I was 15 on a manual in high school....sm
Posted By: started MT'g with IBM selectrics... on 2006-04-21
In Reply to: Actually, me too LOL! - Amber
And that was in 1964 - learned to type real well in that class on a manual......but I began MT'g with tapes and privately I still pick up tapes from 4 surgeons twice weekly, but I transcribe those tapes on the computer *lol*....
Good thing about the web is that most of us now find all we need to know today online and rarely reference our books anymore......I like that!! Saves some time....time is money!! 
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This is like in high school where
Why are these companies wanting to have initials for their names? Do they think it will make them more popular? For example, TTS, TT, MQ, KS..... There are others doing the same, and looks like this one that doesn't pay wants to be FST now so they sound more important and fly under the radar as Four Seasons known as a nonpayer. Professional to me equals proper name, and isn't that what the BOS preaches? Let's be professional insteady of like small children with little nicknames that are like baby talk!
In high school
my very first typing class (and we were talking the 1960s, Remington manual typewriters) one of my fellow students, who had never touched a typewriter before, was effortlessy typing 100 WPM within a week. Just a natural talent, I guess. Not a talent I possess, apparently. I am in awe of anybody who can do this!
Yeah, kind of that mean spinster high school librarian...
who was in charge of study hall...DON'T YOU HAVE ANYTHING PRODUCTIVE TO DO?????? I CAN MAKE YOU SORT THE CARD CATALOG!!!!!!
Good for you. I've gained 10 pounds since high school graduation in 1976.
I'm high level 4, all acute care, high ESL, many years exp. and highest QA grades...
In case you are wondering...All acute care, all specialties. I request new accounts, and yet they all run out of work...not just during usual slow periods...
I'm original poster and a high level 4 as well with high ESL accts, which I've always had...sm
My accts (10+) for the previous 12 years were all in the LA area. I consider ESL at Webmedx easy, even though my WebmedX accts are supposed to be high ESL. ALL of my STMs accounts are low on work--quite low. I've added more accounts. Not helpful if all are low in work. My supervisor at MQ was more helpful than my Webmedx STM.
They are not MT, but general transcription. Pay not very high. at least not as high as MT work.x
x
Why don't you ask for a VR manual &
Learn something new every day!
Great manual! One should never say never, about anything......nm
nm
Great manual! ......nm
nm
What does manual typewriters have to do
x
No, it is a manual time sheet (sm)
Bonus is paid on total for pay period, not hourly bonus. I never put potty breaks on it, just my lunch break, cause that's longer.
Found Answer in the Manual
Should've looked there first, but love the forum here.
I hope I live to see the day that our industry turns completely back to the way it should be - without somebody else making money off of our skills, training, and experience.
Keystrokes manual says 32-1/2 for "adjusted FT" (sm)
which looks like it qualifies for insurance. I think in acutal practice they go by the lines, though, as we don't clock in. It looks like that level is 10,000 lines per period and full time 15,000 (which is odd, I was told 12,000. I may need to ask about that!)
It is true - I looked at my manual
Manual states PTO hours are to be used for vacation, illness, family or personal matters, periods of low work volume and computer downtime. Employees are required to use these PTO hours to ensure a good personal balance between leisure-time, periods of low work volume, and those unexpected absences that affect everyone from time to time.
So yeah, they DO expect us to take PTO for OOW, per the manual.
You are still wrong, I'm sorry; that manual is from 2005 sm
All the managers sent out information saying it was at their discretion. Instead of posting here, why don't you just ask your manager if it is true?
In the manual it says we're expected
Its not a matter of can we use it, its we must use it. The company expects and demands it, which I think its utterly unfair since they deliberately overhire. They won't let us have the option of taking it unpaid - my supervisor recently reminded us of that. Therefore, if you have a vacation scheduled for next month, and you can't get your time in this month, kiss your vacation plans goodbye - you just spent your vacation chained to your desk hoping for work!
Webmedx's new policy manual?
Thoughts?
Is there an ExText manual available online?
nm
No, I was referring to the Webmedx Policy Manual. sm
Check the back where it lists privacy rules regarding the platform. I think what you posted crossed the line. Just a tip. You know, the bosses read these boards, too.
Dictaphone C-phone model 0422 manual sm
Does anyone have this user's guide/manual in pdf format they are willing to share? I went to the Nuance site, but I just do not have the Moolah to buy a manual right now as I am just starting a new job after being without a job for 4 months. Thanks
Worked for an MT service that had a mistake on the cover of Employee Manual (sm)
That is bad.
you fill out a manual report and email to payroll at end of pay period.
x
Pick a relatively short report and do a manual count of characters
including spaces if your company counts them. Then divide the total by 65 or whatever your lines are defined as. If there is a discrepancy between your manual count and their systematic count, you have a problem.
I did this recenty on ExText and find I am getting shorted about 1-2 lines per report. 
Are you kidding and hoping htagt MTing will go back to manual typewriters again?...nm
nm
Well, in J-school...
they taught us to NEVER hyphenate after any word ending in a "y"...but who knows if that applies in MT land...
What's the name of that school?
xx
Yes, but are you just out of school? sm
I understand it being possible with experience, but it is presented as being available from home directly out of a course. I have yet to hear of or see that happen. If so, please share! I see more often than not people having trouble even getting that first job out of school. I've been working my butt off with no raise and no appreciation now for almost a year and am sick of it. I am currently starting a job with a new company and hopefully will find things better there. Hopefully, for me and others, I just had a really crappy first experience.
If the school was A or M, you would have SM
had a job coming out the door. I am guessing the school was C, and now you are finding out why C isn't the great school they make it out to be.
Which school did you go to?
A and M, as you put it, open the doors to companies that otherwise would not speak to a newbie, and I did not have a problem securing a job. You missed the point because you did not take the time to read my message. Instead you judged me!
It is not fair or realistic to expect an MT that has just graduated to be as good and productive as someone that has been an MT for several years. It is not right to ask the applicant to reveal social security and driver's license numbers along with granting permission to do a background check and to test before the applicant receives basic information about the company and/or job. Also, a number of companies, recruiters and MTSOs have been complaining about the bad quality of some MTs, that they do not show up for work or constantly need time off while at the same time there are numerous graduates from the top two schools that are eager, willing and knowledgeable that are not given a chance despite the good name of the schools and a good GPA. Many companies overhire which leaves some MT to find an empty queue at work sometimes. Account managers make promises to give you more accounts but never find the time to do so. It is also very difficult for a newbie if the QA people have less knowledge of the BOS, grammar, punctuation and terminology.
Many new grads post on the various boards that they send out a number of resumes and/or tested and never hear anything or after several weeks. Any honest MT with several years' experence will confim that even after going to one of the top two schools it still takes up to a year before it clicks. You never stop learning as an MT. How is a newbie supposed to learn if he/she receives no feedback? Some companies post on their website that they accept newbies but that they will treat them like MTs with experience. Like the other responder stated, they seem to have forgotten what it is like as a newbie. These people forget that at one point in their life they started as an MT with no experience. How many of those people were grateful for that opportunity that enabled them to get where they are today?
I see an opportunity to build a whole new generation of willing and capable American MTs. If we want to have better working conditions, if we want to be treated better, then we need to have an excellent education and be reliable. We need to deliver, and then we can make demands. Companies and MTSOs make promises they do not keep. What is so wrong about letting an MT do discharge summaries if that is what he/she prefers and train them on other reports and accounts when work is a bit slower? What is so wrong about limiting the number of doctors the MTs transcribe for? Why don't companies that require the MT to use their computer provide an up-to-date spellchecker and drug database? How can a company offer 5 cpl for an IC job? Why doesn't anybody approach the doctors about their dictation practices?
Why can't we all just work together and try to change those things so many people are complaining about on these various MT boards?
Which school?
M-TEC and Andrews are heads and shoulders above Career Step.
I know I am old school but it seems to me
that if you cash a paycheck from someone, you should not badmouth them at the same time. I hated the Q, yes, I did, but I left. I did not keep on taking their money while bashing them. Just sayin', that's all.
When I went to school for this MT career
What happened? I barely clear $30,000 a year in this field working for a national. I'm in debt up to my eyeballs. Someone please help me.
Poll: school vs. OJT, etc.
I was just curious....
How long have you been an MT?
Did you attend an MT school, or did you receive on-the-job training?
That's all for now. 
Both. If you do school, expect to do OJT anyway. nm
x
I'd concentrate on school first (sm)
and don't even concern yourself on which companies allow flexible hours. You would be more concerned at that point on getting hired somewhere as a newbie. If you're serious about being an MT, then concentrate on school. Start now before the baby comes and see how far you can get. It's not just a few month endeavor. Then, when you have finished school and have hopefully done well, that's the time to worry about where you are going to work and the hours they will let you work. There are the big nationals, and also smaller MTSOs that might give you the work in the morning and expect it back the next morning, and you work on it when it's convenient for you as long as you get it back. But...the big thing will be completing school AND getting hired.
It's not so much the school, it's the individual.
x
Nursing School
I never think it's too late to do what you really want to do!. I am an R.N. and can tell you that there is a severe shortage of nurses who really care about the people.
Go to school! Make a difference in somebodys life!
Never too old to go to nursing school sm
When I was at the hospital, there were new grads there in their 50s. Go for it. Plenty of jobs out there in nursing.
That's about the age my mom was went she went to nursing school.
Plus, whether you go to nursing school or not, you're still going to be 41. Why not spend this time following your passion?
Less than average school
But why would someone settle for a less than average school? Do they want to be content with producing less than average work? As a businessperson, that is what I would be concerned with in hiring such a person. I would want someone who cared enough to get the best education out there from one of the big 3.
I am getting a job driving a school bus.
That cannot be taken out of the country. They start at $13 an hour. Give my brains a brake, I mean break.
I have a boring last name, and when I was in school I always - sm
secretly wished a had a long, difficult to spell-and-pronounce last name, just so I could sit there and watch the teachers stumble over trying to pronounce it.
Doing QA right out of school with NO experience????
That just doesn't sound right to me. Most companies require at least 2-3 years of experience just to transcribe! I can't believe anyone would hire a brand new MT fresh out of training to do QA!
Not just out of school. Are they hiring?
I have been working for over 6 months. I know that they say 3 years' experience, but that's what my present employer also said and they hired me right after graduation. I'm working in acute care on 3 different accounts and do basically every work type and subject matter. I am doing more than 12,000 lines per pay period (every 2 weeks) with 99.6% accuracy on my last random review. I would like to try to convince them to give me a shot if they have open positions.
You can do it ... (school + work) (sm)
I transcribe for 3 clients AND I go to school full time and have a family. It's doable ... difficult but doable. Keep your chin up! :)
willing to go back to school?
If you are willing to go back into 3-9 months of training there is this thing called Scoping - which is basically VR for the legal industry. Most courtrooms use VR instead of a traditional court reporter - the job of the court reporter is now to verify that the VR is working properly and is picking up the important people in the courtroom. The pay is pretty decent - about that of an experienced MT. The catch is you have to learn short hand because if the audio isn't working properly the reporter has to pull out her ShortHand machine and type it out - then you AR paid to translate it into a court report.
Search around for scoping jobs - there was one listed a couple of months ago on the job seeker's board, that's how I heard about it.
Old school gone internet
I've been at this a long time, 25+ years, started on a typewriter. I was hospital trained, learned out of a Dorland's. After working 5 years in-house, I started working at home. Again I worked with books; this was before AL Gore invented the internet ;) But, back in the good ol' days, the couple of services that I worked for over the ensuing years provided the reference materials, although you were responsible for buying your own drug book each year. So back in 'the day', I didn't have to invest in the books anyway, and that was even when I made better money. Now it would be pretty much impossible to go out and by those same books.
I also question whether you learn anything more from a book than you do the internet, though. My fave book back 20 years ago was the Medical Word Book by I think it was Tesio or something like that. Great book, I found my word almost every time, but I really didn't learn anything about the word I was looking up. However, and maybe this is just the way I confirm I've got the right word, I'm not just plunking HAYGAR DILATOR into google, I'm plunking HAYGAR DILATOR GYNECOLOGY into google, and will turn up Hegar dilator. And at this point, and maybe this is just the way I learn, I've connected Hegar and gynecology in my head, and learned more than if I ran my eyes down a column of H's in a book.
And that isn't something that you can just lay at the feet of the MT schools. I think good searching on Google is almost intuitive for some of us fortunate folks. But we are the exception, apparently. I know at UCLA, one of the classes my daughter was strongly encouraged to take in her first year was how to do proper internet research, how to judge the source of information, etc., and I believe they are starting to teach this at least on a rudimentary level in the elementary and secondary schools, too.
I do, however, agree 100% that grammar and spelling wise, these 'yunggins' are pretty weak. Spelling I blame on the advent of spell-check, and the only thing I can think of as responsible for the grammar is teacher apathy and/or the 'just move along' attitude prevalent in too many schools.
Sorry so long!!
Going back to school
I am going back to school so I will just get out of transcription completely.
going back to school
I've been thinking for a long time about going back to school, just kind of a vague someday-I-will sort of thing, mostly because I have known for quite a while that I'm not going to be able to make a lifetime career out of MT with the changes the industry is facing, but I always put it off. Now I'm starting classes at my local university in January and what finally got me motivated to get it going was starting on VR. Has anyone else noticed how quickly VR has been taking hold in companies the last year or two? It's just all over the place now, including MDI, and while the VR at MDI is pretty decent it's just been a wakeup call to me that I need to get in gear and get an exit strategy out of the business. The other big factor is EMR and the federal mandate for electronic records by 2012. I don't think that means all transcription will be eliminated by then of course, but I think as more clinics are forced into a system anyway a lot of them will go with something that does help them eliminate their MTs. So... EMRs taking over clinic jobs and the acute care MTs fighting over the VR lines to get the paycheck they need... it's just a dead end.
If you can go to school, I'd do it for sure. Keep on part-time with MDI if you need to or want to, but the best thing you can do for your future is make sure that there is a job there for you.
Going back to school
I know exactly how you feel about being sure you make the right decision. I am going back to school for nursing, after having been able to stay at home, full-time, for the last 15+ years as an MT. I'm going through a little anxiety at the thought of getting back out there in the workforce. While it served me quite well in those years and allowed me to be home to raise my children, unfortunately I agree with the other posts as far as MT'ing eventually being a low wage career in the near future. With VR, it is a nice break from typing but the pay is severely low and seems to be getting lower across the board for both straight typing and VR work. So, my 2 cents is it never hurts to train for another profession, if nothing else to fall back on if you need to. Go with your gut...it's usually always right. 
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