but of course remember if you DO go to a Comm Coll, at least
Posted By: That was just Nasty. on 2006-06-16
In Reply to: Your first step should be to determine if MT is a good goal for you - MT
you will have college credits, and a two year degree under your belt when you go back to school for your next REAL JOB. But if you go to the BIG THREE, and it's time to go back to school, you can start with all the other freshman in English 101 and Speech.
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but of course remember if you DO go to a Comm Coll, at least
you will have college credits, and a two year degree under your belt when you go back to school for your next REAL JOB. But if you go to the BIG THREE, and it's time to go back to school, you can start with all the other freshmen in English 101 and Speech.
comm. college
I'm new to this forum and am trying to find a good program. I've been accepted at a community college but tey aren't very efficient in returning phone calls or emails. It's like after they answer you one time they don't want to be bothered by you anymore. They refuse to answer certain questions , ie, if they train in any specialty fields. I've looked into M Tec and the Bright Start program They both sound good but the AHDI and an MT company I spoke with have never heard of them. Advise?
comm. college
Hi Toni,
Thanks for the advise. That's what worries me about this college. The instructors are the ones who deal with phone calls and emails. Classes haven't started yet and I'm really struggling with to go on with them or apply to one the online programs everyone keeps talking about. I've asked one specific question 2-3 times and it gets ignored everytime. I've tried to call that one with the Bright Start program you mentioned but still yet haven't gotten anyone to answer the phone. Do you know anything about them besides just looking at their website?
comm college
Toni,
I called Med Works several times during the day and only got voice mail. However, one of the ocunselors did call me back tonight. I had never heard of a staffing school until I read your post. For starting out of just what is required you're right, it is cheaper. I'm thinking of signing up with them. They just got bought out by someone else so I hope that's not a bad sign. They have a program going on with a particular company, like what you do I guess. (hiring students solely for them.) If they don't pay good or are hard to work for I'll be stuck for however long. But at least it's a guaranteed job to get experience. Right? Thanks for all the advise you give to us newbies.
comm college
Maybe I didn't clarify it well enough but I wasn't talking about M Tec.
take Career Step thru San Juan Comm. College
If you have federal funding such as Veteran's, Pell grant, worker retraining, disability retraining, FAFSA, displaced homemaker, etc. - this is the way to go. Get by far the most for your $. Much better price than Everett Community College for the same program.
SJCC is self paced, just have semester deadlines, whereas EvCC has deadlines for every assignment (too demanding for my busy schedule - but some people like those deadlines because they need the push).
San Juan Comm. College in NM has the Career Step program. It's just a direct login link to the Career Step program thru the school, the school has no addditional classes required, etc. Costs about the same as Career Step gold so it might even be cheaper if you get all the features of platinum, etc., I don't know. Runs on semesters, only starts in January and August. Takes 2 semesters about 9 mos. You graduate Career Step and also get a certificate in HIT (health information technology) from SJCC. They said if you finish early you can get your Career Step graduation and then later your HIT certificate from SJCC. There is no limit of # of students who can register per each semester.
I have been researching schools a LOT for awhile and just found this one. It is not well advertised but it sounds like an awesome deal. This is the one I am going to use, it will stretch my monthly veteran's educational benefit cheque a lot further.
passed on for your benefit . . .
I'd not attend the Comm College if teachers are not helpful
Hi Allie,
I wouldn't attend that Community College from what you have said. The CC I went to had two wonderful teachers who were semi-retired MTs. I vaguely remember that the clerks I enrolled with knew very little. I grew to be very impressed with the teachers over time. A great teacher is such a blessing.
Med Workshops' staffing school did a good job for us almost 2 years ago. I've spoken with the owner Karen over the phone. She is bright and honest. We moved to another school because they offered us a better deal financially. We will probably use Med Workshops again in the future sometime. Remember that they are like a wholesale alternative. They probably don't have a sales staff for the "retail student".
But, a wholesale approach doesn't mean you don't get assistance. It means they make most of their money training students for individual employers. Companies like this don't advertise to the public. They contact the larger transcription companies and are looking at a different model. They are dealing in groups to be able to cut overhead, etc. etc. Companies like who I work for find this very appealing because a basic education is usually very similar everywhere because the same 2-3 teaching aids (books, CDs, online) are used by almost all schools.
We are looking at teacher/mentor support for the students and also the cost of education. We won't be able to find enough students at one time if we have to rely on a very expensive retail school- they aren't set up to satisfy our needs, but their program might be great. Retail at $3800 or wholesale at about $2000? For employers like mine the answer is simple.
I'm getting caught in a "25 words or less" dilemma in trying to explain this. I feel some here will jump all over me if I don't say just the right thing.
I've been saying that, I see this wholesale or staffing school approach as the new wave in education because it solves problems for the students and the employers. It's a win win.
I hope everyone keeps an open mind and just considers these ideas. I'm not saying this is the only solution for everyone. Don't hit me, I'm just a messenger.
solid education is right! Your advantage with the comm. college is you have credits so when...
you go back to school for your next job you will be ahead of the game. The gals with M-Tec, Andrews, etc. will have to start at the beginning, English 101 and Speech. And Jennifer, as far as the opinion that "those with 'local community college' education are sorely lacking in even the basics to be a success" - I just hired a newbie with community college training and she is outstanding! So my experience has been it doesn't matter where you went to school - if you're good, you're good and it will show on your testing
.  Good luck on your job search. Search this board's archives. The question gets asked here ALL the time. It's not unusual for a newbie to have difficulty landing the first job.
Remember,
she asked if she can do it on the side, not change careers. She also asked if she could take the RMT. I checked, and I believe it said that you have to either have experience or have taken a course in MT. I agree with the person aboving stating she could not pass it. As I said before, these days you will not even be able to test most places unless you have experience or if you have passed an MT course.
As far as someone wanting it bad enough, that will help but if that was all you needed, that's all people would need to put on a resume. From listening to many people over the last 2 years who hire for these companies, they certainly do not find nursing to be adequate experience for MT nor do they hire people just because they will try
hard.
It is true that some people just don't realize all they don't know and you just shake your head. You have to go to school for any specialized field. Why do people think that MT is any different? Maybe it is because it WAS different years ago.
I would challenge anyone who is a nurse and wants to do MT on the side try to get hired by a national. Not going to happen. As stated before, in a local office maybe, sure. You aren't going to be as good as a trained MT, though. That's just a fact.
remember, you get what you pay for...
I am in my 5th month with M-Tec and it is so thorough, challenging and wonderful. Be careful not to rush your training and waste money whle doing it. The final goal is a really good job and MTec is proven positive.
I remember my first day as an MT -
I could not believe how worn out I was. I could not have been more tired I had run a marathon. It was pretty tough for a few weeks, but I made it and so will you! Get a good night's sleep. Best wishes for a good day tomorrow.
How to remember
I don't use it but there is a system called ABCZ by John Knowles. It makes it easy to remember how to form expanders. The basic rule of the ABCZ method is to use the first three letters of a word (hence ABC) and its last letter (hence Z). So for example, you use hosn for the word hospitalization. Then I believe there is an ABCZ Glossary which you can buy and use with Instant Text but if you read more about how ABCZ works, maybe you can adapt it and not buy the premade Glossary. That's it in a nutshell but Google ABCZ. There is a lot of info out there. Also there is a great site called Productivity Talk if you can wade through it.
Please remember this when you are applying
Send yourself an e-mail first ... make sure you have your email account info updated so that it actually shows your name.
You really will score points if the recruiter or HR person can find you by seeing your name in the email list rather than "dogsRpeople2@whoknows.com"!
Thank you.
One thing to remember..
A lot of companies won't hire newbies who took just any course..it has to be an approved course (AAMT-approved or at the very least a course that is approved by that particular company.) If you take an unapproved course and try to go to work for one of the big companies, you might find that they won't accept you without more experience first.
One thing to remember
Maybe 7 years ago they would hire (or even test) someone in your situation, but these days there are so many who have taken the MT courses that they choose to test those first. Hands-on learning positions are around but usually only locally. Just want people reading this to know that. As you can see a few posts down I believe, there is someone who went to school and cannot even test because she did not go to a well-known school and/or she does not have enough experience even to test. So to say that it is possible is technically right, but people out there need to know that these situations are rare.
for spirit328: How do you remember all
the abbreviations? What stands for what? I still use AutoCorrect.
I feel bad for the newbies, I remember how it was too
I started about 12 years ago, I was lucky because my school helped me find a job (all tapes, talk about bad quality) and the MT office was a little nook in the corner of an ER. The docs were always stressed out and I could not understand much but did the best I could. I remember fearing being fired just about everyday because it was so hard. I didn't get the hang of this job until over a year into it, and when I went home, it started all over again, because I didn't have a second ear. When I first went home for MQ a year and a half out of school, my then fiance was so happy to have me home he came up to give me a loving hug, and I actually shoved him I was so frustrated with work. I later apologized, but the stress level is crazy when you are new, you don't have a grasp on the medical terminology, no one to ask questions in person, on top of the crazy accents.
Remember, that stapler was the only thing that
made it through the fire! You kind of need that kind of durability on this board!
Remember a couple of years ago
We heard the same thing. Big articles in newspapers about the radiology group that loved speech recognition so much. It turned out that administration forced it on the doctors. They rebelled and hired transcriptionists for themselves and walked in with transcription machines. They told administration they had wasted enough of the doctors' time and they were having no more of it.
I'm sure we'll hear of some successes, but it sure isn't getting rave reviews from the majority of users. Someday, maybe.
Remember Nipper, the RCA dog with its head tilted?
Well, sometimes I feel like poor old Nipper as I try to listen oh-so-carefully to dictations. Can anyone offer some suggestions/opinions as to what headphones are really good for transcription? Currently I am using the headphones from an old portable cd player, and now I'm wondering if there are some headphones that are especially good for transcription. I've checked out a few websites, but there are so many to choose from. Does anyone have a favorite?
I remember my first job quite a few years ago and making about $2 an hour until I learned...sm
the account, got used to the doctors, learned how to efficiently research etc. I also needed to create my own expansion program as the system I worked in back then would not allow an outside expander. Keep at it and good luck, it will get better.
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