Most unions have a training program with apprenticeships
Posted By: FBL on 2008-12-08
In Reply to: What a union could then do is - require we all be certified.
MTSOs who participate would be allowed to have up to a certain percentage of their union workers be apprentices, who would make a percentage of the union scale (generally the percentage goes up annually until the person is considered fully trained and experienced...called a "journeyman" in some trades). This training/apprenticeship program is what makes union participation attractive to employers...they get properly trained workers at pay rates which correspond to the experience level.
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PCDI training program?
We are also looking at this training program, I know a lady who went through this one and she said it was a good one but any other pros and cons you have would be appreciated. TIA
Same planet as you, hon! And you're TRAINING the program right now. Duh!
That's the whole process per individual dictator, per individual account. Takes a wee bit of fine tuning, and in a few months, its PERFECT. Just minor editing. Wake up and smell the coffee. You're training it and teaching it! You're not seeing the finished product, cause it doesn't need you anymore! Some of you just post so foolishly - and anyone could know the facts if they just paid attention and asked questions! You are training ASR and when you're done training it, its 1000 times better than the average skilled MT these days!
unions protect unions, not employees...sm
those days are gone. The unions got too big and too greedy. The concern of the union is the union, not the employee.
I saw this happen in MQ office while training. Supervisor was supposed to be training but
account was behind so she did transcription while she collected salary for "training" me. Of course I asked others for guidance rather than bother the furiously typing supervisor. I don't know if she cherry picked but she definitely double dipped into the MQ payroll.
there is a world of difference between MT training and NP training
honestly, I am in nursing school and have lots of health care experience as a paramedic and medical assistant. I think you can relax and leave your family's health either in your mother's hands or their physician's...
Unions
And just WHY do you think they are now outsourcing everything out of the country, manufacturing, etc. Because the unions demanded so much and the companies basically said **** you-- we'll just take it somewhere else. So what did they gain? Now there AREN'T any jobs period unless you want to move to Mexico or India, etc., that it.
Unions
Yes!
Unions
If it would improve anything, I say yes. The status quo has never worked and never will except for the MTSOs.
Unions
 I guess a lot of this all depends on where in the country you live. In my area, most of the grocery stores are union and that is why they make the better wages. I like to support those stores, though, as I said above, but I think that perhaps in some regions of the country, this is not the case, so thanks for opening my eyes!
Unions
Never belonged to one myself but know hospitals don't like them.
To generalize a bit, it seems that everyone in American work force (those of us who still have jobs)feel unappreciated, under paid and with a vulnerability that we could easily be easily replaced no matter how good we are or even how bad we are at what we do or even how well-educated. It's just the nature of the beast these days and the outcome of and competition. It's very corrupt and defies the constitution of the United States. Until we have CHANGE in Washington, we will have more of the same.
against unions
I'm against unions because unions are greedy. Why do you think jobs have gone overseas...it started with manufacturing because unions wanted more and more for their members to the point it has become ridiculous-$72 an hour to put together a car that is mostly done with robotics. Yes, I saw that on a news report on the auto industry and a union member trying to justify making that much money per hour.
Unions
I totally agree with the fact that we should have a union. AAMT or AHDI as it is now called has been lobbying in Washington for us for years.
No to unions.
Why I am against unions
Unions had their time and place in this county, and IMHO, it is long gone. There are many reasons that I am against unions, a big one being that they protect mediocre and inept employees. Unions bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator. Also, it seems a common misconception that unions exist to protect the worker. This is NOT true - they exist to protect themselves and their own fat cat salaries. I recently heard a quote from an official of the teacher's union who said, when asked when they were going to take into consideration the needs of students when it came to terminating incompetent teachers (which they are against, of course), his reply was "When the students start paying union dues." That puts it in a nutshell. I want nothing to do with a union. I don't need anyone to negotiate for me, and I'm not going to spend my time whining about the state of the MT industry. It is what it is, and you either need to adapt with it or move on. By the way, I've done quite well as an MT and have continued to do so by moving and finding a better spot if I don't like the situation where I am. Things are never going to return to the "good old days." Change is here to stay.
Unions
I'm new to this forum, having just graduated from Career Step. However, I worked as management for 8 years at the Port of Los Angeles with one of the most powerful unions in the United States- the ILWU and I would like to submit some of my thoughts.
Firstly, I am a liberal Democrat who believes there is a place for unions. They DO provide protections for workers that MOST companies would never do on their own. They DO insure that their employees make a living wage and can be protected from most company driven forms of exploitation.
As an ex-manager, I can tell you that MOST companies are driven by THEIR bottom lines only, with little regard for the workers.
Secondly, I supervised up to 40 ILWU workers per day and my experience was that about 50% of the union employees were great workers who did not take advantage of their union status. The other 50%, however, worked as little as possible, were rigid and inflexible and made life h*ll for me and my fellow managers. The ILWU OCU (office/clerical unit) base pay was $43.50/hr in 2006- the year I finally quit as I couldn't take the US vs THEM mentality any longer. Those 50% were only out for themselves, without any regard for anyone else- including the company. I have to say that during their last contract negotiation, they attempted to have the company pay for PET INSURANCE.
Yet- the United Autoworkers have taken several wage/benefit cuts over the last decade in order to help their companies survive.
I believe that if a reasonable balance can be achieved between union workers and the companies they work for- then life can be good for all concerned. However, human nature being what it is, both sides need to be aware and on guard against the "SC**W the other side" mentality, because once it takes hold- no one wins and a war zone is not a nice place to work.
I found a website which has instructions on how to start a union. I also have some contacts within the ILWU who would be more than happy to help start an MT union if anyone is interested.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2050880_start-union-work.html
transcription unions
Has anyone ever heard of a medical transcription union and how do you get it started?
Unions are a way of the past
My ex was and is still in a union as a truck driver but they are slowly being phased out and it will be that way everywhere. That industry was hit prior to us with more or less outsourcing when the Fair Trade act or whatever it is called opened up with Mexico and Central America. You do not see many English speaking truckers anymore and their income went from 70 to 75K per year down to $35 to $40 and so we are not the only ones that hit by more or less outsourcing. And now the place where he works, has a union and non union company and at each terminal when the union contract comes up for renewal, the non union side bids lower and it goes that way. He is in the last terminal that is union and I doubt it will be that way when their contract expires in two years. So unions are on way out.
we need legislation, not unions.
IMO we need laws to keep our work from being off-shored, or at least make that option very unattractive (with penalty taxes?). On a parallel track, we need well-trained MTs that will not work for peanuts, who are willing to work some weekends, holidays, night hours, etc.
Yes, and Unions are killing GM and the like.
nm
To the people who are against unions...
My question is why are you against them? My husband is a union member and we have good family benefits plus he gets a very decent wage. Granted, he hasn't been a member very long, about 1 year plus, but so far everything seems good. Yes, unions are political, but so is everything else today. There are lobbyists for everything in Washington and as the saying goes "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". But at least unions are there to protect their workers, or so it goes in theory. US MTs have no protection whatsoever and our profession as we know it is on its way to becoming obsolete.
On this MT site alone, post after post is negative and it's mostly about MTSO's and the way they treat their workers who make them $ - US. I've been an at-home MT for about 3-1/2 years now and previous to that worked in-house. I work for a well known national and when I first started it was good - I was making really good $, more than I did in-house, had a great supervisor, good accounts, and they always gave us opportunities for bonuses that you could actually make some $ on. My sup even sent me a B-day card and a Xmas card by snail-mail and in her own handwriting no less! The good times lasted for about 1-1/2 years and it has all been downhill ever since. With the combination of ILP and ASR, the transcription industry is going down the tubes and FAST. The big fear in the past was hospitals outsourcing and in-house MTs losing their jobs. That fear became a reality as more and more hospitals realized they could save $ by outsourcing a portion, if not all, their work. Now today the fear is outsource companies outsourcing overseas (kind of funny when you think about it - outsourcing company outsourcing) and machines taking the place of humans, again MTs losing their jobs. When will it end? We can come on here and post our frustration and moan and groan, but what is that really going to accomplish. Some may think (and hope) that MTSOs read this board and our e-mails and suddenly one day the light will come shining down from the heavens and the angels will sing because the MTSOs will finally come to their senses as to how rotten they have been to us, their loyal worker bees, and will shower us with praise and gifts of gold and $. Well, to those MTs who think this way, WAKE UP. MTSOs do not care about us. They may say they do, but they know that right at this moment in time they still need us. ASR and ILP are not as efficient as they need to be to get the job done correctly at dirt cheap rates, but it is only a matter of time before they become dominant and transcription as we know it is in the archive books. MTSOs main objective is to make the most $ and pay out as little as they can get away with. They chip away little by little - sending more accounts overseas, cutting rates, reorganizing to fit their needs but not taking into consideration how it affects the MT. They are business people doing what business people do by trade and they are accomplishing what they are setting out to do - make the most $ and pay out the least. So what are MTs supposed to do to protect our professional trade? Voicing our opinions, whether it be here on this board or by e-mail or phone, isn't going to change a thing. Maybe it's time to get proactive and actually DO something rather than complain or just up and quit and then the MTSOs can say they HAVE to have ILPs and ASR because there aren't enough qualified US MTs. I for one would be interested in seeing a union or other organization be formed to protect the US MT industry from it's downfall, but I wouldn't know where to start. If nothing is done now, I'm afraid that in 10 years or less my job as I know it will be a part of history. If anyone has any other proactive ideas, please post them. I'm sure there are plenty of MTs who would be willing to join a group venture to protect our profession.
YES to unions! And the sooner the better!
practical unions
How exactly does anyone propose that a union come into this business? They would probably only find it worthwhile to unionize the large MTSOs. The little ones have too few employees for a union to look at. My guess is the big companies would then outsource more.
Why I'm FOR unions: They protect the WORKER.
.
Then the unions would be in bed with AHDI (AAMT) huh!! sm
Don't we already have that going on anyway?
Unions protected workers from exploitation
It seems me that had the unions had a watch dog group, abuse of that system would not have occurred. And there was abuse. A small percentage of people always seem to look for loop holes and then milk something good as long as they can until they ruin it for everybody.
But please, unions are good. If there were unions in Calif for the field workers, conditions would be improved and these unemployed workers across America who have lost their jobs to outsourcing could actually make a decent living at them without work that puts you into a chiropractors' office in ten years.
Of course, the price of food would have to go up or perhaps all of those filthy rich ranch owners would, instead, have to take a cut in income (now there is a possible answer).
Unions are increasingly a thing of a by-gone era. In this global economy,
x
I have never found a program shorthand does not work with, it works outside the program (I think tha
nm
PRD is a DOS program. I don't think it work with Word, a Window's program.
x
It will count everything if you go in the settings and program it to. Good program!
Sylcount is an awesome and accurate counting program also. That will count everything if you "tell it to".
You can use Shorthand in ANY program, it works outside your program
I have never found a platform it did not work with and I have worked on several different versions of Meditech. Just start using it.
Unions may be good for workers short-term, but look what has happened to American car union workers.
They priced themselves out of the market while making an inferior product. Ford and GM are now junk bonds. I'm driving a Toyota. So if that's un-American just like shopping at a non-union store like Walmart, well you can talk to whoever is in charge of wages and taxes who have created this monster where even middle-class has very little extra money to support a union store where the employees are paid well and you pay the price in the product they sell. I can't afford it.
M-TEC has a Basic program (12 month) and a Premier program (18 month). To WAH, you should take the P
:)
Shorthand works with every program, it works outside the program you use, does not interfere.
nm
I just went through training and they
told me that MQ itself does not pay for spaces. I was trained on DQS and again it was told to me during training when I asked about that and the answer was, "No, DQS does not count spaces as MQ does not pay spaces."
?? I'm all confused now.
Training (sm)
To tell you the truth, and I'm not dissing the trainers, but I really would be sure they are passing on correct information by asking your transcription supervisor.
When I was trained, they told us to disable some of the features of the platform, like the capitalization after the period and the thing that corrects your text if you type 2 capped letters. These are probably some of the best features of the program and I, nor any MT who wants to produce as much as possible, would dream of disabling them.
So... I really wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into somme of the info they give out. To be sure, get a second opinion. :)
You will need a LOT more training
than you have to be a successful transcriptionist, or even a mediocre transcriptionist. Simply from reading your post, it is apparent that English is probably not your first language. You will need to improve your English-language skills considerably before you will be employable. On the basis of your post alone, I would not hire you. I would not even bother to test you since you have so little training and your English is so poor. You need to take a GOOD transcription course, not something offered by one of the matchbook-cover schoools and certainly much more than you already have taken. Self confidence is all very well and good, but simply believing you can do something is not an acceptable substitute for good training. You do not yet have the skills you need. It is, of course, unlikely that you are going to believe any of this, so to satisfy your own curiosity, just start submitting applications to transcription companies. One or two might let you take their test. Your results should be an indicatino of just how far you have yet to go to be properly trained. Good luck to you.
MT training is not enough
it is just a foot in the door. The real training comes in by doing various dictations from various clinics/hospitals. Every doctor talks differently or uses different terminology.
MT training is not enough
it is just a foot in the door. The real training comes in by doing various dictations from various clinics/hospitals. Every doctor talks differently or uses different terminology.
OTJ training
I had on the job training. I trained for about a year. I am very lucky that I have a family member who is in the business who was willing to train me. She actually talked me into it. I have now been working for seven years as an MT for her and another company.
My DH is in training for this job.
:+
Training
Just another word of advice from somebody who has been there many, many years ago. Please remember that you send mixed messages when you switch back and forth from underwear to diapers. This confuses them. I did what this other poster did -- make it a game, praise, praise, and more praise. In the end, he will get the idea. It does take perserverance on your part. Set that timer and then have a race to the potty. The winner gets to use the potty -- and we all know mommy never wins this race. Good luck -- he will be fine.
Training at MT
So how do you know when you've received proper training? I have finished a program with a local college but when you compare the training hours versus other colleges its way lower? How can I be assured that I am trained enough to be able to do a MT job? Any suggestions????
Training VR
That sounds wonderful. However, this sounds like something that the doctor would set up on his own. I am looking mainly for something I install on my end, train, edit, etc. from here. I have a small account with three people, and maybe a couple more coming. They would not want to be bothered with doing anything different on their end. I wanted it for my end to speed things up for as they expand so I can keep up.
But are you in training?
I notice the first poster spelled clarity as "clearity".... A very easy third grade spelling word. Are you coming to the job with experience of any kind or do they know ahead of time that they are training from scratch? Are the editors paid well?
Because training an inexperienced person takes a lot of time and sometimes it's not successful.
BOS training
About the BOS AAMT guidelines. I am relatively a newbie with 11 months experience. When I started with my first job and I had been trained like you said to strictly follow AAMT guidelines. But when I got a job oh was I in for an awakening. They wanted things done the way they had always been done and didnt go strictly by AAMT. The acute care account I do now is the same way. I have been penalized for doing things according to AAMT. But every company and client has their way they want things done and you have to learn to follow them. Little things like AAMT second edition says only use disk now do not use disc anymore. Well I got penalized for that. They want disc used when referring to the spinal cord no matter what AAMT says because that is the way they have always done it. That is just one example. But yes knowing AAMT guidelines is good but it doesn't always give a newbie the advantage.
As far as training, you get what you pay for.
training
Just to let you know - they will take you off of training before the two weeks is up if you don't need it anymore. Mine only lasted three days but I had overlapped training with my last two weeks at MQ, so when they told me I was off training early I told them I had to finish up my last two weeks at MQ and I could only give them 200 lines a day for the rest of the two-week period since I had made arrangements around the two-week training assumption. They were fine with that.
More training
I have been doing transcription for 9 years now and am not making the lines or money I need to. Anyway, there is a local school I was thinking about going to that trains in coding/billing and they have placement assistance afterwards. I have heard it is next to impossible to get hired without already having experience in billing/coding. They do have federal loans/grants to help you pay for the training, but the costs is 7,600; seems awful high to me, but if they can get me a job paying better than transcription, might be worth it? Then again, I was thinking about just trying to get a job in medical records at a local hospital going in as a medical records tech. I know I must sound crazy, just trying to figure out how I can bring more money into my house. Thank you for any advice you can give me. 
on-the-job training
Trust me, if you have no medical work background that involves terminology you would be totally lost doing MT. It's really like a second language. The only on-the-job training I've ever heard about was someone who worked in a medical office or a hospital records department for a long time and was taught MT while they were there. I know of no companies or hospitals, small or large, that would hire you with no experience AND no training/schooling to go straight to work doing MT. There are some that will give you a chance once your schooling is done if you test well.
Right on. Using VR = training it, and training it =
training
Does anyone have any suggestions on getting training in other fields? I see a lot of jobs posted for radiology or even acute care/hospital work. I did hospital notes when I was in school many years ago, but since then have done all clinic work-multi-speciality like psych, OBGYN, family practice, pediatrics, chiropractic, physical therapy, allergy, internal medicine, ortho. My favorites are chiropractic, psych, OBGYN and physical therapy, but these seem to be hard to come by. Work is becoming slim and I'm looking at other options.
I would love to learn surgery, ER, or even just be able to get more work with hospital notes or radiology.
Any feedback is appreciated.....thanks! 
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