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You'll be fine. I was afraid to be around people again too but

Posted By: Veterinary Assistant on 2006-02-12
In Reply to: When things dry up in MT, what kind of work will you do? - sm

after the first week I couldn't believe I was working at home like a recluse all those years and actually enjoyed making friends and having conversations with coworkers and patients. I missed being sociable and didn't even realize it. Also, it does wonder for the disposition when you're not at work too. I've never been happier and am better able to participate in conversations now that I'm not alone 8 hours a day typing. You'll be fine.



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I'm where you are afraid you'll end up

I'm in my mid 50s, and I'm not sure decent paying transcription jobs will be around until I hit retirement age.  Actually, despite saving, I'm not sure I'll be able to retire period.  I figure I'll have to work at something until the day I drop, and sometimes I think that if that happened tomorrow, it wouldn't be a bad thing.


I've always worked 2 and sometimes 3 jobs, and I've been self-employed.  I didn't mind putting in the hours in my 20s, 30s and even 40s, but I'm getting tired now.  I'd like to have a life beyond transcription.  Back then, I didn't necessarily have to work all those hours but chose to.  Now, I have to work them.  It's too late for me to go back to school.  There's no time when you work 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, and I can't afford to take on that kind of debt.  I'd be 60 by the time I finished, and who would hire me?  How much better off would I be starting all over again at the bottom? 


If you have something else in mind for making a living, particularly if it requires going to school or going back to school, and you can do it time-wise and financially, then I would encourage you to do it now.  You are right to worry, and you don't want to end up where I am.  Best of luck to you! 


My people skills are just fine. I just want to hire people who want to work.
I've not been ugly, I've asked questions, legitimate ones.  Please tell me what is wrong with that.  This site is not just for MTs, it is for QA Editors, Supervisors, Service Owners, there's even sections for Billers, Coders, and Nurses.   
you'll do fine
but yes, with anything there is the learning curve where your paycheck generally suffers a little.  I love it tho.  Hope i never have to learn another system.  The expander part is quick and easy.  I would not recommend trying to learn their preset shortcuts, just make your own.   i developed my own quicker than remembering theirs; it is quick and easy to look them up if you foget 'em too. 
You'll be fine.....sm
It is a bit cooler today than it has been lately. We were at 80 yesterday. Today, 74. I think it will be fine to lay out, but I don't know about going into the water. lol :)
I'm afraid if you posted anything on here, people will just start jumping -
down your throat. People on this board, unfortunately, are notorious for that. Hopefully, you are working for a better company now and not dealing with the MQ problems and accounts.
Fine, you shop where you want to and I'll do the same
nm
Tell him fine, you'll quit your job and he can figure out
me no end the amount of guilt and burdens we women allow ourselves to take up trying to be all things to everybody--in other words, Superwoman. Tell your DH to not just present you with a problem in order to heap one more thing on your shoulders, but to come up with a solution for it! I am sick & tired of us being expected to roll up 3-4 jobs into one. Being a mother itself is a full-time job, taking care of & managing your home and/or marriage * activities of daily living is another, and we have to help bring in the income too! No wonder women are so sick and stressed out all the time, me included.
If you keep to the schedule you commit to, you'll do fine
I had to get ShortHand and build my abbreviation dictionay to build my speed. The sound quality was fair, the platform okay. I was usually able to do my lines in less than my 8 hours and we ended up parting ways because they wanted me to work 40 hours a week even if I was able to get more than my minimum lines in less than 40. Things were better there when George (may he rest in peace) was there.
You'll be fine. Just stay busy with....

...work and last minute wedding details and the time will fly by. But remember to eat. That is one thing I can say is I neglected to eat I was so busy with everything and weighed 7 pounds less than my usual (128) on my wedding day. Which I guess is better than the alternative. LOL.


And remember, even if something goes wrong try not to freak out. After all, it is your love and future that really counts!  Best wishes to you.


Still happily married, 11 years, and it gets better every day!!!


When they set you up, just make a little chart of what all the Ctl keys do and you'll be fine. Th
s
We have a cocker spanial who is afraid of storms and afraid of the dark! He is up every night severa
Even with a night light he still gets afraid of the dark and I have to get up and pet him and tell him it is okay, et cetera. He will finally settle and go back to sleep, but will do it again throughout the night. I let him sleep in my room thinking it would help..but it didnt. He is just a big baby, so we love him and try to make him feel as safe as we can. If we have to deal with thunderstorms and the dark we are in for a long night!!
you don't really listen to people because you figure you'll

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - animals know things people don't.
nm
With your people skills, you'll stay unemployed. nm
x
well oldtime, I'll bet that you have good work ethics. But, people like you are far and few in
6 to 8 MTs only a couple actually work out.  That is an absolute shame, but it's the truth.  How do I know this?  Because I surveyed several services asking the very same question to each and this is what the averages were.  Of course, someone here will whine about how many services I surveyed, were they friend, etc., but I can say with absolute certainty that I was completely fair in my end figures.
if you live among trashy people, low income people, people w/o goals or direction,
content to just get by, you by default become a part of a group. "people" have decided to group trailer people as trash. that is because there are enough people in that group to earn the title and even if you aren't trash, you are categorized by others. did i think i was trash in lower class neighborhood surrounded by people who drank and fought all weekend? no but i knew i wasn't staying and did not try to pretend that all the fools in the neighborhood were just nice folks who ended up where they were because high horse snobs deemed their neighborhood low class. people for the most part live exactly where they belong because they don't want to educate themselves, they don't mind "trash" around them and they don't want to be bothered trying just a bit hard to extract themselves from that world. they justify everything to themselves i guess saying everyone who doesn't like their lifestyle is a snob and the comedians (Jeff Foxworthy/Chris Rock, etc) who make fun of them are just ill-informed.

As for me, I fought hard to get out and don't even want to look back. It amazes me people stay for generations.
It'll be the most expensive magazine subscription you'll ever get! No point in joining. nm
s
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
You'll get used to it. It is keeping the right leg propped up at the same time that'll be the
When I broke my ankle, I was just grateful it wasn't the hands. Without our hands we'd be totally screwed.

I broke my right ankle slipping on ice and was lucky to have gloves on because the palm of the glove was totally torn up and my hand was okay.

Good luck and be sure to do your exercises when it is time.
That's what I was afraid you were going to say.
xx
Why are you afraid?
Why are you afraid to state your business name?  You have said yourself that you rather like Indian MTs when compared to US MTs, so why not come forth?  Could it be because you really do need the US MTs to run your company and make your bucks? 
I'm afraid...
I've been sworn to secrecy. I simply cannot divulge!
I'm afraid...
Janelle lost the final HOH competition and Yvette won, who immediately evicted Janelle, so now its just Yvette and Nurse Maggie. Yvette basically gave the game to Maggie now since most of the evicted guests do not like Yvette and won't vote for her. How dumb!
I'm just afraid
she'll do it and LOOK OUT when it comes time for her to flash her
@@
if ya know what I mean. LOL
Her and her boyfriend might be approximately Demi and Ashton's ages, but that is the only similarity. LOL


Yes, I'm afraid so...
Tonight at midnight, according to PC World. They said it probably won't do much damage, and is a single person doing it. Weird. U might want to go to Microsoft's web page and get their just released security update for this - I did and I feel all safe and cozy!
That's what I'm afraid of!! nm
nm
Afraid so, saw one ad for 6 cpl...
I've been trying to get extra work for a while now but I will not work extra hours for what they are offering, especially when it is left over stuff and late hours.
I'm not afraid

I am just a very private person and I do not want other people knowing my business unless they have a NEED to know it.


If you want to shout from a soapbox, find something worth shouting about. This is getting boring.


That's what I was afraid of. Thanks...NM
x
That's what I was afraid of...
I saw a demo of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 Medical Edition on the Nuance website. The doctor in the demo dictates a section of a report and the software makes no mistakes whatsoever. While this part is hard to believe, he then says "select congestive heart failure", which the software does and highlights. He then says "ICD-9 that", and the software inserts the correct ICD-9 code in parentheses behind the selected text. The ICD-9 codes are pre-programmed and inserted based on recognized *text*, so as long as the right text is highlighted, the only way an error could occur is if the programmers had entered a wrong ICD-9 code, which is unlikely and would be quickly fixed with a version update. I don't know if this will eventually eliminate coding or if it will just make coders more productive, but that coding course at AHIMA is looking more and more like a waste of money. An online Bachelor degree is beginning to look like the only way out of this conundrum.
P.S. Don't be afraid to go over the head of
your local boss, they are likely to stonewall you. You should follow protocol and START there, but do not hesitate to carry it further if not satisfied.......... the protocol for this is actually outlined on QNET.
thats silly. what are they afraid of if
I mean come on, we won't become millionaires.  There should NOT be a limit on how much you make.  A raise per year for cost of living, a raise or higher rate for experienced and good MTs, and also a raise for putting up with the BS.
Don't be afraid to tell her how you feel.
My brothers and sisters would get together and talk about how my mom is. I told them to tell her, but they said they did not want to hurt her feelings. Yeah, but it's ok for her to hurt ours. NOT! I finally told my mom. She was very defensive at first. She did not speak to me for about a month, but then she called and said she was sorry. If you are honest and sincere, things will work out. Your sis will never know how you and your other sis are feeling if one of you does not step up to the plate.
Don't be afraid. Use the law to your advantage. SM

Stop a minute and think about this. What other person on the planet would be allowed to do this to you? Not one. The reason he is allowed to do it is because you let him.


"Tired of working?" Hell, we're all tired of working, but we do it because we have to. You keep your chin up, girlie. Find you a rat-hole and put some money in it. Even if it's a quarter at a time. Save your change, filch from your paycheck. Get a little padding there so you will have some options.


I lived with a horribly abusive man who took advantage of me for 30 years. I'd still be living with him but he's dead. I know I'd never have left.


Don't get me wrong. I adored him, God knows why - I let those "good times" outshine the horrible times and I stayed with him till death did us part - all to the detriment of my poor children. I have a daughter who thinks it's noble to stay with an abusive man. I have a son who, I'm grateful to say, is kind to his SO, but he endured a 10-year relationship with a lying, emotionally abusive girl - all thanks to me.


Do it as soon as you can. If that guy quit his job because he's "tired of working" there's nothing he won't do. Sending a hug. I know where you're coming from.


Not for me--I would be afraid they would somehow make
nm
Thank you. I wonder if you would be so kind as to tell me how to zip? I'm afraid I'm at a lo
x
Everyone is so afraid to ask for a raise.
I guarantee you that the people you work for have gotten a raise in the last 4 years, so why not you? Just do it. Like you said, all they can say is no, or give some BS excuse. But just look at the enormous increase in gasoline over the past 4 years, never mind everything else. No one can continue on the same salary.
Those afraid to ask for a raise are their own
This is one of the major reasons why women are paid at least 20% less than men doing the same job. Women are intimidated to just go in and say, "Hey boss, I need a raise."

Many years ago, I was working as a cashier. Certainly not a great job, but for low level work, it didn't really pay that bad. I had been there 5 years, had received my usual raises and a merit raise. However, I still felt my level of flexibility by being able to take over in a lot of other departments at a moment's notice made me a valuable employee. I went into my supervisor, told them what I thought my value was to the company and asked for a dollar an hour raise. He gave it so quick, I probably could have gotten more.
I would be more afraid of American
because they know how to identify theft better than offshore countries I'm sure.  
I don't see why employers are so afraid to ask for ... sm

at least the minimum lines each day.  I used to work at a hospital where the required minimum was I believe 40 minutes, which ain't a lot of work.  Most times (and this was when we were in house) the girls would chat and chat and chat and go for lunch and chat and chat, etc., and never work.  And they got by with it because they were too scared to demand that these people stick to the guidelines by which they were hired.  One day I went in to work OT on a Saturday and worked 4 or 5 hours, and I don't remember what my line count was, but one person typed 12 lines.  And she was supposed to be the regular Saturday morning person.  Some saturdays I would go in to work and there would be NOBODY there.  NOBODY typing in a hospital transcription dept. just because it was Saturday.  They got by with it for years, continued to get by with it, and we lost our jobs to MQ because nobody worked and nobody made them work.  Me, I worked.  I worked a lot.  I had (still have) goals, meet them, exceed them routinely because I happen to like paying the bills and having money left over.  Like I always say, people whine on here about no work but when there's a lot of OT to be worked they are nowhere to be found. 


I am afraid if you are working on
inhouse equipment, you are stuck with what they approve. IT would have to install anything for you, and some of these things have licensing privileges. I didn't know anybody outside HCA was using meditech. The best we could do was canned text and of course, about the time I got a bunch of abbrev's in there, we got dictaphone and instant text, but we had no leeway at all about anything. magic 20 was a function key that let you go into other functions without leaving the one modem you were typing in except for radiology and pathology.
Afraid of another depression in USA

howdy! I am afraid some of us are.!
I had the same thought you did and had to laugh. Wonder where she is. Reminds me of when our governor Ann Richards said at the democratic convention, "we can do everything the men can do, we just do it backwards and in high heels".
I'm afraid I have to agree with others who have said.... sm
...that, as MTs, we're not in a position to question the actual care chosen for a patient, no matter what our personal experience has been.

On the other hand, I *have* had concerns about a patient's care when it has involved dictators who fall asleep during their dictation then wake up and continue dictating the report -- only obviously they're talking about a different patient ... or the dictators who routinely list a med in the patient's allergy section and then also list that same med as being in their current regimen ... or those who routinely mix left/right, male/female, etc., throughout the majority of their reports.

Still, even with that kind of thing all I've been able to do is notify my QA person and tell them that I'm concerned about the quality of the medical record because of the dictator(s) and then IMO it's on their head to either give the facility a heads-up or not.

But, unless we have medical degrees and have been invited to consult, it's not our concern, as hard as that may be to hear.
Yes . . . I know, but I am afraid of losing my job if I do.
nm
afraid insurance is going to drop me...
Two years ago I became an independent and have individual insurance.  During the application I put on there I had quit smoking (former smoker).  I now have a procedure coming up, and during the consultation for this procedure, my doctor asked me if I smoked.  Well, I do "occasionally" but I did not expect him to ask that question, so I fumbled and said "yes, but not every day."  Now is this grounds for my insurance not covering me?  Is it possible they can dig through the paperwork specifically to find this and nail me on it?  Or can it be accepted that at the time I signed on with them, I in fact was not a smoker, but started up between then n now, so they have no grounds?  I'm scared, as I cannot afford this procedure out of pocket!!!  What do you guys think? 
sounds like he needs attention and is afraid

Don't be afraid to work at home

The reasons you have cited in your message are the exact reasons I chose to stay home and transcribe 30 years ago.  I did not want to leave my babies in someone else's hands, so decided to stay at home to transcribe.  I do not regret my decision one bit!  Yes, in the beginning, it was tough to get used to being paid by productivity, but you learn short cuts, you learn the discipline to stay seated at the computer when you should be.  If you take away the costs of traveling to work, plus whatever you have to pay a sitter, you may even end up making more money staying at home. 


A lot of people have negative things to say about a lot of the national transcription services (I can agree with most things that are said) but in your situation, it is an ideal solution.  You just have to find a good company to work for.  They are all looking for good, experienced MTs, so you should not have any problems finding another position.  The larger ones will also supply you with the computer and all the other hardware you need to do the job.


It is not worth getting yourself all worked up with a baby on board (congratulations, by the way!).  Try to find a good national to work for and then tell your hospital job good-bye. 


30 years or so down the road, you will be glad you "took the plunge."  I wish you the best of luck, I know what a difficult decision it is to make.  Please let us know what you decide.


I'm afraid I'm simply too loyal to MQ...
to put them in a bind like that. Shame on all y'all!
Personally, I'd be afraid to be loyal to MQ.