of the few sites that will give you a peek at the types of contracts they have available.
Where can I get freelance work? NM
Please
Are you serious? My girlfriend worked freelance for
nm
Buy if from your husband. Have him write you a receipt. Write it off completely or
depreciate it over a few years.
I know of people who do freelance writing and editing.
That's what I want to get into. I have a membership to writersmarket.com to find markets to sell articles and stories. There are free writers market listings out there, too. I belong to a ladies online writer's group and there's a local writer's group here. I just don't have time to do much with it. I did a couple of newspaper articles, but it was a joke. I'd have to drive somewhere, interview someone, write the article, edit the article, all for $50.
What do you want to do? You know, what would you be doing if money was not an issue for you? What would you spend your days doing if Santa waved his magic wand and paid all your bills for you? That's what people ask me as I try to find my niche in life. All the magazines and websites out there need freelancers to do their articles and copy for them.
I think you'd be a great writer. (U already are.) - nm
x
I'm a steno writer
I went to school to learn how to use a steno machine, like in court, to "type" my medical reports. I have been doing this since 2000. I trained at 225 words per minute back in the day, so now I have a reservoir of speed to draw from when dictation speeds up. I rarely need to lift my foot off the pedal with steno.
I think steno is the fastest way to produce a report, but now that MQ is forcing us to do ASR work, I am not using my machine as much. To me, this is unacceptable since they only pay 70% of our base line rate for ASR. I have hung in there so far, but I'm fast approaching the need to get out of MQ since I used to produce 2000 lines a day easily with steno, way less now on ASR reports.
They say ASR is 30% faster than non-ASR thus they justify knocking off 30% of our base rate. Not true. ASR has slowed me way down, can barely make the minimum each day. Last I heard, they will not take us off ASR if we request it. I'm getting madder by the week and losing tons of money in the process.
lanier voice writer
Does anyone know of any companies that still use these? I am a die hard Lanier fan! Thanks.
She is a great writer. I read
In the Meantime, by that author, she used to be on Oprah a long time ago. Thanks for the poem, enjoyed it, especially the last line.
lanier voice writer
 HELP! I'm going crazy. All of a sudden my foot pedal went down on this unit - I have opened it and replugged a million times to no avail. Any solutions or suggestions/ Thanks!
Writer and PT marketing consultant
z
Lanier Voice Writer 1000
Client uses phone in Lanier Voice Writer 1000 with MTs coming into the office to transcribe. What is necessary to hire at home transcriptionists with this system? Are there tapes involved, will a c-phone work or can you not hire at home transcriptionists with this system? Thank you for any help you may have.
What do you need a Master's Degree in to be a science writer?
?
For all the fans, very interesting insight from the writer of the show.
Shonda Rhimes long take on part two:
From Shonda: It's the end of the episode (as we know it)
Original Airdate: 2-12-06
So Dylan’s dead.
And I have to admit, I’m a teeny bit relieved.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kyle Chandler. He was great as Dylan. Smart, funny, cute, and very much in charge. I was, in fact, a little bit in love with Dylan. Not as in love as I am with McDreamy or Burke but…you know, there were moments during the filming of the episodes when Dylan would be saying something bossy or helping Mer down the hall, pushing that gurney and being all bomb squad-y, moments that I was thinking, hey, maybe he doesn’t have to explode.
But still I am relieved. Why? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here’s why:
At the end of Act Five, there is a scene. Scene 52. I wrote this scene about fifteen minutes before I had to print out the script and hand it over to production. It reads as follows:
INT. OR CORRIDOR -- CONTINUOUS
Meredith leans her head out. Sees Dylan heading down the hall. She's just about to open her mouth...
...When the ammo explodes. When Dylan explodes. Fire, shattering glass. Meredith is thrown backwards.
Okay, that’s…what? An eighth of a page? A sixteenth of a page? A tiny fraction of the script, right?
The ammo explodes.
Dylan explodes.
I wrote those words and was actually ignorant enough of the horrors to come that I gave it to the production team and then slept the sleep of babies and angels for several nights in a row.
The ammo explodes.
Dylan explodes.
Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
All of the sudden, you find yourself in meetings with real live bomb squad guys and special effects guys and a very tense director and everyone is asking you things like “When you say, bloody rain…you actually want bloody rain or just like, some blood spatter?” And things like “When Dylan explodes, you wanna see chunks of Dylan or do you want like, a Dylan vapor?”
These are thing I don’t want to think about. These are things that make my head hurt. The ammo explodes. Dylan explodes. It’s in the script. I wrote it. I know that. But I don’t want to think about Dylan chunks or bloody rain. I don’t want to think about it at all. I like to write things and have them happen. I like to keep myself in a kind of stalker-ish fog in which I believe my characters aren’t characters but actual people. It’s how I can write them. So when you ask me about Dylan chunks, my brain gets all twisty and shuts down. Because Dylan’s a person, a very real person to me and I love him and it’s not my fault he has to die and besides…yuck.
But I’ve got Rob Corn on my ass.
Rob Corn doesn’t care if I try to kick everyone out of my office when they bring up bloody rain or he doesn’t care if I try to pretend I can’t speak English when someone asks me about bloody chunks. Rob Corn is the producer on our show and it’s his job to make things happen and, if I am stupid enough to write Dylan explodes on a piece of paper, Rob Corn is damn well going to make sure that Dylan explodes. Behind his back, I like to call Rob Corn Bossy McBossy. It doesn’t sound affectionate here but in real life, it’s really sweet and kind. Trust me. Anyway, Bossy McBossy told me that we had to do tests so we could figure out how exactly Dylan explodes.
Tests? Dylan explodes. What’s there to test? HA! I’m clearly an idiot.
They built this model of Dylan’s body and one day I am herded out onto the back lot of the studio at the request of Bossy McBossy Rob Corn. Then I have to stand and watch as 20 or 30 really happy guys (testosterone is a powerful thing) position the model of Dylan just right and explode it into tiny little pieces. Twice. It is very loud. Wow. Dylan explodes. I’m all, “great, thanks, way to go, very manly.” And I turn to flee, prepared to head back to my office, happy that the Dylan explodes part of this is over so I can pay attention to the other stuff, the estrogen stuff, the fun stuff like Bailey and George giving birth and Derek describing that kiss to Meredith…
…But Rob Corn raises an eyebrow and very gently says, “Uh, Shonda?” and I go really still with horror. Because I suddenly start to realize that a) that little test was only the beginning and b) that, for the rest of my life, I was going to regret ever typing the words Dylan explodes into my computer.
They blew up test dummies. Tall dummies, dusty dummies, dummies with helmets, dummies without helmets. They blew up test dummies filled with fake blood. They blew up pieces of our set. They set off an explosion on the set of our operating rooms. They used stunt girls and stunt guys. Ellen let them pull her through the air. I think there were blue screens and green screens and animated pieces of debris and glass. The genius special effects guys added fire and smoke and things I can’t imagine but things that made it amazing. The sound guys added over 100 layers of sound elements so that, if you have HD and you watch with surround sound speakers, the explosion flies at you and passes you and swirls around you.
Dylan explodes.
The explosion was beautiful. Amazing work and truly impressive. I told everyone so. I can’t believe the amount of talent and energy that come together to make this show happen. But next time I get a Super Bowl and post-Super Bowl time slot, I’m gonna write something different. Something a bit easier. Something less time-consuming and expensive. And without so many bloody chunks.
Dylan puts the ammo down and goes to have a sandwich.
Enough about Dylan, may he rest in peace. I want to tell you about the difference between the first episode titled “It’s the End of the World” and the second episode “(As We Know It)”.
I tried really hard to make the first episode very male and the second episode very female. I wanted them to fit together, like puzzle pieces. So that I could have two episodes about the same thing but that felt very different from one another. The first episode is all amped up energy, all naked girls and screaming and bombs and running down hallways and men saying things like “Get out of my OR.” The second episode is all long pauses. Long pauses and sitting and pushing out babies and kissing in linen closets and lots of discussion about how the hell this is all going to end. The first episode is what happens when danger strikes. The second episode is how we deal with danger when it strikes. The epicenter of this episode is the hallway/gurney scene. It’s the first scene I envisioned at all when thinking of these two episodes. I kept saying, “there needs to be this scene where Meredith and Cristina move down the hall really slowly with the ammo and Dylan and talk about boys.” And everyone kept nodding very politely with tight smiles the way they do when they are sure you have gone off the deep end. But Elizabeth Klaviter (she’s our super smart medical researcher) got on the phone with the bomb squad guys and the doctors and she got them to tell her how this would be possible. How I could get that gurney rolling so Meredith and Cristina could discuss the state of Cristina’s relationship. I needed that discussion which, for me, is really just a big old metaphor for how we deal with the tragedies in life. You’ve got your hand on a bomb but you don’t want to talk about it over and over, you don’t want to face it – so you talk about something else. Most of life is talking about something else. Plus, I found this really cool song by The Greenskeepers that I was dying to use.
George is a big key to this episode. If you pay attention, he’s the one who serves as our witness. Through most of the episode, he wanders around, a bit bewildered. He’s the one who feels the most helpless. And then he has that moment with Hannah where she talks about the nature of cowardice, where she says that to do nothing is to be a coward. And he acts. He helps Bailey through giving birth. In the first episode, he’s fantasizing about what it would be like to see three women in the shower. In the second episode, he sees what three women in a shower is like in reality. Because, guys, women don’t just climb in a shower and start soaping each other up for no reason. Hello!? Life isn’t porn. Life is Meredith, bloody and battered, being gently cleaned off (chunks of Dylan) by her best friends. And so he leaves. Because what he is seeing is too intimate.
The last thing I want to say about this episode has to do with Meredith. Because all she really wants is some kind of reason to live. I’ve heard a lot of talk about Meredith being whiny but the truth is, she’s got a mom with Alzheimer’s, no other family to speak of, and the man she loves is married. She’s pretty freaking lonely, people. She’s got a right to get her whine on. So, when she falters, when she doesn’t want to pull her hand out of Mr. Carlson, it’s partly because she’s got nothing to hang on to. As she says in the first episode, she needs a reason to go on, she needs some hope. Which is why she has to picture Derek to get through it. And at the end, when he shows up at her house (and he shows up just to see for himself that she is alive), she has to ask. She has to ask him about their last kiss because if she’s ever going to get out of that bed again and keep going, she needs a reason. She needs to know there’s someone out there for her. She needs some hope. And Derek (can Patrick Dempsey be any more amazing?) describes that last kiss, the last kiss they had as a happy couple, in such perfect detail that Meredith knows she’ll be okay. Because he wouldn’t remember that kiss so well if he didn’t love her. He couldnt. Its her sign.
He loves her. Even if he can’t be with her. Even if he has a wife.
He loves her, people.
I told you, there’s hope.
I can’t promise you anything because, like I said earlier, the characters are alive for me and thus, I can’t make them do anything against their will. But my fingers and toes are crossed for the Mer/Der love…
Once again, thanks for watching the show.
Anything by Elie Wiesel...he is an amazing person/writer..nm
nm
Too bad the writer didn't address the true reasons why this is not
an attractive field to enter.
Who in their right mind would spend time and money training in a dying profession? Can you say EMR, ASR?
Who in their right mind would spend time and money to train for a job which conceiveably could end up paying minimum wages, few benefits, little reward?
How many have spent time and money training only to find there are few companies who will hire newbies, few companies who offer flexible work schedules, few companies who work with you to make a living wage rather than to throw you into a pool of accounts guaranteed to keep your wages low?
How many expert MTs have left the profession due to reasons above?
CEOs need to wake up and take care of the excellent MTs they can manage to retain; quit messing with our paychecks with creative line counting, quit throwing multiple accounts at us and then expect 1000s of lines a day, quit basing our health insurance on production rather than hours worked; quit expecting us to be happy to work outside our scheduled hours because you provided no work within our scheduled hours with your too tight TATs, and on and on.
How often do I recommend this profession to young people? Never.
digital phoneline with Lanier voice writer
I recently had my unlimited long distance suspended because of the time I was putting in on the lanier voice writer. I as going to switch to digital through the cable company with a data line added for access to dial tone. Does anyone have any suggestions good or bad on the digital phone line used with the LAnier voicewriter. Please let me know.
Thank, Lisa
I just sent it to 60 Minutes staff writer - You guys help me- please read
Who ever mentioned sending it to Lou Dobbs, Dateline, or anybody else, please send this along yourself and name who you sent it to here on this site, so it is not duplicated to the same person too much. Girls, I don't want any credit for this - I just want someone to look into this who has access to any credible sources and figures. What ever it takes to get this out there - please help me do it. We are talking about 30 MILLION jobs and counting. I have already sent it on whitehouse.gov and to 2 newspapers. Copy the thing. Spread it around as much as you can and encourage others to do the same.
Sitcom & screenplay writer/philanthropist. - no message
:)
Professional
You sound like a "professional" with an attitude. Maybe you had better seek some therapy or meditation. What ever happened to "judge not, lest ye be judged" and treating others like you would like to be treated? Like I said before, maybe it was just an honest mistake. Apparently he has some degree of professionalism to have been approached by two different doctors. Take a look at his work before you pass judgement.
Professional
No, this isn't religion 101, it is LIFE 101. If you treat everyone you know the way you treat most of the people on this board, I would expect that you will be losing your professional position, as well, real soon. My error rate is quite fine, thank you, but I do have the heart to forgive others "their" mistakes, too. Maybe you need to find another place to work for. MQ does not seem to be agreeing with you. You also have too much time to be responding to job boards. I wonder how much work you get done in a day. HMMMM???? The truth of your anger was in your last post...."maybe you are one of those recruiters that will hire just about anyone, including illiterate people, TO TAKE MORE OR OUR JOBS AWAY." your insecurity is showing. Don't take it out on innocent people. Deal with your own issues first. Good luck to you. Life is tough. Suck it up.
HERE'S HOW A PROFESSIONAL WOULD DO IT ..
OLD TIMEY MT eh?!! Here's how a professional would have written the ad:
Seeking a well-seasoned medical transcripitonist with a vast fund of medical knowledge, and who has experience with computers, transcription software, FTP, expanders, and reference software for the transcription industry. Seeking an individual comfortable with computer technology and willing to learn our proprietary software.
...that's it, that's all she needed to post. If that person was professional, the first rule is to state what you are looking for, NOT what you don't want. Be clear and specific, not make negative statements because it only reflects on the person writing the ad and the company. Shame, shame.
professional
This is major. Seek a professiong, I live in the South and still see Blue Hairs and Pink Hairs. How it comes out depends on the texture of your hair, your base color and many other factors. That's why its costs. I would be leary of anyone who did it under $125.00
As a professional...
I expect the same courtesy I give. The doctors want clear, easy to understand reports; I want clear, easy to understand dictation. I don't care if it is ESL or English or poor communicator in general: if you want someone to type what you say, say it clearly. I think it would be unprofessional to accept substandard quality; that's part of what has gotten this profession into the jam that we're in as it is.
non-professional?
What?! We look non-professional just because we work at home? Ridiculous! Professional depends on the person, not the location. And you mentioned doctors working at home... Most docs in the past worked at home and they were very professional. And have you not seen Cosby? ha Professional is an attitude, a person's demeanor, not a location. Who wants to work in an office with all the politics and garbage when there is a perfectly good, honest, respectable, AND PROFESSIONAL option to work at home? I have been in business over 15 years AT HOME and have never had anyone tell me I was unprofessional. I think it is very honorable and a blessing from God to be able to be with my kids, and I support anyone trying to do the same.
Not very professional to
transcribe a report on somebody you know personally. Would you want one of your family members or friends to look at your medical records, especially if there were things you wanted kept private? I am shocked that any MT would do this and call themselves a professional. There may not be a law, I don't know, but it would certainly make a valid lawsuit if it ever came out and rightfully so.
You say you are being professional
But then you are saying you will do it on the side like a hobby for extra cash. What's the difference? You are talking out of both sides of your mouth.
Yes I have kids and I am no less of a professional than you and I do a good job. No I couldn't take my kids to work, so I telecommuted for the hospital 3 days a week. My kids are school age. I've been doing this for 19 years. So don't tell me that it's not professional to work from your home.
But, there was a lady with a sick bird and the boss let her bring it in and kept in her office so she could feed it! HA! No kids, but birds were allowed. Well, there was one girl that was allowed to have her kid there while she worked, but she wasn't an MT, she was a secretary.
Now you see why I left to come home to my safe haven where I am making almost twice as much as I did at the hospital. No, this will never be my side gig. This is my main professional career and I'm darned good at it and I'm glad to help sick people and professionals in the healthcare industry document medical records. I'm not afraid to research anything and don't care how long it takes either. I'll get the answer! And no, I have no desire to be QA because I'm an MT and that's what I'll be God Willing and the creek don't rise!
It'll be the most expensive magazine subscription you'll ever get! No point in joining. nm
s
I think you should MYOB also. If she is a professional,
she is simply doing her job without getting personally involved in the particulars and as long as she is doing it on her own time and using her own equipment, then I do not see a problem.
dream on, Ms. Professional...sm
profession is defined as, "a
calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic
preparation." Hardly MT work. 
Professional flyers
I do flyers and they are very "professional" and so what if they offer a free car wash. I found that most office managers just want to "look" to see what it offers and I feel opening a letter is sometimes takes "too much time" while at a flyer they can just turn over and read immediately what it is about. Again, I think whether letter or flyers if you are at the right place at the right time, you can nab an account. And yes, have gotten several accounts that way and one has been with me for 18 years. So probably either works, I just prefer the flyer. But remember just like selling a house, it takes time and you have to put it out there to several hundred to get a bite. And once I get a bite I then go in and talk to them taking cookies or something. Also when I am looking for a new account I do several mailings about 6 - 10 weeks apart so I stay fresh in everyone's mind. I also inform my present docs and their gals and offer a small bonus to anyone that helps me land a new account I am sure that everyone has their way of soliciting for new accounts and it has worked for them and so they feel it is "the only way to go" but whatever route you take you have to get out there, be visible and that means to a lot of people as with that also you get word of mouth between offices.
Good luck.
You are so right! So professional its totally
unbelievable. If I weren't living it, I would never believe it.
Why XP-Professional version?
Just wondering why companies require us to have XP-Pro now instead of home edition?
Very professional. Love it!
You just made my day!!! 
Why not consult with a professional on this?
You seem to have a lot of questions that would be better answered by a professional. Of course, that wouldn't be free, so maybe that's the rub.
better yet, imagine a MT who is professional!?
x
Either Professional or Medical v9.5 nm
.
I would never use a professional suffix unless it was a PhD.
I have my two-year associate's for transcription, CPhT from pharmacy certification, a bachelor's degree and am almost done with a master's degree. It's pretentious and silly to use any of them.
what Professional Writing is.....sm
It's writing for the business world, as opposed to "creative" writing such as fiction novels or poetry.
My classes are focused on things like science writing, technical writing, newspaper/magazine, financial writing, speech writing... So if I wanted to stay in healthcare, I could look for a job writing for a health magazine, or maybe writind/editing textbooks.
It also prepares me for jobs in marketing, copywriting, public relations, human resources (somebody has to compose that employee manual), etc. Every industry needs good communicators, and I've always had a knack for writing, plus I really enjoy it.
Define professional
Do you mean somebody that does a report accurately, with proper attention to detail, creating a report that serves as a helpful adjunct to patient care? Guess what, cupcake? Locking someone in a chamber of solitude does not guarantee that. Since we became predominantly home employees, the only way to judge our work is based on the finished product, and if you're good, you can do that anywhere.
Really need some professional advice
I am looking to talk to somebody that has been in the MT business for years and really need to know the "real deal" of this industry. I have been MT'ing for almost 4 years now and feel like I am not getting anywhere. I am not someone who needs to make 100K a year, but like most looking to make enough money to be able to have the essentials in life and be able to by my kids what they need with a little left over for savings. I have worked in both ends of the spectrum as far as being an employee versus IC, both of which have pros and cons.
Schools say that this is still one of the "fastest" growing industries and the need for MT's is still great, well, my question is where is the work and where is the decent pay. I am at my wits end. I have been looking into going back to college for cardiac cath tech, but unfortunately, my husband does not understand the nature of this business and before I jump ship was wondering if I am "missing" something.
Any advice would be helpful. 
What if you don't have professional references?
Hi all! I just applied for a job and the questionnaire asks for professional references. I don't have any.  Working at home, I only had contact with immediate supervisors, and all the coworkers know each other only via chat forums. How does one handle the professional references issue? TIA.
I'll go! I'll go!! I won't take hormones and will be ready to defend your honor :) n/m
.
No. It'll be the most expensive magazine subscription you'll ever get, and it's unnecessary
s
Professional Liability INsurance?
Does anyone have this through AAMT? If so, how much did you pay for it? If not, are there other options out there? I'm looking into errors and omissions and I read about this, and think it would probably be just what I am looking for, but I am curious about the price before I pay for an AAMT membership! Thanks.
He is a professional couch potato..nm
nm
(continued) - you need to speak to a professional
to make sure it's done properly and there are no surprises later!
Good luck!
This gave me my laugh for the day! :) Professional??
s
Windows XP Professional & Word
Searching Word help section I see where it is possible to email directly from Word and also encrypt the document. If anyone does this, I could use some direction in doing it.
Thank you. bw
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