recent graduate

I graduated this year from a community college which used the Career Step program in addition to some other courses.  It was all done online.  I have been working for 3 months, and have learned almost as much from working as from school so far.  The difference is that you are doing 800-1200 lines a day so you are exposed to a lot more information.  However, I don't believe I would have passed the entrance exams without everything I did pick up with the schooling. 

I would definitely encourage formal training of some sort because it is such a competitive industry.  I honestly don't think you could get hired from home, or pass an entrance exam without a good deal of training.  The 98% accuracy they are looking for on their tests is tough to hit without very strong grammar, med terminology, and AAMT/AHDI standards knowledge.  I am not making much money now, but I know within a year it will be different.  I am home and that is invaluable to me!

Good luck! 

• getting started - leisl mccrea
  • Let me see if I can answer some of your questions. - RockinMT
    • School is a must! - LK
      • I didn't say no school, I said take only what you need. - RockinMT
        • When I said vo-tech, I meant community college just in case you were wondering (nm) - working MT
        • Ability to get job is what matters most - LK
          • Funny, but I constantly see posts of newbies lamenting... - RockinMT
            • That's my point. - LK
      • I disagree. I trained on the job, I'm an excellent MT (sm) - working MT
        • I totally disagree with you. - whatever
        • Online Schools - IA
        • I disagree also - Tina
          • I'm not discouraging newbies. Quite the contrary, - RockinMT
            • Newbies have degraded this profession??? - whatever
            • You ARE very negative! - Tina
              • My education is better because I learned on the job. - RockinMT
                • M-TEC or Andrews - bips
                • 'Scuse me - LK
                  • Thanks LK and bips! - Tina
                • Re:school - Tina
                  • Offshoring to India is the direct result of declining quality - RockinMT
                    • Uh, yeah, right - Old part-timer
        • Well said! - RockinMT
    • School needed? - Tina
      • Back to school - Sueue
        • recent graduate - KT

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I just finished school back in Nov. of 2005. I've been looking and looking for a job online and still have had no luck. The only response I seem to get bac from anyone is that I don't have enough experience. Does anyone have any pointers on what I should I do, or how I should approach this field? Please help me!!! I don't know what to do anymore!!

student loans and a rural setting normally will not pay as much.  Maybe the practice is small and enough patient's don't come in, maybe lots of them done have insurance or the insurance companies don't have a set fee across the country that they will approve, but what is the norm for a particular region.  More and more larger practices are adding hospitalists so that doctors aren't having to make rounds now, but there was a need to have the office close to a hospital before.  If doctors do surgery or don't have hospitalists, being close to a hospital is important so they can get there quickly in the event of an emergency.  Some docs want to specialize and there might not be enough interest in rural areas.   I also living in a rural setting, though the doctors in our area aren't very good and I would never go to one of them.   I think there are still doctors who want to practice in a rural setting, but they just can't afford to. 

Hang in there!  You can overcome a chronic illness and empower yourself.  It ain't easy, but doable.  Been that way for 12 years now.

Just make sure you file the disability with a disability attorney. SS is very well known for denying claims usually twice, then court before they grant it.  This waste many many months and tires us that are already tired, out.  You need all your energy to fight the disease, not for your rights to supplemental income you've paid for all these years. 

Your children will also receive dependent benefits until they reach 18, so again, get an experienced dis. atty.  Hang in there

Everything that I find in the archives is old.  I have already been offered a position with 1 and waiting on an interview with the other.  I have chosen IC status for both because I just cannot comply with the strict schedules that these companies have now.  I have tried being an employee but after 10 years of being an IC and working when I want, schedules are tough.  Does anyone have any advice please?

Two decades of hospital experience here.  Applied at about 6 different large companies.  Some of the pay was atrocious (.07), some was fair (.08).  One offered .085 but had to work the hours precisely as they demanded as an IC with no flexibility and told me up front it was an extremely difficult and high ESL account.  (Now I realize that someone has to type those hard dictators, but would prefer that they be mixed in with an easier account -- been there and done that as far as an 80 percent HARD ESL account).

Of course I didn't take any of them and now I wish I had told them the pay was too low and that it was insulting.  I was not tempted to accept any of those jobs.  The recruiters for the most part acted as if I should be honored to be offered such a cruddy job with them!!  These were all companies who advertise heavily on the MT boards and perhaps that is why they are constantly advertising.

I took a job with a very small company who has decent accounts and were eager to pay me a better wage so I know they are out there.  I had interaction with 2 such smaller companies who offered good pay.

I really hate to see to see good transcriptionists take jobs that offer so little in return for our services as it hurts us all in the long run.

there is the thread about podiatry, posts about companies, posts about cherry picking,  ESLs taking over, this company is the best.     How many hundreds of us are on these boards???   Its a good thing we are all individuals - and there is so much work out there because one type of person could not do all the types of work.  Not everyone wants to work for big corporation  - not everyone wants to run their own MT service.

Some of us hate short little clinic notes, some hate long operative reports.  Some love radiology, others want to type IMEs. Never work for a company that IMs you all day vs  this company never gives feedback.

Where I  recently worked - we always used to leave behind certain reports for the late shift person, stuff we all thought she loved until one day she complained - how come I HAVE TO DO ALL the _____ studies..  Its kinda funny- you might think someone is cherrypicking all the CT's and they think they are doing you a favor by leaving short reports. 

Of course NO ONE likes the really awful individual dictators, whether it is ESL or chewers, the accounts that have a million details or QA that keeps changing. I think most of us know you have to take some bad with the good and when you TRY to do the tuff stuff, the good stuff becomes easier.

So  when someone comes to vent - cut them some slack - who cares about typos here - we all know that when we are working, we use our spellchecks and pay attention to details. 

When I take time to answer on this board, it is never with judgement - I always try to say "in MY experience, psych reports are bad because ..."  or when I worked for  XYZ company, they did not count lines correctly.  You cannot make generalities about  a profession as varied as this one. 

I come here for information AND entertainment - it does take a certain type of person to do this work -  that has nothing to do with the skills involved - and I think we share an understanding of each other, even as we argue over everything.    We all saw a part of ourselves in the recently posted "You Might Be a Transcriptionist If..." and we all laughed as we shook our heads. 

Sad to say I am about to make the decision to try a career change - I cannot push myself anymore (after almost 30 years) to produce enough lines to make the money I need - thats not to say it can't be done these days, just that I don't want to/can't  work that hard anymore. 

Although I am married and it doesn't pertain to me...

The financial aid officer told all the parents there that if their child is 22, living with them or not, their finances will be looked at and considered when the kid goes to college.  So if you boot your kid out the door at 22, consider the fact that if you make too much money, your kid may not be able to afford to go to college without your help because their student loans, scholarships, etc. will be based on both the student's income and the parents.  If they are married or have children parent's income is not a factor, only the student.

that you wouldn't mind sharing.  I heard that they used to drop your pay based on how many reports you send to be QA'd.  Is it really that way?  Just want to know before I would consider applying.

I read this just last night, as I too have been researching and gleaning information regarding the future of MT and pondering making any career changes.

http://govhealthit.com/Articles/2009/01/07/Spending-on-health-IT-would-generate-212105-jobs.aspx

EXCERPT:

The analysis found that a $10 billion health IT stimulus program would create or retain 43,410 jobs directly, most of them in areas such as software and hardware sales and system installation. Another 115,670 jobs would be created or retained indirectly, in areas such as sales of trucks and food to those holding the new jobs.

And the availability of new and improved networks and information would create 53,025 jobs, the foundation reported.

Stephen Ezell, a senior analyst at ITIF, said in answer to a reporter’s question that the analysis did not take into account the potential loss of jobs in areas such as medical records management and transcription of physicians’ notes.

Quite a few posters who have been MTs for a number of years (myself included) have come under attack recently for comments posted here  -- what those of us who have done this for years are seeing is "I only want to work certain hours, won't do weekends, don't want to be on call so on and so forth"  Guess what?  I got an email from my supervisor on Monday asking me to cover a certain work type while that person was on vacation  -- I did it!!! -- She also called me today (Sunday and asked me to do 3 STATS  -- I cover STATS on Wednesday)  -- however, I did it because it it my JOB  -- since I started this job in October, I have NEVER run ouf of work  -- if the work type that I do runs out, I do to a differnt work type, it is similar to learning a new account which I have done in the past as well.  All I want to say, is be grateful right now that you have a job and if the "work does not fit YOUR FAMILY SCHEDULE" then learn to adjust  -- think PRIORITIES

My daughter's Middle School implemented some new safety measures this year. Visitors have to be "buzzed in" and when the kids go from building to building they must use their ID cards to enter the doors.

But one day my daughter forgot her clarinet and my husband took it to her. We are talking about a "country-boy" looking man carrying a small black case. A teacher and her class was exiting the main building and the teacher actually held the door for my husband to enter as they were exiting. She had no idea who he was. Scary.

Anyway, it seems the Amish shooter targeted that school so he could avoid the security measures that have been established in most schools in recent years.

My heart goes out to the families who lost and for those sitting at the bedside of the remaining girls. I hope and pray they will recover.

Thanks for letting me ramble. This has really been on my mind a lot lately

Microsoft Office Small Business 2000 (MSWord, Excel, Outlook, IE5.0. ) This software works as flawlessly as the day I purchased it.  Patches never required.  No hang-ups or crashes.  The only alteration I have made to it, is that I am running the most current version of IE.  However, most of the time I use a tabbed browser for my web experience. 

. 

I saw this article yesterday in the news.  I back tracked and found a link to it:

Time Warner Cable to Trial Usage-based Billing Scheme for High-speed Internet

In my exeprience, it has been MT friendly.  I did have some start up issues because of Vista, but that was easily resolved if you get a cust. svc rep with a little knowledge.  My issue was with getting word to run inside of the scribe program like it was supposed to.  It kept opening outside of scribe.  By Vista being so new to the platform, It was registry problem that needed some tweeking.