Even an "open book" tests requires you to look in your own book, not just as the guy next to y
Posted By: deb on 2008-02-18
In Reply to: Splitting semantic hairs - Annette
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Yes, the Rad book is good, as is the Ortho & Rehab words. A drug book helps or one on CD. Book mark
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Sted's Ortho/Rehab Words, a lab word book, and at least 1 drug book. nm
s
book for MT
Go find "The Language of Medicine" and go through it chapter by chapter. It has a CD with it and do all of the tests, each worksheet, etc. That will give you a good start. I have been in the business for 17 years, and have taught from the bottom up, and have also taught MTs who had a solid MT certificate. I can say with all certainty that this is not an easy business by any means, but it is worth it. The first years I did MT work, we were paid hourly and I made decent money. Seventeen years later, I make great money, but without those years behind me and knowing every discipline of medicine, every tool used in surgery, every disease known to man, every laboratory value and study, ad nauseum, I would not be making the money I do at this point. If you are good and persistent, it is easy to make anywhere from $25 to $40 an hour in this field (with a good shortcut program, I prefer ShortHand 8). I have taught nurses, chiropractors, anyone with a medical background, and those were the people who needed the most help, not the ones who had gone to actual MT school, although they needed help too. With the ESL dictators, if you don't know the procedures, etc., being a fast typist with a basic medical background will not be of any help. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but honestly, do the schooling before you attempt this career and expect to be placed. Otherwise, try transcriptionmatchmaker.com and see what she can do for you.
Gastro book
I began transcribing for a gastroenterologist and I have to look up every other word. Does anyone know of a really helpful gastro terminology book?
 Thanks for any help.
gastro book
You need to get a GI/GU book from Stedmans, www.stedmans.com. I believe they are the best.
Has anyone read this book....?
Hello all-
I had gone to the AAMT site (now AHDI) and found the e-book entitled Getting Your Foot in the Door: Two Years' Experience Not Required. Before I purchase it, I wonder if any one has read it and if it had any good tips for an MT that does not have the 2 yrs that is spoken about so much.
Thanks in advance. 
Drug book
Stedmans Medical Dictionary is a good start. The drug books I use are Saunders and Quick Look Drug Book. The Quick Look is good for beginning as it has a lot of information in the appendix section and drugs listed by disease process in the back. The AAMT Book of Style is a "must have" as some companies require you to follow the guidelines in this book; this book you can study now and it will help you be a little ahead down the road when you start testing for jobs and working. Stedman's word books are good (each book for a different specialty), but you may want to hold off on getting any of these until you know what specialty you will be working in when you graduate. I do hospital acute care and so have the complete library of Stedman's word books.
I don't know how far you are in your schooling, but testing for different companies is the best way to know what you do not know and what to study.
I wish you luck in your schooling and hope it is a rewarding experience for you,
DJ
Another good book is
Grammar and Writing Skills for the Health Care Professional. You can get a used copy on Amazon for around $10 shipped. The Gregg Manual is also good ad you can find that used on Amazon for around $7 shipped. Good luck and don't get to discouraged, you'll learn over time what is acceptable in the "real world" of transcription.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0766812596/ref=dp_olp_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1220570885&sr=8-6
Which drug book do you prefer? NM
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Which lab word book do you prefer?
Which lab word book do you prefer the Sloane one or Stedman's?
medical phrase book
What is the best medical phrase index, Stedman's, Vera Pyle, or Lorenzini.
which is best medical term book
Thanks much for the input.
in addition to the phone book
Go get 2 Rolodex's. They are cheap at any office supply store. Use one for medications and one for medical terms that are new to you. Also for a pharmaceutical book, the Monthly Prescribing Reference is free on line. Just Google it under that name and download it into your system. It will give you weekly updates to the drugs that are either being taken off the market or being put on the market. It's the drug book physicians use and far superior to any book that has to be renewed year after year.
BOS stands for book of style. They
want you to use the BOS guidelines for transcribing. There isn't a template, but using things like daily instead of q.d., etc.
That is a book that is part with the CareerStep Course.
You would only need it if you are a text student. Otherwise, it is a unit in the online course.
Grammar Text Book
Hey sm, just looked for that book on Amazon and there are quite a few different Little Brown Handbooks, could you tell me the ISBN#, author and edition? Thanks.
Good pathology book recommendation?
Can anyone recommend an easy to use pathology book? Needto brush up. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
buy...couldn't resist! :) LOL...great book though. NM
d
I usually update the drug book every other year as I
use it so often and there are new drugs all the time. Equipment books I update about the same as there is always new equipment coming out. Other books I don't update as often, depends on how much I use a particular specialty.
New Saunders 2008 Drug Book
Just received it in the mail yesterday. I get a new one every year and sell the old one either to coworkers or on Ebay.
Love the idea on using a phone book A-Z for writing down
I have almost 4 year experience now and may branch out on my own next year I think, or at least try. Love the idea of using the phone book, can't believe I never thought of it. Thanks for the tip.
The new Quick Look Drug Book and the Saunders Pharm Words come
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Tessier's Surg. Word Book & Davis' Med Abbrev. nm
nm
A good book for phrases is the Medical Phrase Index. $$$ but well worth it when first starting
s
Quick Look Drug Book great for this as it has conditions/diagnoses in back with meds
s
Can't forget the AAMT Book of Style II! Gotta have it for style/formatting, etc. nm
s
Good. The lab book was a good choice.
Be sure you look through each book when you get it. Put tabs on sections you will want to refer to quickly. I know my lab book (not Stedman's) has all kinds of extra sections. I think my next purchase would be the cardiac book. Then neuro or OB-GYN after that, depending on which you are getting more of in your work.
Do you have a job that requires you to have one?--nm
CMT requires
2 years of acute care experience before you can sit for the test. Just thought you should know. Good luck!
MDI-MD requires their MTs to have 3-5 years of
experience, I think. They are a great company, but they aren't set up for mentoring newbies. Good luck.
Penn Foster requires an 8th grade
education to take their course, which should tell you a lot. They are poorly written and your chances of getting a job are only slightly better than if you had not taken the course. Basically you've wasted your money - in this case you got what you paid for. I don't mean to sound so harsh, but if you did research before taking the course you would have been much better off. Your best option at this point is to see if you can get an in-house clinic position or either take a menitoring program.
TAKE THE TESTS!
Most places will let you take there tests, then they can determine if they feel like you have the experience to work for them. The worst they can do is turn you down. As for entry level johs, search the boards. There are usually a few on there all the time. You might start out with a low pay rate, but it will give you the experience that you can use for the better paying jobs in time.
Thanks!
tests
No I do not need help on the tests. I was stuck on a word in a transcription assignment. I had researched it but came up empty. I just needed to know where else to look or anything.
I do not need help with tests.
typing tests
Don't understand the reason either.....I just take the test...
Taking Tests
I am considering MT as an at-home career also and I wanted to know what is the procedure to sending in resumes, taking the tests, etc.? Also, are you hired on an hourly basis or by the amount of lines you can produce in a certain time? Any help and advice you can send my way is very much appreciated.
Employment tests
Most services want to see 98%, or at the least 97%, on an employment test. Anything less than that is "failing" in their eyes.
Think about it from their perspective. If their clients expect 98% accuracy, you need to be able to produce 98% accuracy. If you can't do that while being tested, which they assume is your best effort, you're not likely to do it on the job later.
Not saying this is a great thing or not, just that it's what they may think.
online tests
I also took the Medquist exam after they sent me an email requesting that I take it. I felt very confident that I did well but was told I did not pass. They said to take it again in three months, which is now.... and now I have no confidence at all to do it.
Passing tests but . . .
Is anyone else having this problem? I am passing tests and being told that though I passed, I don't have the experience required for the position I applied for. They then tell me that they will keep my application on file until some thing opens up that I do qualify for. How often do we see a position listed that doesn't require experience? I know I did well, so I don't think that they are lying to me, but it is frustrating. The only skill I lack is speed, but that will only come with experience. I guess I'm just writing this to vent. Why won't anyone give me a chance?! Ok, now I'm off to take another test.
If you can't pass the tests. . .
If you can't pass the tests, that is an indication that your knowledge and/or ability isn't what it needs to be to do the job.
If you're getting a chance to test, they ARE giving you a chance. THE TEST is the chance.
You can improve your chances by learning more. Get some materials that Allied didn't use and study with them. Get the BOS and learn it by heart and be able to apply it. Get some HPI training materials and transcribe them. Then try testing again.
The one thing that won't help is begging for "a chance." Employers can't afford to spend money on that chance--they have a job that needs doing at 98% accuracy. If you can't show them you can do that, they're not going to give you a job.
Typing tests
I've never seen a typing test, timed or untimed, as part of any medical transcription application process. Transcription tests, yes, but not TYPING tests.
If I had ever been asked to take one, I'm afraid I would have gotten up and walked out. I would have assumed that the employer didn't understand the nature of the work they were calling "medical transcription." If they didn't understand that, they wouldn't be likely to understand much else about it, either, and that would be unfortunate for everyone.
If you're applying to legitimate MT employers, I don't think they will ask you to take a typing test. I do not believe our students have reported having to take a typing test, either.
You might want to check what MT services actually require.
That being said, you should . . . of course . . . improve your keyboard speed. That isn't achieved by going faster, but by keying slowly enough that you don't make any typos, but just keep going on and on. Eventually, you'll speed up. Try keying medical reports and books. There are lots of them on the internet.
In order for you to work comfortably as an MT, you'll need to be able to keyboard a whole shift, or about 7 hours with a 10 minute break every hour and a half-hour to an hour break in the middle.
You can do this if you start now and work at it gradually and without causing yourself stress. :)
Typing Tests
I have applied to several online companies and I haven't found any that don't require a typing test. Do you know of any? Also, as a newbie with no working experience, it's extremely to get my foot in the door anywhere. Thanks.
The timed tests are a test of how well you know
your stuff. Some of comes from education, most comes from experience. If you are unable complete the test without it timing out then you know you still have lots to learn. No 2 tests are the same so you can't take it enough times to get all the answers, but it gives you an idea on what kinds of things they are looking for and shows you your areas of weakness, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I have nearly 20 years of experience and I have some across questions on testing that I had to look up. Not all tests are timed, but I did take one test that was timed and it timed out on me too; more probably because I was rereading everything and didn't realize it was a timed test, but I was still offered a position. You just might get started on clinic notes rather than acute care and your pay rate will most definitely be lower than if you had scored better.
I flunk many tests at first, but I learned from each one - sm
that is what you must do. I used to joke that I learned more from the tests than I did from my course. Not quite the case but I did learn a lot from the tests too, they were certainly eye-opening some of them. All you can do is keep trying, what is the saying you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince, well finding a MT job is sort of the same thing, in both finding a job and finding one you like. Try again at Transolutions when they say you can try again (usually 6 months) and in the meantime apply anywhere and everywhere that you can. Good Luck.
Are you not passing the hiring tests or isn't
s
You can leave blanks and some tests even have
instructions on how to notate a blank. I have 20 years of experience and I have only had one test in my career that I have had to leave a blank, but there are usually different levels of reports. One report may be very clearly dictated, clinic type work where there really isn't a lot of medical terminology. Another may be an acute care report, possibly an Op, and then one may be a report there the sound quality is bad, an ESL dictator, or a fast talking US dictator.
The company is trying to get an idea of your skill level. If you do very well on the first report but not so well on the second and horrible on the third, then they will probably offer you a clinic account and start you off at the bottom of the pay scale.
Leaving a blank wouldn't count against you as much as guessing at something and getting it wrong. I don't think leaving a blank will stop you from being offered a position, but excessive blanks would probably would.
trouble with online tests?
Anyone else applied to Medquist or FocusInfomatics and have trouble passing the test?? I cannot figure out why I did not pass the transcription test and they can't tell me...just hoping I'm not alone...thanks
Sorry, meant pre-employment MT tests.
nm
Are you taking tests and failing or not even getting responses? nm
s
eMedicine website - neurologic tests
This website is great reading. This link takes you to a page of neurologic physical examinations, but it has everything, not just neuro. I guess it's a site for doctors. You do have to register to certain things, and I don't know if they require you to be a doctor to register because I haven't tried it lately. There is plenty to see without seeing close-ups. Something constructive to do while waiting for that first job.
http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic632.htm
Not true. I score tests for new and experienced MTs.
I'm shocked at what should be basics that newbies do not have. Shocked.
There are a few good newbies but most have not a clue what they are typing. Applying knowledge to actual transcription is FAR different than just spouting off what a term or value means.
Have you taken and passed tests for anyone yet? MQ? Spheris? Keep testing even w/o experience, if th
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