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How long is the training?,,nm

Posted By: pm mt on 2008-09-14
In Reply to: I don't think we are obsolete but (sm) - MT since 1979




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How long was the in-house training period? I'd be willing to travel for a few days for a decent
nm
I saw this happen in MQ office while training. Supervisor was supposed to be training but
account was behind so she did transcription while she collected salary for "training" me. Of course I asked others for guidance rather than bother the furiously typing supervisor. I don't know if she cherry picked but she definitely double dipped into the MQ payroll.
there is a world of difference between MT training and NP training
honestly, I am in nursing school and have lots of health care experience as a paramedic and medical assistant. I think you can relax and leave your family's health either in your mother's hands or their physician's...
I hate Instant Text. It is expensive, long long learning
curve, and too much distraction for me.
How long should I wait after applying for a position before I follow-up. It has been as long as two
without hearing from some.  Just wondering if I should send an e-mail to follow-up to see if they received my resume or not.  I don't want to offend anyone but feel two weeks should be long enough for someone to at least acknowledge my resume and that I have applied for a position.  Right now I would accept anything even a note saying no thanks.  Any advice would be appreciated.  I haven't had to apply for a job for the past 10 years so I am a bit rusty at this.  Thanks again for any advice. 
Congrats! How long have you been a MLS and how long did you study for the test!

Please see message. I have three daughters with long, long hair.
I also have long hair down to my waist and my three girls have hair that long too. My daughter brought them home from school last year. I was devestated and grossed out!!!! I have never had to deal with lice. Anyway, we did the treatments and two of my girls broke out in a severe rash with the OTC stuff. Their little heads were so sore!! I thought I was being meticulous with eggs, only to find them hatching again down the road. A nurse at the pediatricians office suggested I try oil to suffocate them since my girls were allergic to the lice solution. I bought a huge bottle of veggie oil and dumped it on all three heads, plus my own. I then wrapped the heads in platic wrap and then a towel. I left this on for 30 minutes. It takes a while to wash out the oil, but we never, ever had the lice or eggs again!!! If you try this, make sure you put on an old shirt and put a towel around your shoulders. Obviously we were desperate, but we all have such long hair and very thick hair so I was willing to try anything. And I figured there was no chemicals involved so that was pretty safe. And it sure did help my littles ones since their scalps were pretty raw from the solution. Hope this helps and Good luck!
It's been a long, long time since I've used a C-phone, sm
but I do think jobs can be paused.
I had a problem with this for a long, long time sm
I have always worked days, like from 6-3. Over the last few years, it didn't matter how much sleep I got, I became real groggy between 7 and 11. Really shoots the day. Talked to my doctor and he said my blood pressure pills were the culprit but he refused to change me to another brand or dosage since I have multiple aneurysms (2 in the brain). My BP has been stable for a long time and he wants to "keep it on the low side". I tried taking them before I went to bed instead of early in the morning, but then I had headaches all day. So, I am changing to a night shift for a few months so I can sleep when those pills kick in and so far it is working pretty good. I stay mostly awake during my shift and die when I hit the bed from 6 am to 10 am, then I lay down again later in the afternoon for 2-3 hours. I still get 6-7 hours of sleep, it's just split up during the day, plus I am mostly awake now when I sit down to type. I don't have to deal with the heat in my office, either. It tends to warm up real fast in here with the south sun on the house and 2 pc's running all day, even with the air conditioner on.
Way back when, a long, long time
ago and in a galaxy far, far away, I had my own accounts also and some years cleared $75,000.  Yes it can be done, but you need to have your own accounts.  Also lots of delivery, and other duties involved.  I work for a large national now and make much less, but I got tired of accountants, having to deal with hardware problems, deadlines, driving deliveries, printing, printers, etc.  So I decided to simplify my taxes and stay home and just type.  Don't have to worry about computers either, because the company will just send me a new one. 
Long, long files. Seemed like they'd never end! I'd never go back to VA again. nm
s
I've been doing this a long, long time...

I used to make $70,000 and up a year and did so for most of the late 80s and 90s (one girl used to make six figures a year working 7 days a week!)  Because we were making more money than the supervisors and Medical Records Directors in hospitals, they began to switch to transcription services which were sprouting up all over the place.  Plus AAMT came into existence and even though in the beginning it claimed it was to fight for transcriptionists (although assured us it was NOT a union), they eventually morphed into an organization that was more management friendly.  They developed the "guidelines" and the 65-char line.  That was the beginning of the end for those high-end wages.  Then all those mickey mouse transcription schools popped up, and now outsourcing overseas.  YES, we're complaining. 


Been in this biz a long, long time, 30+ years and....sm
I love/loved MTing. However, things have changed so much during these years. The job definitely gets easier; don't have to look up much, can decipher ESLs much easier, in other words, you get pretty comfortable with things and you have confidence in yourself. The more experience you have the easier the job, but....

I actually made more money 10 years ago!! We didn't have speech recognition and you actually got paid for headers/footers, demographics, carbon copies, etc., you got paid for what you did fairly; today, I am not so sure.

You will feel burned out at times, but that passes and you find you like your job again.

Good luck to you!!
I just went through training and they
told me that MQ itself does not pay for spaces. I was trained on DQS and again it was told to me during training when I asked about that and the answer was, "No, DQS does not count spaces as MQ does not pay spaces."

?? I'm all confused now.

Training (sm)
To tell you the truth, and I'm not dissing the trainers, but I really would be sure they are passing on correct information by asking your transcription supervisor.

When I was trained, they told us to disable some of the features of the platform, like the capitalization after the period and the thing that corrects your text if you type 2 capped letters. These are probably some of the best features of the program and I, nor any MT who wants to produce as much as possible, would dream of disabling them.

So... I really wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into somme of the info they give out. To be sure, get a second opinion. :)
You will need a LOT more training
than you have to be a successful transcriptionist, or even a mediocre transcriptionist. Simply from reading your post, it is apparent that English is probably not your first language. You will need to improve your English-language skills considerably before you will be employable. On the basis of your post alone, I would not hire you. I would not even bother to test you since you have so little training and your English is so poor. You need to take a GOOD transcription course, not something offered by one of the matchbook-cover schoools and certainly much more than you already have taken. Self confidence is all very well and good, but simply believing you can do something is not an acceptable substitute for good training. You do not yet have the skills you need. It is, of course, unlikely that you are going to believe any of this, so to satisfy your own curiosity, just start submitting applications to transcription companies. One or two might let you take their test. Your results should be an indicatino of just how far you have yet to go to be properly trained. Good luck to you.
MT training is not enough
it is just a foot in the door. The real training comes in by doing various dictations from various clinics/hospitals. Every doctor talks differently or uses different terminology.
MT training is not enough
it is just a foot in the door. The real training comes in by doing various dictations from various clinics/hospitals. Every doctor talks differently or uses different terminology.
OTJ training
I had on the job training. I trained for about a year. I am very lucky that I have a family member who is in the business who was willing to train me. She actually talked me into it. I have now been working for seven years as an MT for her and another company.
My DH is in training for this job.
:+
Training
Just another word of advice from somebody who has been there many, many years ago. Please remember that you send mixed messages when you switch back and forth from underwear to diapers. This confuses them. I did what this other poster did -- make it a game, praise, praise, and more praise. In the end, he will get the idea. It does take perserverance on your part. Set that timer and then have a race to the potty. The winner gets to use the potty -- and we all know mommy never wins this race. Good luck -- he will be fine.
Training at MT
So how do you know when you've received proper training? I have finished a program with a local college but when you compare the training hours versus other colleges its way lower? How can I be assured that I am trained enough to be able to do a MT job? Any suggestions????
Training VR
That sounds wonderful.  However, this sounds like something that the doctor would set up on his own.  I am looking mainly for something I install on my end, train, edit, etc. from here.  I have a small account with three people, and maybe a couple more coming.  They would not want to be bothered with doing anything different on their end.  I wanted it for my end to speed things up for as they expand so I can keep up. 
But are you in training?

I notice the first poster spelled clarity as "clearity".... A very easy third grade spelling word.  Are you coming to the job with experience of any kind or do they know ahead of time that they are training from scratch?  Are the editors paid well?


Because training an inexperienced person takes a lot of time and sometimes it's not successful. 


BOS training
About the BOS AAMT guidelines. I am relatively a newbie with 11 months experience. When I started with my first job and I had been trained like you said to strictly follow AAMT guidelines. But when I got a job oh was I in for an awakening. They wanted things done the way they had always been done and didnt go strictly by AAMT. The acute care account I do now is the same way. I have been penalized for doing things according to AAMT. But every company and client has their way they want things done and you have to learn to follow them. Little things like AAMT second edition says only use disk now do not use disc anymore. Well I got penalized for that. They want disc used when referring to the spinal cord no matter what AAMT says because that is the way they have always done it. That is just one example. But yes knowing AAMT guidelines is good but it doesn't always give a newbie the advantage.
As far as training, you get what you pay for.

training
Just to let you know - they will take you off of training before the two weeks is up if you don't need it anymore. Mine only lasted three days but I had overlapped training with my last two weeks at MQ, so when they told me I was off training early I told them I had to finish up my last two weeks at MQ and I could only give them 200 lines a day for the rest of the two-week period since I had made arrangements around the two-week training assumption. They were fine with that.
More training
I have been doing transcription for 9 years now and am not making the lines or money I need to.  Anyway, there is a local school I was thinking about going to that trains in coding/billing and they have placement assistance afterwards.  I have heard it is next to impossible to get hired without already having experience in billing/coding.  They do have federal loans/grants to help you pay for the training, but the costs is 7,600; seems awful high to me, but if they can get me a job paying better than transcription, might be worth it?  Then again, I was thinking about just trying to get a job in medical records at a local hospital going in as a medical records tech.  I know I must sound crazy, just trying to figure out how I can bring more money into my house.  Thank you for any advice you can give me.
on-the-job training
Trust me, if you have no medical work background that involves terminology you would be totally lost doing MT. It's really like a second language. The only on-the-job training I've ever heard about was someone who worked in a medical office or a hospital records department for a long time and was taught MT while they were there. I know of no companies or hospitals, small or large, that would hire you with no experience AND no training/schooling to go straight to work doing MT. There are some that will give you a chance once your schooling is done if you test well.
Right on. Using VR = training it, and training it =

training

Does anyone have any suggestions on getting training in other fields?  I see a lot of jobs posted for radiology or even acute care/hospital work.  I did hospital notes when I was in school many years ago, but since then have done all clinic work-multi-speciality like psych, OBGYN, family practice, pediatrics, chiropractic, physical therapy, allergy, internal medicine, ortho.  My favorites are chiropractic, psych, OBGYN and physical therapy, but these seem to be hard to come by.  Work is becoming slim and I'm looking at other options. 


I would love to learn surgery, ER, or even just be able to get more work with hospital notes or radiology. 


Any feedback is appreciated.....thanks!


The training process

>>>you end up fixing things like changing "were" to "are", "a" to "an", that kind of thing. 


Like I said, it's all in the training process, which includes ar-ti-cu-lating correctly. You have to feel the words form in your mouth. If you don't, you're going to have errors like these. Also, did you use add phrases to the vocabulary? You sometimes have to do that. What about the microphone? If you used one of those right out of the box, that could be the problem. And your sound card? Did the program analyze thousands of documents? --- You can't just install the program and off you go. Like many an expansion program, you have to put time and effort into it ... but the gains are worth it (at least, they were for me).


>>>Easier in my opinion to type from scratch,


It depends upon the individual. If you're a relatively fast typist (100+) who can remember ten of thousands of abbreviations, or you're a whiz bang with ST or IT (which still ultimately requires memorization) you're certainly not going to benefit from the program aside from alleviating any pains and discomfort you might have as the result of RSI. But to those of us who who aren't whiz kids or are experiencing physical discomfort from years of clicking the keyboard, VR is blessing.


>>>not to mention that you are usually making half what a normal line rate is to do VR.


I can dictate and proof an average of 350 lph. Multiply that by 7 hours in a day.


I know about the weight training
but thanks for the ice water tip. That's one I haven't heard, but makes sense!
to uhh not fair, DQS training pay
I'd for sure take that one up with corporate or "ask Frank".  It was stated when DQS first came out that ALL training was paid @10.00 per hour, period!  Should be across the board, since it's company wide.  I'd have to wonder where the training pay your offices did not give you, actually went to, because they sure the heck got reimbursed from corporate.  I was in a training session for 2 hours with THE head honcho in training and she clearly stated, across the board, pay is the same, period.
OJT training (especially for ortho)
I think cardiology may get a little more complicated (or not) depending where you work. I think orthopedics is probably easy enough for you to pick up on the job considering your experience. I would try for OJT. Good luck!
No legal training, but...
I did have secretarial and word processing experience. I think my average wpm back then may have been about 80-90 wpm. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to type/transcribe and is good with the English language, grammar, and spelling!
Yes and ANYONE can do it, right? No training needed! nm
nm
It IS good training, however, I don't see sm
my dogs as low ranking in my family. They are right up there with my kids and husband and if they misbehave, oh well, every dog has a bad day. If I wanted a low ranking pack member, I would adopt one of the wild coyotes we have running around here.
potty training
most children achieve this at their own pace, but I have a few ideas that helped with my son. I made a game of it. I floated squares of toilet paper in the toilet and had he do "target practice" and if he hit the target then he would get an M&M. He thought it was cool and it worked. Another thing I tried, a kitchen egg timer. I set it for 1-1/2 hour and whether he had to go or not, we went. This got him used to going and helped him to remember. One very important thing to remember, do not punish him or make the child feel bad about not going in his underwear this will make him feel worse and make it harder. Instead, over praise him when he does it right. Also, my son really wanted the cool underwent (this was 20 years ago) like Heman and ninja turtles instead of the white cotton kind. So I told him he had to earn them by showing me that he was trying and eventually he got the kind of underwear he wanted. Just some thoughts. Just do not make this a big deal, because in reality it is not. He could live to be 80 years old, so just let him take his time. He will get it. Just make it fun and as stress free as possible and you will see resutls.
Potty Training
Hi there! I went through the same thing with my son a few monthes ago. He is the same age and the situation you described was identical to my son's. Okay here is what worked form me. I basically decided no more diapers or pull ups. My son would beg for them when we went to the store...I was firm in saying no. Then I started insisting that he wears underwear at all times. When he soiled them we changed them. Finally I think he realized that I was not going to give in and after about the second day of constantly being pulled away from whatever he was playing with to change his underwear he started to soil them less and use the toilet more. Honestly, I would sometimes wait if his favorite show was coming on or something to change him then...that way he was inconvenienced also. I would tell him during his protest that when he goes in the toilet that we won't have to change his underwear during Blues Clues. It progressively got better and was remedied within about 2 weeks. However, I was probably more busy washing undies than I have ever been...but it was worth it. I hope so much this will help. Good luck!
potty training

new to this board, just had to weigh in on the potty training issues. Lots of great advice here in terms of being patient, supportive, encouraging....want to add my personal experience as mom of 5, including a set of boy/girl twins. My oldest DS, 18, did not train till almost 4. This despite being in COTTON diapers, not pullups.  Hey, stuff happens. My oldest DD, 16, trained herself at 2, kept herself clean/dry during the day for more than 3 months. Did such a good job that she got a UTI, and lost control, so frightened by this experience that she went back into diapers for another 9 months!  Finally "clicked" at 3+. The twins, well, now you can see the differences between boys and girls, but SHE encouraged him (I have a great pic of the 2 of them sitting on the toilet, one behind the other, like they were riding a horse!) They were consistently clean/dry at 3. Toilet training is a process, I talk about body parts, body functions, things like up, down, clean, dry, wipe, flush....vocabulary and lots of demonstration (what's privacy?).  My youngest DD, 4 the end of November, just trained in February. Yes, 4+. YIKES!!! the problem?  My teenagers! they were way too interested in "helping" me parent her, and were way too heavy handed. Gave her something to rebel against. So she took control and decided NOT to do her business in the toilet!  She was also more than a bit phobic about the whole bathroom business, must be a very big deal if EVERYONE in the house is so so so very interested in what was going on inside her diaper. My attitude was leave it alone, it will happen (so nice to have perspective that experience brings). We had to tone things waaaayyyyyy doooooownnn in order to get her to "chill" about this whole thing. At 3-1/2, I "encouraged" her a bit more...I put her diapers/pull-ups near the bathroom door, along with a big supply of underwear, lots of pretty underwear. Also a trash can. I told her, you change when you are wet, I am out of a job!  She had to choose each time, diaper or panties. She consistently chose diapers, and changed, and put the wet diaper in the trash. I still had to change dirty diapers, but figured that even with trained kids, mom is still responsible to make sure that "clean-up" is done satisfactorily.  At 3-3/4, I started having DD sit on the toilet in a diaper when she had to do #2, then I handled the clean-up.  One day, at 4+, it just "clicked" and she did #2 WITHOUT the diaper.....and the rest is history. Toilet training is a process, she had to learn how to control #1 and #2, in the house, use a toilet OUTside the house (don't you just love using the bathroom at the supermarket, at the mall, here, there, everywhere?) and then night-time training. BUT because this one was so OLD, all these pieces fell into place within 2 weeks!!! Clean/dry both day and night!  Lots of patience, matter of fact praise (hey, no one claps/sings, gives stickers, candies, etc when Mom uses the potty!). This too shall pass.  In my experience, it seems that the bigger the deal is made out of this, the longer the process takes.


has anybody ever heard of training your
replacement (as an ic) after giving your two week notice? can anyone tell me their opinions on jester's touch? I can't find anything current when I search the archives and only found from 2003 & 4.  also, why would they need my driver's license number when my job doesn't involve driving for them?
Training in Trinidad
There was a thread a few days ago on the company board. They are training transcriptionists in Trinidad, so don't expect to have a job for long. Difficult to get lines and pay scale is low and weird. Hope that helps.
How to get more OP note training
I had dabbled in operative reports quite sparingly at a prior job, really only typing STAT ones that the hospital called about since I was the only Transcriptionist working nights, so I really do not have much experience and dreaded them.  I think it would have been easier if I would have had some training or examples prior to just doing them, but they were quite frustrated most of the time.  Anyhow, my question is how to get experience on OP notes so they aren't so frightening?  I had asked my current employer when I was hired, but they of course (and I understand why, not complaining here) did not want to have to train or 'help' someone.  So I type the rest of acute care minus the OP reports.  I would like to get some experience on them however, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
opinions please regarding training, sm

i work for a small MTSO doing clinic accts.  i have my own accts assigned to me.  now they are wanting me to train someone on my accts.  okay, we all know how long it takes training someone usually.  no compensation offered.  i have to send all my templates, instructions, etc, etc, etc to them.  okay, a lot of these i made myself to save myself time.  which should i send the things i made myself.  no one trained me on the accts nor sent me templates, instructions, etc. when i started.   


how do you all handle this?  am i just being tacky?  this job hasn't been going so well lately so i think there are ulterior motives.


if i refuse, i would probably lose my job but at this point i really don't care anymore.  otherwise, do it and loose my income and time to help someone else learn my acct to probably take my place when i am already swamped?


On the job training is fine
You can achieve the goal of MT with on the job training.  I started out at a state hospital in NY and was trained working in the clinic as the transcriptionist.  On my own, I went to night college but the training I received on the job was excellent  The last hospital I worked at in-house, we had a training program and once a year we would hire a newbie and I would train the person and edit their work.  If you live in California, I would check out Chronicle Transcripts as they hire newbies and train them.  Pay-wise, you can make quite a bit of money and also practically nothing.  Depends what company/hospital you work for and what part of the country.  Good luck. 
P. S. So, the transcriptionist is the one training the s/w. sm
Of course, we don't get paid any more for this little item which will actually lower our line rates when we are editing the gibberish.  It's a vicious circle. 
so let me get this right...you're IN training right now so
we could definitely call you a newbie. Maybe even a pre-newbie. So you don't have experience either, which means things like FTP sites, word expanders, productivity tips, etc. are new to you. This MTSO is going to give up her time (which Patti says she can do a 15 page report herself in an hour) to train you. So she is giving up anywhere from $30-$60 an hour to train you. Which means she is INVESTING in you and she has a right to get a return on her investment, hence the 5 cpl rate. Then she is offering you work on an account in which you will already have experience on, and have templates and word expansion for. Then you will be doing big reports (which are good because it means you sit in the chair longer and ultimately average better production) in a relatively easy specialty. When you finish training with her (say in 3 months), she will be offering 6 cents per line to a newbie without two years experience and I see postings all the time for 7-8 cpl for jobs that demand two years experience.  So..... I guess it all depends if you have a better offer... but think carefully, because if you blow this one, she'll offer it to someone else and then we'll see you over on the New MT/Student page, whining about how you can't find a job...
VR - speed and training

Honestly, how fast will VR type the dictation. I read somewhere about 160?  Is that all?  I don't understand how a Transcriptionist can train the program when it is the doctor that is dictating.  Can someone explain.  I am trying to figure out if this is something I want - whether it be to save my wrists for the future/ or if it will type the work faster than I do.  I am generally about 200 now, depending on the work, sometimes better, sometimes worse. TIA.


About 3 hours into training - everyone kept
using these little virtual clapping or laughing icons during training - I ended up having the flu, fever of 104, and was delirious. I raised my virtual hand and left...Have often wondered if I should have stuck it out...will never know!
I'm LOL at your training experience (sm)
I just went through a training period and it seems like there is always one in every bunch. I had to put my phone on mute because I couldn't help but laugh at a question I heard from one of the others in training. Like you, I'm thinking why would you hire someone who had little to no computer skills?? Over the years, I've gone through a small number of phone training sessions and honestly, there is one in every bunch!