glad you agree
Posted By: Janine on 2008-02-09
In Reply to: Thank you for posting...sm - Student MT
I didn't even realize I was on the Newbie board. I've posted this before and people always thank me, some argue with me, but it's my stand and I'm sticking with it!!
Newbies especially get suckered in by this line the companies feed and it's not right. Sounds good and emotions take over and then the spider has you right in its web. How can a woman hold her baby and think "If I'll just take less pay I can stay home with him/her and watch them grow up" and then say No to that! All I'm saying is go for BOTH -- stay home with your baby or for whatever reason you want to work from home but DEMAND for yourself and as a group with all of us the best wage you can get as well! Go for the cake AND the ice cream. You DESERVE both! Just be professional about your work responsibilities to prove to your boss that you DO take your job seriously and CAN do both and are worth the pay which isn't likely to get any better when this tactic works so well.
Many seem to forget this is a PROFESSION. We're not at home making home-made preserves to be sold at the county fair or something. Sometimes we come off sounding like that, though. I'm sure the doctors and lawyers on the golf courses talk about the benefits from working from home too but they don't share that with their patients whom they still charge the same. We keep shooting our cause down all by ourselves. If MTSOs were not allowed to read this site, it would be a different matter. But, like I said, we're being watched.
If you want to move this to the Main Board go ahead. I don't know how to. I've only replied to threads.
Good luck to you and all newbies!!! 
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LOL - glad you liked it.
I should try and find that Parents article, but I'm running out of time myself.
glad to help
I certainly didn't mean to imply that you didn't know your terminology. I just know that if there is a specialty that I start transcribing that I am unfamiliar with, well, I need to brush up on my knowledge......and I have been doing this for 21 years. For instance oncology, ophthalmology, etc.
I didn't attend one of the "big 3". In fact, I went to the local vo-tech school for medical office assistant just after high school. MT was just ~part~ of the cirriculum. Got an MT job before I even graduated covering for a local MT on maternity leave....that doc office ended up keeping me and it has gone on from there. Worked in doc office for 3-1/2 years, radiology office for 4 years, acute care hospital for 3-1/2 years, and now MQ for 10 years. I am just suggesting that having good references, either books or awareness of good web sites, can make all the difference when you are trying to prove yourself.....because we all get stumped every now and then.
Good luck!
Glad to help!
nm
Glad to help!
Mmmm, French silk pie. Great choice.
:oD
I'm glad it will help
I really love my book. You're right, the size of the print is very nice. If you notice, when listing references for this book, it lists the Medical Phrase Index, which is the very pricey version of this book. I think that particular book is aimed more towards coders, and this book is specifically for MTs. Anyway, glad to help! 
Glad it works for you
You sound like you have a system that works for you. I tried getting more hours in at night after the kids went to bed and found that I was too tired, would get bad eyestrain and was just not that effective when I did not get enough sleep.
I actually make more money at home as an MT than I would in an office. Like I said below, mine are in dc. If it were just my 3yo daughter, I would be able to do it with her around.
Even though I have a 2 and 3yo in daycare, the benefit of working from home with a flexible schedule (have to get 35 or so hours in per wk, but whenever as long as its steady) is that I can pause my workday at 3pm when my 7 yo gets out of school - I pick him up, then I pick them up. I am also able to send my 3yo to preschool 3 mornings per wk and take the time to drop her off and pick her up. I have also been able to work on sick days. I estimate that since December, I would have had to take 8.5 sick days to care for my children if I worked in an office.
After being a SAHM for a long time, I am enjoying having some time where I am working and the kids are in school.
To each his own - I have fielded opinions from both sides on this one.
I'm glad you brought this up...
I'm glad you brought this up, because there are scams out there and new MTs need to be aware of them. Just look at the threads below regarding Proficient Transcription.
Best of luck to you in your job search!
Thank you! I am so glad to hear
that using the pinkie to shift will not interfere with the program.
Glad you found it helpful! :) NM
x
Glad to hear such good news!
I am happy for you and your family, and I hope he continues to improve.
"Continue to be happily employed?" I'm glad you put THAT in writing
because those are words you are going to eat within the next five years. Better wake up and smell the coffee.
I've been searching for quality MT school- glad I found this Board
It appears that everyone can agree on M-Tec or Andrews School--by the way is that Linda Andrews and not Andrews/Holbrook?
I want to get started with training soon and I'm having difficulty deciding. I've taken both their tests and they both seem like good choices. Decisions, decisions...
I agree
I am also a newbie and have found it very difficult to find jobs. I would also like to know if anyone has any suggestions.
I agree with ksc
You're not going to find much positive feedback on this forum. I recently graduated from our community college and have been looking for work for some time now. Everyone on this forum told me that if I didn't first work as a MT in an office, there was no way I was going to find a job at home. Well, I was just hired for an at-home position a few days ago. I believe that if you are determined to do this and you keep applying, you will find what you're looking for. Good luck in your search!!
I agree with you...
ALL are scams on Monster and CareerBuilder, ALWAYS.
thanks SH. I agree that it all comes down
to just doing the work, and doing it quickly and accurately! Thanks for your input. :)
I agree
I have heard of many people who started doing MT years ago, without schooling. I think times have changed though and most employers now expect their employees to have gone through training. But I agree completely that some people are cut out for this and some people are not. I am hoping to start out at a local hospital when I finish my schooling. One of the hospitals I called actually train you on site. I look forward to working with seasoned MT's who can give me the support I will need when just starting out. I eventually do want to work from home, but I also realize that I need the experience in house first to build my skills and confidence before I go on my own.
I agree
I agree. I hired someone out of Andrews and they did a wonderful job for me!
I agree
I can see her frustration. If they can't even follow simple instructions, they will never make it as an MT. It's ok for us to vent but God fobid an MTSO tries to vent. Let's step back and look at both sides of the coin. It would be a benefit for all to heed her advice.
agree with everyone else, take it
/
I don't agree with you!
I think it is utterly wrong to put all the fish in the same bowl and purely assume that everybody is the same. I personally think we should be given EQUAL opportunity. I don't expect to make $60K, $50K or even $20K right of the bet, it takes time to get better at anything in life -- I'm sorry but I found your message offensive. Have you gotten to where you're at OVERNIGHT????? So here is my answer!!!
And something else -- we don't look for a job and then simply ignore it, and feel like we don't have to prove anything!
What don't you agree with -
What don't you agree with - that an MTSO should notice an applicant's lack of skill and move on to the next applicant? Medical terminology is only one part of a transcriptionist's skill set. She must also have English vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and punctuation that is better than a doctor's. Fortunately, these things are hard to fake!
If one applicant doesn't have the skills, she'll find somebody who does. It's her (or his) reputation on the line.
I believe the better schools test people before they accept them so those who don't have the background skills won't waste time and money on a career they won't succeed in.
i agree...c msg
even with schooling, i had to humble myself and be a transcription clerk for 9 months so i could get in the door. learned the ropes of the mts, even did corrections on reports sent back by the doctor, which was the clerk's job.
i dont believe that anyone can master medical transcription or anything in the medical field as it is always changing. i believe that in time, you get more comfortable as years (not days, weeks, or months) go by.
I agree with you
Not everyone's situation is the same. People do not send their children to daycare just because they "cannot take care of them", or don't want to take care of them. Sometimes it is the only choice there is. And when you are a Work-at-home mom it can be difficult too. My primary reason for getting into MT was not so I could work from home, it was to work in the medical field and make some great money. Being home is an added benefit. It drives me nuts when people want to classify everyone the same. Everyone is different and deals with their lives differently.
I agree
Even though you are new to the business, $8.00 an hour is not much. I would want at least $10. Others may not agree, but receptionists and secretaries get paid more than $8.00 an hour these days.
I agree....
It is a good place to start, but my personal experience is it gets boring quickly. Acute care for me anyways is where I have been the happiest. Get a good reference book and give radiology a try, you will be glad you did!
I agree........
This MTSO knows what she is talking about! Thanks for your post. :)
I agree
I'm willing to do whatever my employer asks of me for now. I know I'm new and inexperienced. The only way to get that experience is to practice, practice, practice. I just got a job at a local dermatology clinic, and they probably think I'm insane because I have thanked them for giving me a chance almost every day since I got the job. (starting my 4th week this week) LOL, I'm just happy to be working again.
have to agree...
I guess newbies hear it all the time from the training courses they sign up for - to try to get 6-8 cpl right out of the gate. Of course the training course is going to tell you that - they wouldn't get any customers otherwise! LOL! I think if you haven't got a bite after your first go round, you might consider doing the second round at a discount. If you didn't make the cut the first time, there's too many competitors out there at the same rate. So drop your rate.
I agree. I have never done this and never will.nm
x
I agree.
It certainly would make this a nicer place to visit.
I agree--changes will always come
In any industry, changes are bound to happen. I have posted this before, but there are other industries out there that have expected to be eliminated and haven't been. There are some things that it would be almost impossible to keep the human interface out of. I think this is one of them. I was in marketing before I switched careers into this, and despite what the "wonderful and all-knowing" AAMT says, it is obvious that we aren't going anywhere. In reality, half the country is still using tapes! I have seen offices that don't have a better computer system than the ancient Apples! I don't put much stock into what the AAMT says or others when the assumption is made that we are doomed. I look at the trends at the JCAHO and ask other professionals.
i agree
school alone is important, but experience makes a big difference too.
medical transcription classes
I have to agree
I went through PCDI and was very lucky to have more or less on the job training (and get hired, at that!!). I was totally and completely lost, especially not having ever used a transcription system before. PCDI might be the way to go if you're just looking for the piece of paper and know your stuff.
Cannot agree more...
I totally agree. I have been doing this for more than 15 years, and think I am pretty good, but I will not accept or work on a new account if I am not provided with samples. You can never have too many samples. I use them for word searching, or phrase searching, spelling of the doctor's name, etc. If you have enough samples and can identify one word in a troublesome phrase, the ability to word search through many samples will be invaluable. Again, if it is important, it is likely to be repeated in the IMPRESSION and may sound a little different, enabling you to figure out what is being said. Finally, when you are finished, listen to the dictation while you are reading your finished document. Another finally, print the document and read it. If it does not make sense, it is probably wrong, and you might be surprised at what you will see when looking at a printed document, as opposed to viewing it on your monitor.
I agree. You need to take the MT
course first. I myself have over 15 years in the medical field and still have not landed an MT position. I have taken a course. 
I agree with sm
The problem with this job is people get the idea that working at home means is like eating at Burger King you get to "Have it your way." Most of the people I've talked to and my own personal experience said that wasn't the way it was. If you can find a job that allows you to work whenever you want, then, that's wonderful. But, I've noticed that more and more, not only are the services looking for set hours, but they also want full-timers. It wasn't that way when I started 17 years ago. That post about getting child care is right on. If you can arrange it, why not pay your teenagers a small salary for watching the little ones. Or, can you arrange to work after bedtime? If you want to give Dad a break, it probably isn't going to happen unless you can find a place that does have set hours. The problem with the ones who let you decide if and when you want to work is that they also are not there for you all the time. You quite often find that you have no work. So, be very careful when you choose.
I agree 100%.
I agree sm
Realistically, when hiring new MTs, there is only so much that is 'trainable'. They definitely need to come on board with good grammar skills - sometimes just to be able to correct the MDs! :-)
I agree with the others...sm
Just hang in there and test like crazy and post your resume on the boards. It took me about three months to find my first job and one year later, I'm still typing away and loving it.
Take care!!
I agree.
I also finished the Jumpstart internship last October. I finished on a Friday and started working the next Monday, seamlessly. Meditech is a good MT training program. I am still with them and continue to gain valuable paid experience. It has certainly been a good first MT job.
I do understand the fear some folks have about paying to work in intern programs. I had the benefit of actually knowing someone who had gone through Meditech before I did. So, I saw her success before I signed up and knew the school was not a scam.
Good luck to everyone.
agree
I started from home from the beginning even while I was in school. The hospitals around here don't hire newbies. My first account was just one specialty, 2 physicians, for a small MTSO. The work was primarily done on templates and I got paid for everything. Made what I thougth was fabulous money. All I needed was my cheatsheet and a few samples and I was all set. Fantastic line counts because of the templates. Then the account came up for renewal and the MTSO decided to drop it. I was out of work with 1 day's notice. I decided that would never happen again so I went with a national to get more experience with other specialties and have backup accounts. Suddenly I had more than a dozen specialties all at once for just one account, at least 50 dictators, multiple worktypes, account specifics that were more complicated than college math, no templates, and I'm here at home with no one to ask for help. I spent most of my time looking up what seemed like every other word practically. My Stedman's books never made it to the bookcase from my desktop. I'm still surprised my bird never learned to say, "The WHAT?" He sure heard me say if often enough in exasperation! I gained a whole new respect for rice and mashed potatoes. I've stuck it out because I wanted it too bad to give up and have been willing to make the sacrifices so that I'd be able in the future to compete in the marketplace, but it's not easy by any means. And pay on production by a national when you're new is a killer if that's your only source of income. There's just too much to get used to all at once and of course that slows you down.
I too would recommend going with a hospital if you can find one. Otherwise, find some good rice recipies and be prepared for the long haul. The up side is when you can look back and see how you've grown and know you had what it took to do it.
I agree that 6 cpl is too low;
however, that is what I made when I was training. Then it went up to 10 cpl. It might get her foot in the door somewhere so she can work at home and then go up from there as she learns to be more proficient at the work.
I agree
If a newly minted MT gets a job at home as an IC, their pay per hour will be *very* low starting out. I know. I started that way. When I get a call to be a guest lecturer at the local community college Transcriptionist training course, I tell them to get a job in a doctor's office or a hospital, if they have the opportunity, and work at home after they've gotten experience. That has become harder, too, as many transcriptionists are leaving the home jobs and going back to the doctors' offices and/or hospitals as the larger transcription companies cut pay through using artificial speech recognition, sending good quality dictation overseas to the international labor partners and leaving the very worst of the dictators for the U.S. and Canadian MTs, and cut benefits for the home-based MTs. You will read reports stating that "there are not enough U.S. MTs to do all the work and it has to be outsourced". Not exactly. Not enough MTs are racing to accept a third world wage would be more like it. Many places demand (and get) somebody with 5 years of experience.
Another issue would be starting pay for the new MT. When I was hired 5 years ago at my large company, my starting pay with NO experience was higher than is being offered to MTs with 20+ years experience now, and my starting salary was inadequate to live on then. I will never get a raise. I do better now because I have more experience, but the only way I would be able to earn an adequate salary would be if I had the same doctors and the same specialties all the time, but I will likely not repeat the same doctor, specialty, or even facility within my work day. The only trends I have been seeing in the last 5 years have been negative in terms of salary/benefits.
I hope everybody's else's MT experiences are happier and if you choose to enter this profession, I wish you all the success in the world. (My experiences as an MT may not be typical. Your experiences may vary. Just telling you a different scenario than the rosy one generally depicted by schools and/or recruiters.)
I agree.
I don't know any other field where I can take a 6-month course and then work from home making decent money. I graduated 6 months ago and make at least $15 an hour and my line count is still increasing every day as I continue to add to my expander. I am so glad I pursued this field and am now able to spend more time with my family as I am no longer spending 3 hours a day in my car commuting back and forth to the jobsite.
agree
Hi, I agree with Lisa. I've been coming here for about 4 months and I am amazed at the animosity and smart remarks I see here. I visit here and have to weed out the bad posts and hope I find a good and helpful one. They are few and far between. I can't believe the moderator or owner of this site allows this. It's not like the other sites I like to visit. Well like I said I do find very few helpful posts here, so see ya around, it's been nice, but not worth it. And please save the drama for yo momma, I know I'm gonna get ripped apart for this post, but I don't care. BYE!!
I agree
I agree, it's just the way you put things sometimes.
I can't say I agree with
any of that!
Nursing is hard work, and I can see where it might be ideal for our bodies to work half the day at one and half at the other. But you will be surprised how much more in depth the terminology is. It's more legal instead of the slang and abbreviated forms they use when communicating with nurses. Transcribing for one office, working on site, you might pick it up, but I've never seen a nurse do that.
have to agree
You're going to be spending time looking things up, getting used to your expansion program, getting used to the software, learning the doctor(s), etc. My advice would be to take it if you must but don't stop looking for something better, even from day one. At 7 a line I made below minimum wage at first, hardly a couple of bucks an hour, and it went on for quite some time even after having completed a course (no, not the famous ones). But most of this still applies no matter where you got your training. Keep up your enthusiasm about the career but be ready for reality to probably hit hard and be determined to get past it. THEN you'll be sitting pretty. Not saying this to discourage you -- but to forewarn you so you know what to expect and won't feel devastated if it happens like this. We need good American MTs and even though I don't know you, I want you to succeed and not quit because of the difficulty of that first job for which many of us were not prepared.
i agree
I have to agree. I go to Career Step now and I love their forums. Everyone is very nice and totally willing to help.
I agree!
I agree 100% with the resume and cover letter statement. I had ZERO experience and went ahead and applied to a zillion companies. I recieved 10% respones (which is not bad for someone with no experience). The company I ended up going with said she contacted me based solely on my resume and cover letter. I took the time to research how a proper cover letter should be written and beefed up my resume as well. I do not think I would have gotten as many responses if I had a sloppy resume and poor cover letter.
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