Your local community college...
Posted By: Kate on 2006-02-04
In Reply to: Which is the best? - Schools MT
It will cost a **** of a lot less, and your education will be just as good. Many will tell you that you only get help in job placement, externship, be ready to work, etc. via Andrews, etc., but that's just not true because they just don't know any better. Besides, that's a great sales pitch/gimmick, isn't it?
In learning this field, you need a classroom setting and hands' on experience/instruction. You'll see exactly what I mean when you get in the thick of it, or even starting out in learning it, for that matter.
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I went to a local community college
I started working for a small local MTSO.
Local community college nm
x
Check out your local community college -SM
I can't speak for all of them, but the one I went to offered externship programs and job placements for their best and brightest students. An acquaintenance of mine also got her MT training at a local college, and they did the same thing. Be careful, however, of the online courses. They cost a lot of money - much, much more than your local college, and you won't get the hands-on training or be able to get your questions answered in a flash with them as you would in an actual college setting. Also, an associate's degree at a college is much more impressive than admitting you received your training via an online course. That, to me, just sounds so "fly by night." 
I vote for local community college.
If you attend a community college, it helps to network. If you do on-line training, you won't have the social part of your training. Also, it helps to try and find an on-site position at first to gain the knowledge although since you are already in a clerical position, you probably know more about anatomy and the hospital/medical setting than you even think. I wish you all the best. Another good thing about a local community college is that sometimes they know of great jobs because the teachers are also employed or know of jobs. You will have a certificate of training in an MT program, but a certified MT is done through the AAMT or whatever it is now, and is not worth the money in my opinion. You wind up after paying a few hundred dollars getting to put CMT after your name, but not when you transcribe a report. For example, even CMTs cannot put XXX/xxx, CMT if you catch my drift. 
I graduated from a local community college. sm
Had my first job before graduation but it was in-house with hourly pay and great benefits. Those are very hard to find anymore. I worked in-house for my first 2 years and then went on maternity leave picking up side work through a company for more income. Realized I was tripling my money going from hourly to production by that time, turned in my notice, and never looked back. Been at home ever since. If at all possible, in the beginning I would recommend to anyone to work inhouse even if it is for a transcription company. The value of having other "ears" is definitely not something to take for granted. I also learned as much as I could while getting that hourly pay as time is money when on production. I have to say I probably would not be near as proficient of an MT today had it not been all those hours learning and having another ear around to help out when stuck.
You bring up a point too though that I haven't really thought about before....With all the transcription being outsourced out of the office, it is only going to get much more difficult for anyone to get those breaks and get the required "experience" as a beginner.
I'm going to a local community college for culinary arts, I'm 52. nm
xxx
Your local community college. Just as good and a heckofalot cheaper!
If you want to work at a local hospital or doctor's office, go to community college. Otherwise
if you want to work from home, for a national company, you need to take the course from either Andrews School or M-TEC. It does you no good to save money by taking the Penn Foster course, because most companies will NOT hire grads from that school, it is a poor course and does NOT prepare you sufficiently for MT work.
Either one are 9 month courses at the local community college..worth a shot!
!!!
How about your local community college and save a heap of money & get just as good of an education?
Pharmacy tech 15 weeks, polysomnography 7 month course at local community college..worth a shot!
!!!
I also went to a community college
and never had any problems finding a job. In fact, I got my first job at home before I was even finished with school. I took all my classes online and have worked from home for the past 3 years here with my kids. I say go for it!
Given by a community college? What school is
z
I was fortunate with community college
I took courses through my local community college's continuing education program. The instructors were people who worked in the medical field during the day and taught at night. By doing exceptionally well in the classes and being a model student, I was recommended by a couple of the instructors and got a start at the office where one instructor worked before I even finished my transcription class.
Once I got my foot in that first door, I've been working steadily and successfully ever since. I had only a couple of classes under my belt!
The approved schools are probably the best chance for work after graduation, but opportunities can arise wherever you train.
I went through Bellevue Community College
Also the CareerStep program online with once a month meetings if we lived close. Got a Sallie Mae grant. Got hired by MQ right out of school (after testing). Careerstep is one of the best schools and one of the only ones you can get hired straight out of school. I would not really recommend transcription anymore, though. It is not the job it used to be, paywise. Coding is still good pay I hear.
Everett Community College
online has a transcription course and since it is a community college, should be able to get financial aid. Try that. Google it.
I actually borrowed a set from the library at the community college here.
I used them as long as I needed to, then returned them.
When I said vo-tech, I meant community college just in case you were wondering (nm)
nm
Went to community college too..had a job in-house within 2 months, the first and only place I applie
//
community college. those online courses/schools are not very good and
very expensive.
but don't do it just to work at home.
My SIL finished a course at a local college
She got a job on-site and could be sent home, but she has decided to cross-train for a management position. If she takes it, the salary is $65,000.00 per year. So tell me there isn't money in this business. She just finished her course!!!
I went to a local business college which sucked.
My first job was a p.r.n. position with a local hospital filling in for vacations and people off sick. That's where the real education came from.
See if your local college has an MT program that you can just take certain units of, like terminol
s
I probably read about it on MSN or someone mentioned it to me. Maybe call local college or JUCO
?
Well, not really. In college I did a gruelng intership at a local express emergency clinic and got p
gas, lunch, uniform, etc., AND the head doctor ended up sexually harrassing me! I kid you not! So, I don't think anyone without any experience getting paid 3 cents to learn MT in their own home setting is half bad.....It could be worse. They could ask you to do it for free.
PS: My college major was nursing.
Buy local. The local stores pay taxes to support your city and state. (SM)
Using online and catalogues does nothing to promote the local economy. We complain about outsourcing and about the big companies gobbling up all the work so the jobs at local hospitals are gone, yet we do the same thing when we buy on ebay, catalog, and these web sites that may be located any place in the world as their primary business location.
I went local. Great local tech support, they know what I do and were able to set it up just for me
:)
You have to go outside the community....
nm
Community hospitals
Hi. I just recently got outsourced by my local community hospital which I had worked for for 8 years, the third hospital where I've lost my job to outsourcing.
We were paid hourly from $9-$15 hourly. We had to have a minimum line count of 135 an hour based on a 7-hour day, so 980 63-character lines a day was exceeding standard, worked every 4th weekend and rotated holidays. I loved it. Then they outsourced to Spryance and most of the work in the entire Dayton Ohio area went overseas. There are only a few transcriptionists left working for the hospitals.
Who is to say that these people are pillars of the community?
x
Actually, I live in a rural community sm
and left a hospital where that was very good pay. Starting wages for MT was $8.00 an hour with a 25 cent raise every year if you were lucky. $11.50 would be like gold for the transcriptionists that work there.
Community near me succesfully fought one off, but sm
that was only because there are about three within ten miles of there. If there are none in your town, I wish you luck.
Santaluces Community HS - Lantana, FL
nm
In our increasingly global community, maybe
x
CHS is Community Health Systems
xx
Really!!! This is fairly common MT 'net community
can this go on?!!
suggest finding out if your state is a community
When I divorced the ex, we had just bought a house. We live in a community property state - everything you accrued during the married is pretty much split 50-50. I hired an attorney for $600 !!! He hired a real-property attorney for $350 as he was worried about the house. I gave him the house and the dog and I took the child. It is a joint custody state but I was the primary custodian.
It's worth it to hire a divorce lawyer, and like you said you're only married 2-1/2 years (I was married 12 yrs) and you probably have little to no equity in the house at this point (just like us back then).
Check out cheaper divorce lawyers and see what you can do. Best of luck!
SIL says she went through Wellspan Community Health Center. sm
any idea how to call them? i am not finding that exact name info. i did find roseann freundel as a DO student in WV but just pictured and an article. no contact info.
This lady is well know in the MT community and is a long term MT. I understand
your skepticism, but that is not the case with this gal. She has been straightforward from the very beginning and I have practically her entire background. I would ask that we leave skepticism out of the picture and try to help this family out.
Thank you,
Sheri
Hi! Went through a similar thing at a smaller community hospital....sm
in the state...all the same set-up as you stated, but the coders, who shared our office, were also the darlings of the hospital and were treated differently. When pressed for an answer, the head of HIM said that between us, the coders were seen differently because they were responsible for bringing lots and lots of money into the hospital, their coding "properly" translated in to billing, which translated into $$$ for the hospital...all the while, the coders, in part, depended on back-up from our department when trying to decide which code was most appropriate. Since your working conditions would be changing if you are sent home, I think it is entirely reasonable and very intelligent to ask them for a new job description, I always love to have things in writing for future reference. You sound like a very productive MT, so don't worry...I didn't have to worry about speech recognition at this hospital cutting down on pay, but is there an HIM head whom you could all have a small meeting with to clarify these questions? It would be nice to put your mind at ease. Hope it all works out and you have the best of BOTH worlds, Granny!
we've lost our sense of community, no more back yard fences, no more coffee klatches
It's the sense of community we miss, and there is some semblance of it here. My son has been online since age 10, and he knows the status of the marriages and pregnancies and jobs and traumas of his gameing friends, from his age on up into the 60s, male and female. They comfort each other, congratulate each other. Ranges from students to cops to medial installers to computer geeks. It's a sense of commnity that has sprung up, but that society doesn't really recognize as REAL yet, it's too new.
I'm in college myself ...
Do you have an undergraduate bulletin from the U? If not, GET ONE TODAY. Look at the degree programs. He must pick out a major and register and be assigned an Academic Advisor first.
Make sure he fills out his FASFA anyway and has it sent to the university. Just because you make $40K does not mean he should not qualify for grants or scholarships whatsoever. I don't know who told you that or if you just are assuming that, but it is not true.
A university has many, MANY avenues for financial aid. He will be assigned a financial aid counselor and you need to call up there right now, TODAY (if he is planning on attending this fall semester in about 5 weeks) and go talk to the immediately. Do you know the FASFA website? Have you filled it out? You MUST fill it out, it will be processed and sent to the university, then they will send him an award letter and you can go from there.
Now, student loans are not bad debt at all. It is an investment in your future. Just make sure you are borrowing responsibly an amount that can be paid back easily. As well, it will not hurt him one bit to pay his own student loans back and/or you pay just part of them. He should have to be payint and investing in his OWN future.
He probably needs to find a part-time job, period. Nothing wrong with that. It will teach him discipline and show you whether he is serious about an education or not. If he has registered already (and he should have if he is attending this fall ... if he hasn't and wants to go, REGISTER TODAY)...you know when his classes are and he can hit the pavement today on finding a part-time job.
You've have a bad experience as far as academic counseling at the junior college -- at least from your description, I would call that near idiocy. At the U, he will have to claim a major and it should have a sports program so that should not be a problem. Do NOT---NOT---NOT---NOT just "put him in a major". This is his education. It must be what HE wants.
There's not a lot you can do until you:
1) Fill out that FASFA and process it
2) Call the U, physically go in with your son and see a Financial Aid Advisor
3) Register, see your Academic Advisor and get your classes
If I can help you in anyway, let me know.
I had it in college
I went for PT - they did u/s and massage and heat application. Also, I received medication via (I am going to get this wrong I think) iontophoresis.
I had to change the way I held my food trays (I was a waitress) and do some exercises with a one pound weight.
It resolved with cessation of what was causing the problem in the first place. Every so often it comes close to flaring back up if I am not careful. Now my big problem is mild tendinitis in my thumb .
I never needed surgery though I have heard some people do if it gets really bad.
Did they do the Finklestein test (is that what its called?) on you to dx it? Its where they have you make a fist and then they flex your wrist down. I yelped and almost kicked the dr!
Good luck.
What did you go to college for? nM
x
I was in college before
I attended college off and on from 1989 - 1997. It will only take me a year to complete what I started.
college or not (I did) - what you do....sm
What a person does for their entire lifetime is a career, a profession. Some of us went to college, some graduated, some never went to college. Who cares? I spent 27 years doing this so yep, it has become my profession......worked Wall Street for 3 years in the 60s-70s, well that was my profession at the time (decade). Worked restaurants as a kitchen manager for 5 years - that was my profession during those 5 years and what a chef I am....*LOL*
Worked in a major teaching hospital for 10 years PRIOR to doing full-time MT work.....so yep - the medical profession is my profession and I'm a paraprofessional !!!
Dream on..........
For College - sm
You may want to check with the school. At FSU, your laptop needs to have specific programs/capabilities if you want to take it to class with you to use in class, and also to download from their blackboard on the internet.
My tech also agrees Toshibas are the best and I was lucky that the Toshiba was compatible with many of the requirements.
college or not
I graduated in 2004 with an Associate Degree in Medical Office Administration, Office Systems Technology, when I was 18 yrs. old I went to nursing school and then worked a few years as an LPN. I don't regret my college or degrade college in any way, but, most employers want an experienced MT but won't give anyone a chance to prove that someone just starting out can do the job.I am now 50 years old, taking care of my disabled husband and CAN NOT get a job at home working as a medical transcriptionist, and can't afford to take the extra tutoring that some suggest. I would just like a chance to make a living, not a bunch of money, just enough to pay my bills.
They are not gone...they just went to college--sm
They will be around more than you think....when they need money...when they need their laundry done...and, of course, holidays. They will miss you too, I am sure. You won't be nearly as lonely as you think you are going to be. lol
College
I have 2 kids in college, one I helped on the front end and because of this career, one I will have to help on the back end (meaning help him pay off his loans while he is in school instead of giving him money up front). The Stafford loans have very low interest rates right now, the rates went down. I live in Western NY and there are 2 MT jobs that I know of at one hospital. The other hospitals don't have inhouse transcriptionists. One uses a service (used to be my competitor) and they are giving all new residents laptops for EMR and the other gave all their doctors laptops 2 years ago. I'm tired of MTing to be honest, 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week, first as MTSO as qualified people were hard to come by and then because either the service didn't pay, didn't pay on time or didn't have any work so I have needed to work for more than one. I would love to do anything else.
Thanks - I have 1 in college and 1 soon to be..nm
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