Very good post - was getting discouraged as a member myself.

• Regarding AAMT, is it wise to join? Opinions please... - Carly d
  • membership - Sandy
  • Thank you all who have answered! That's what I like... - Carly d
  • Here's the AAMTs latest treachery. Check out the - link inside! - nm
    • I joined when they first started. sm - MT2
  • Here's my take (I'm not in the mood for bashing, either!) - old MT
    • OldMT, don't you feel that AAMT is serving themselves more than the - American MT? Since they've (sm)
    • Very good post - was getting discouraged as a member myself. - So thank you! nm
    • Nice post! It is appreciated! Thanks! :-) - Useful
  • I agree with the rest, not worth...sm - Former CMT
  • It'll be the most expensive magazine subscription you'll ever get! No point in joining. nm - still wandering
  • Don't do it! I wasted my money when I joined, and - my membership is almost expired. - sm
    • Apprenticeship?? - MT
      • I wouldn't work as an MT for a lousy $7.50 an hour OR - $15.00 an hour. GET REAL. nm
        • To tell you the truth, I made a whopping sm - mlstoo
          • You could go to Home Depot and start out - at $10-12 an hour with no training. - nm
            • Not around here you can't. Minimum wage. sm - mlstoo
      • Ah, but actual statistics and things like that - Useful
        • The fact is and statistics will prove sm - MT
          • Statistics prove... - OTHMT
          • Well spoken. - nm
          • Your tone sounds 100% whining and bitter. - Honestly
            • This isn't a debate, it's a sharing of opinions. - Sarah
              • Bravo! - nm
            • Sorry you feel that way. Have a great day!!! nm - MT
          • And the facts.... - MT
            • LOL, you get the last word. sm - MT
              • had to chuckle! - old MT
                • Actually, you are incorrect. People post their feelings on this site - because they are not subject (sm)
                • Oh, I hear that a lot but really, it's no different than any other MT site. sm - MT
                  • Oh, long before then, AAMT will have gone the way - of the Do-Do! nm
  • Here's my opinion....sm - Ex-member
    • CMT Pay - One MT
      • Good for you, but you are in the very Very VERY - slim minority of companies that (sm)
    • I agree with - OTHMT
      • Just a suggestion - beatle
        • I'd join it! - nm
      • oops! - OTHMT

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I have completed my transcription course with an "A". I have had med term, A&P, study of diseases.....  I have been a medical records coordinator for 5 years.  It is very discouraging looking for work as an MT with no experience (on the job).  If anyone knows of anyone who is willing to give me a chance, I live in orange county, California and am looking for PT work from home. 

I have been an MT for over 20 years.  I raised my kids being an MT, worked from home.  They loved it.  Also have worked in-house.  Working from home is much better.  I have always made more than my husband. Always made good money. Don't beieve everything negative on these boards.

I've busted my butt for eight years and I've paid my dues. When I started, the lady that trained me told me that 16 cents a line was not unheard of.  Now, I'm lucky that my client will pay me 12 cents a line and the lady that trained me? She wanted me to take over one of her clients and would only pay me 6 cents a line. The most that other companies will pay seems to be 8 cents a line. To me, that is a great disservice, especially for those that have twice the years and more invested in this profession.

Is it time to go to another profession? The lack of respect is starting to get to me...

after a few months (yes, I'm slower at learning new things lately), I found myself finally getting the hang of it. I started using the program only 2 hours a day. Certainly frustrating as I couldn't "find" the suggestions, but then decided the heck with it and started using it constantly. Even when I wasn't working, I would practice with it.  

I "rearranged" all my phrase shorts to something I was comfortable with, added new ones constantly with the first letter of each word, and read up on all the tips and tricks I could find to "understand" the program better. As I got used to the program, I would change an abbreviation I previously used to the first letter of each word.

I also keep my suggestion window at 9 lines, and try to keep my abbreviations to no more than 9 lines; i.e., if there were 13 bp shorts, I would change 3 of them to something else.

My lines were low at first, but after a few months, I started doing 200 lph. I'm still not the fastest IT user, but I'm happy with it and don't know how I survived without it.

I didn't know where else to turn, than to others who might have been in my shoes at one time or another.  I am a recent graduated from a community college for Medical Transcribing.  I got into the field after seeing all the MT jobs from internet searches.  I started the classes, graduated and was ready and excited.  I put my resume on every MT website I could find, even before I graduated.  I got offers here and there from FocusIinfomatics, and another "no-name" companies who offered services of an intership with a job placement at the end.  Neither one worked out, I dusted off my shoulders, moved on and joined forums and emailed my resume till I couldn't type anymore.

Basically this all leads up today. I am a "newbie".  I am aware most people require 2+ years of experience, but isn't there someone out there who will let me put my foot in the door before they shut it? Before my "internship" no longer responded to me, she let me know I had either no errors, or only one or two minor ones.  I got excited thinking, I'm going to get a job offer then, but nothing.  So I am just a little discouraged.  I don't want to be anyones free work anymore.  I know if given the chance I can prove myself to MT Companies out there.

If anyone has adivce or two cents, good or bad,  i'm ready to hear it.  If I am not on this box looking for a job, im researching everything MT.  So please fellow MT's let me know that others use to be in the same spot as me and there might be people willing to take on a "newbie"

Discouraged Darling.

I read that BUSH only approved enough money to restore the levees for a category 3 hurricane (this might have changed in the recent past though) and when I heard that, I couldn't believe it.  The levees needed enough money to withstand a hurricane 5.  I know this because I live on the water in the SE for 30 years.  Yes, it's up to the locals and nobody was condemning your governor.  I do agree it's not a political affiliation thing.

But what I saw is that most of New Orleans (not the inner city) and outskirts are where a lot of poor people are/were and my feeling is this administration is not racist...they merely do not know how to deal with poverty and the poor.  That's VERY sad. 

Please consider when we were newbies many of us were fed a pack of lies about how much money we'd make right off the bat and how "easy" this job is.  I was told that from the RNs who taught us at the local community college.  I knew no one personally in the business to whom I could turn for the real story.  These people had NO idea of the real world.  It was suggested to me by several professors that I take this profession up as a way to make "easy money fast" to help pay for my RN courses.  I believed them since they were from the medical field.  My transcription teacher was the only one to level with us but back then it wasn't as bad as it is now.  I still had hope. 

I was lucky on my first job -- made excellent money on just 3 doctors, 1 specialty, templates for the most part.  I thought it was a dream come true.  MTing seemed to be all that it had been cracked up to be.  Then my employer dropped the account, 12 of us were out of work immediately.  I decided to go with a national so that that would not happen again.  I was given 26 specialties with over 100 dictators all at once, and it has been another universe altogether.  I am glad for the experience, but school never prepared me for THIS!  I am trying to be patient, wait it out hoping things will get better because I enjoy the job, but it is not what I was told it would be.

I now work 2 jobs, weekends and holidays included.  I spend my free time studying.  I have learned the "real world" of transcription by first-hand experience and reading the posts on here from you experienced MTs for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration. 

There really are some of us who are trying our best to become proficient at this and take our jobs seriously.  If we seem unreasonable in our requests at first, it might just be that that is what we were told we would receive and we bought it.  Never in my wildest imagination did I think you experienced MTs made anything even remotely close to what I was/am being paid.  It wasn't until I started reading this board that I wised up. 

You are right, we have to band together, not fight.  We're all in this mess. 

Things in this field have changed for the worse over the past years.  Salaries have decreased, yet expectations have risen.  Benefits are contingent upon production, yet a good share of the time production can't be met due to complications outside of the MT's control.  When it comes to taking the losses due to changes in the field such as offshore outsourcing and technologic advancements, it isn't the clients or the service owners taking the major hit.  It's the transcriptionists.  Yet AAMT has done NOTHING to help the transcriptionists in general.  In fact, it has gone out of its way to PROMOTE offshore outsourcing and even to change some of the guidelines in the newly published, amended BOS to accommodate voice recognition and other technology geared to replace the MT or relegate transcription to other forms labeled "editors", which in reality involve retyping whole reports or major portions of reports at a cut in pay, of course. 

All anyone, newbies included, needs to do is to look at the history of the medical transcription field, see the changes, and then see how much AAMT did to promote the worth of the Transcriptionist in this country.  The depressing message isn't coming from those speaking against AAMT, it is coming from the consequences resulting from the actions of the AAMT.  One fact alone can depress a newbie, and that is to look at the average line rate in 1995 compared to the average line rate now in 2005.   Thank you, AAMT, for promoting that.

to start holding hands with India. They are not out to help AMERICAN MTs. They don't care one way or another about American MTs anymore.

Their latest pitch is to the  MTs STOP transcribing verbatim. So not only will we have to be language specialists, we'll have to put a doctor's words in "proper English."

It doesn't matter what the docs want. It's what they want. Baloney. They are not our boss. Our docs are our bosses. If the docs want verbatim, that's what they'll get...at least from me (except for the JAHCO list of unacceptable terminology).

I'm so glad there are hospitals and doctors out there that don't give a hoot about AAMT. I sure don't. Oh, and if anyone noticed, usually buying products through AAMT doesn't save a dang nickel. In fact, you pay just as much, if not more, for the same products you can get by dealing directly with the company that makes them till all is said and done.

I'll save my money and spend it on more important things.

you said you'd wait until you become financially secure before getting married so you could then could leave him and be okay $$-wise.

I left after 13 years of marriage and we pretty much had nothing....my sanity being numero uno.  The stats are this....that after 5 years of divorce, women are in better shape than men financially and emotionally.  That's what I've read and that's how it also happened for me.  I was in better shape than him 5 years later.  So, don't undercut yourself.  We can make it on our own whether we have a man in our life or not!!!!  It's an old wives tale from post WWII I do believe that women are not *complete* without a man and that is a total crock of s**t.....in my mind/heart/soul.