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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I am working towards my master's and I don't transcribe any longer.

Posted By: nm on 2006-06-18
In Reply to: So how many years of college do you have, and why do you still transcribe? (n/m) - ??

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Working on Master's in counseling and sm
I have had a hiatus of nearly 3 years. I could not decide if this is where I really wanted to go. Recently, I put myself back in therapy with my last therapist after a 5-year hiatus to help me decide. Two sessions and I can see the clear path back to it and yes, this is my "true calling."

I feel pushed to get out of MT because my hands are suffering after 15 years of this. I have 3 autoimmune disorders too. I am having energy problems and focus problems...pain and all that comes with AIs. I have trouble with consistently good line counts and I am working 2 jobs out of sheer boredom with the entire thing. It has nothing to do with no making as much money or ASR or any of it. It is my body telling me to move along. I also believe I would be happier as a counselor.
I've interviewed Indian MT's. Most have two master's. Most Indians have two master's
it is part of their government's specific plan of action for positioning India to be at the forefront of the global economy.
Working probably longer than you have
been on this earth. I have worked over 30 years in this. I do work for an agency as have been outsourced twice from hospital work, always at a lower rate than the hospital. The first hospital I made nearly 60 thousand a year, outsourced, dropped 20 thousand in the new hospital, outsourced and now my salary per year in the 20s. I do operative notes, discharge summaries, history and physicals, consultations and my pay is about yours, 7 cents a line- most of the time you are just expected to produce more- we used to have production (incentive)- some might still have but probably few and far between. If I had to raise a family now, would have to work more than 1 job to do. This is me- I am not speaking for others even though my speed is extremely high. I put my all into my job, have answering machine, no interference, have office set up in my home, have fax (because I need 1 just for my own use), printers, phones, my own computer and a backup in case this 1 goes. Your tapes definitely sound like the real McCoy. That is what we hear day in and day out. I started out with a hospital almost 70% ESL, oh, so hard, well even the English were also and even now after all these years still grit my teeth sometimes just to do a certain dictator. Good luck!
Hmmm...my line count has gone way up since I am no longer working on ExText.
nm
You hit the nail on the head. We're working harder, longer, and less pay. This is the only profe
that you make less now than you did 10 years ago. I remember making 10 cpl and thinking I should be making more. This is so depressing. Where did we lose ground, what happened. I find myself sitting here for 12-15 hours a day, every day, trying to make a living.  All I have ended up with depression, weight gain, losing my friggin hair, and stressed out the max. I miss my family, my friends, and mostly my life. It went with all of the dignity I had.  Now, it's considered "average" to be offered 6-7 cpl for years of experience. I do not know whether to cry, scream, be insulted, offended...or all of the above. Even 8 cpl is pathetic. I make 9 cpl now and still struggle. I am going back to what I know best..insurance billing. At least, my job will never be replaced with Indians and VR.  They will always need me and I will get raises and compensated for what I know. I am done with this depressing profession. Good bye 14 years, hello bright happy future.
Master's in psychology.
Is it just me, or do the posters who are claiming to have master's degrees in psychology seem to be the ones who are completely confused, angry, and irrational? It seems that they are the ones most in need of psychoanalysis. Heaven help anyone who actually who actually tries to get help from these nut jobs! By the way, I assume nut job is politically incorrect, but I don't don't give a flying...
I don't know that you necessarily HAVE to have a master's. sm
I had never heard of the existence of such a major the first time I went to college 15 years ago or I would have gone for it then, but I have since come across schools that offer it as a bachelor's degree. The prgoram I'm in is an online degree program from a university in another state than I live.
I don't have a straight answer for you on what the demand is for someone with this training. A lot of jobs ask for broad qualifications...like, "a degree in English, communications, or related field," so I figure that's me, LOL. It's probably something where you have to have an idea of WHAT you want to do and then find a way to get there, rather than to wait for an opening to appear.
Go into your master volume on your computer....
make sure in playback control that your wave playback is not muted and the volume is up there.

Hope this helps!
Not what I'm watching. Only has been is that stupid Master P
and he's just an idiot.
Master Bedroom--one day will have my own space though - sm
probably in 5 or so years....going to move and build on some property we have 12 miles from where we are now....so it with either be an extra bedroom or "the study" downstairs. My husband will be happier as he has trouble falling to sleep when I am working (noisy/hard keyboard).
Master Gardener Program
I am considering enrolling in a Master Gardener program.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I would love to hear from you if you do or know anyone who does.  Thanks!
I used to work in the master bedroom and now I have my own office. I could
x
What do you need a Master's Degree in to be a science writer?
?
I am starting back in my Master's program in the fall sm

I don't have to work too long of hours to get my $3200 a month, the problem is that ONE THIRD of it goes for taxes and insurance (ins portion is a big old $130 a month of that 1/3). 


I can't sit still most days, although I do all right money wise.  I am knowing that this is a dying career choice and what I am going into is not.  It is not medical either, which is just fine.  I have had careers as a banker, a child care provider, a dressmaker and now an MT.  All very different and so, I feel like I can go and be a mental health professional and like it.  I have so many people who come to me with their problems, it isn't even funny.  Even my last therapist has started coming to me for things. Honestly, if this is the case I should be getting paid for my time. I need to go and get some more initials behind my name.  I only have a BA there now, and this will be MS...


Does anyone know why the wave volume control on my master volume controls... SM

on my PC would turn itself all the way down?  It's driving me nuts!  It's like it resets itself to the low possible setting and when I go to work, I'm turning my speakers up full blast trying to hear and when I check my volume controls on my PC, the wave setting is turned all the way down.  I turn it back and everything is loud and clear and I have to turn my speakers back down and then I'll do something the internet and BOOM it resets itself!


I feel bad because I've been accusing my kids of messing with the controls and they have been swearing they didn't do it and I haven't exactly believed them, but it has happened twice to me this evening while I'm working and I know no one else has touched my PC but me.


You get more working the evening or night shifts and working w/o benefits. And producing like a mad
,
The longer
you are in the business and have more expanders, the less errors you tend to make. You are then able to do more scan proofing (mostly to make sure you typed the expansion properly and didn't cause something bizarre to pop into the report).

I am still pretty green. I try to notice what I can while I type and always go back through it (and find something more to correct).

Some reports are much easier to proof than others. The long detailed ones that are harder to type are more difficult to proof as well. I have a hard time keeping my mind from wandering to personal issues, etc. while proofing those.
Lots longer
I don't know - I've been an MT over 25 years, am a super fast typist, use expanders, and have a great platform and accounts, and it takes me a good 5-6 hours, with a 15 minute stretch break here and there, to make 1000 lines.  Bad dictators - a good 8 hour shift to make 1000.
*a little longer than usual...
nm
then that vet would no longer be my VET!! unbelievable. NM
z
If her first initial was J, they are no longer in
business. She went into nursing, pediatric intensive care I believe.
Don't wait any longer...sm
contact an attorney.  You don't have to pay the attorney until he gets your money, then it's a certain percentage.  I know it's a killer to have to pay, but if you don't you're probably not going to ever be paid.  I had to sue a client for 3K.  I still walked away with a good hunk of the money and my pride.  It was well worth what I had to give the attorney. 
WC does not cover CPS any longer. They sm
have determined that it is not caused by typing. Can you believe that?????
oh goodie - we no longer have to see her!!
              
I no longer use satellite, but used
DirecWay when I had it.  Service was about $70/mo.  Download speed is not consistent.  Most of the time it was fast, but sometimes as slow as dial-up.  It depends on if it is raining, snowing, wind blowing and tree may be blowing in front of the dish, if it is real cloudy, etc.   Upload speed is much slower than download, but upload files are usually much smaller so it doesn't take long.    I had trouble with e-mail, though they have upgraded equipment and supposedly the equipment comes with the software installed and configured already so basically you just plug it in and you're ready.   I paid $800 for my equipment  years ago - that included dish and 2 modems.   The newer modems are a lot more expensive.  
Delete them.........esp if you no longer do them...

For private MDs, I only keep their diskettes 6 months, since ALL the work and an additional diskette has been provided when I returned the work.........


If you worked for a national, you need to send the diskettes to them I would think.........that is, IF you worked for a national MT company.  If not, I'd just delete them..........keeping the floppies for myself.........for future....(yep, I still use floppy disks...*LOL*).........


 


they no longer pay for proofing
Just kidding.
I know, I know...
Proofing is very important. Patient care is at stake.
And so are our jobs.



I have been MTing longer than you and get this
When starting VR was also told I should be using the function keys. My "new"(outsourced) job of years even went so far as to show us where we were using the mouse as opposed to the keys. I have never used the function keys and do over 3000 per day, my lines have increased since VR and have worked NOT using the function keys now for several years and it works ok for me. Did they threaten you with not using the function keys???
No longer confused
Now, that makes sense to me!
No longer so frustrated..
I've been reading with interest the comments my venting inspired.. both here and in my email .. and some of the assumptions are amusing.

I've been a Transcriptionist for 36 years, an MTSO a couple of times during those year, a manager with a national company or two, transcription manager, QA manager - basically just about every job possible in this field. I know how important it is for a transcriptionist to be respected for our skills and to be paid for the work we do.

We actually flew to a central location in California to train transcriptionists within a 10 mile radius of the central location, so there was no cost to the transcriptionist. We wouldn't have made the trip had we received only one or two applicants. It isn't that difficult to train someone remotely, but since we had several positions to fill and several applicants, we decided it would be beneficial to make the trip and meet the new ICs.

We have 35 very good transcriptionists, all on IC status, working at different levels of competence, on different accounts, with all of the flexibility they can use. Some started as trainees right out of school, others came to us experienced with one or more specialty. All have been cross-trained to some degree to cover each other when someone has a family emergency or just wants to take a vacation.

We have work, plenty of it, and our pay scale is competitive with other services. We've even done work share programs with other services for short term.

My plea is simply on behalf of other service owners - don't apply if you aren't serious about work. It is a waste of time, both yours and theirs.

Thanks for all of your comments. I'm getting back involved on the board a little more and find how much I've missed the exchange of opinions and ideas.

T.




Where have you been, this board is no longer -sm

***Removed by Moderator***


Hi. I no longer use this program...

also the job I worked using this program couldn't help me.  So I guess I would have to hire someone.


Can't imagine what would be in conflict with it.  I just want to remove it from my computer.


Thanks for suggestions.


I no longer use one, but on the back where the
cord comes in is a cover that I believe has screws.  Unscrew it and see if the plug has come unplugged from the machine.   If that doesn't work I don't have any idea.
In NYS I was told they no longer have
that particular program (I was lucky enough in the early 1990s to go to school for 6 months totally 100% FREE for MT, books paid for, gas mileage, everything) because I was laid my medical record clerk position at the hospital.

In checking now I find no such help at all because of funding being so low.

you would think is this great, rich country there should be plenty of money for those of us who put a huge percent of our earnings into the government for times like this when our jobs disappear yet alas I could find no such help. Displaced homemaker only applies to a specific group of people now, like those with children who are single I believe. Maybe other states are different...

Even losing your job to overseas outsourcing, pretty much only a few professions can claim that, and I think it was airline employees and tech type jobs.

Again, if we are all rich and educated, we probably could get some kind of help/benefits...but then who would need the help right?

sometimes I feel I am in debtors prison because my credit is falling because of the economic times and the company I work for just keeps somehow lowering my pay all the time as my bills are skyrocketing.

In my state anyway there are a lot of jobs you cannot even get without good credit (?) so I guess you have to not need to job in order to get one.

Funny I don't remember this growing up...I always believed if I just worked hard I would be okay...

not so much now
I have done this longer that 35 years now
and have a job, thanks anyway, what makes you think people are kept out of this field by the way we think or believe? I have paid my dues and others. You, my younger peer, get a grip.
Have been with this profession probably longer
that most of you have been on this earth. I, too, have paid my so called dues. I care not if the retired person hangs out with foreigners, that is her life. I do not have to have tea with someone that I would have to grit my teeth to listen to and that would be the case with me. I specifically tell any dealer I call if someone from another country trying to speak to me there is a language barrier and I would like to have someone who speaks not broken English. Having said that, I do not like to listen all day long to foreigners. I did not start out this way, hardly any in fact and now we are completely up to our necks in people who cannot speak correct English. I care less what people think about me, I can be politically incorrect if I like, try not to even have a PCP of my own, hear too much of that every day. Just the way I feel and my previous husband said if you think it, might as well say it.
Having just had a large pay cut, I no longer do
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Have done this years longer than you and
when I first started in the 70s of course some then. I am still working but I get fed up, has nothing to do with whether you like or dislike doing this work, with ESLs dictating who cannot pronounce words, I really think more than VR that ESLs really compromise this profession. There are much more now than in the 80s, by the way and they are not getting any better, just worst. No one takes up for the MTers here, not being asked to spell a person they want a CC to, cannot ask to spell physician's name attending who is out of state, things are not good.
Why do some MTs try and cause problems when they are no longer with a company?
I just don't get it. 
it would take WAY longer than 6 weeks for mine! nm
nm
Me, too, but getting pregnant is no longer an option.
I wish I'd never started up again after 8 years without smoking.
When you can no longer handle what life gives you

you get on your knees and pray. Just surrender every care to God and ask Him to help because you can't do any more.  Just saw something on Oprah when she had Faith Hill as a guest and she said she was depressed and fat and wanted a role in a movie and she just fell on the ground and remembered the words to a hymm, I surrender all.  Faith Hill sang it and it brought tears to my eyes.  (Oprah got the role she wanted in Deep Purple.)  Anyway, I was in the same position and literally didn't want to go on and suddenly after my prayer things started happening for the good which I really believed was an answer to my desperate prayer.


PS:  Hope this post doesn't get dinged or offend anyone.


 


Maybe this will help. 


 


Yup, and Paula is no longer clapping like
Thankfully on both!
I will no longer continue to bicker with you...
I mentioned one word being misspelled, as I stated above, not the typos. It was the most important word of the post N-I-E-C-E. Relax.
some of your credits may no longer count...sm
some places will require you to take A&P over because it is more than 10 years old.
I rarely use books any longer....sm

However, I would get Vera Pyle's Med. Term book, Ellen Drake Sloane's Medical Word Book, and Claudia Tessier's Surgical Word Book.  Also Quik-Look Drug Book.  This is only if you are still using books 24/7/365.  The web has faster access in my opinion.   


No, that was my thought about u. No longer perplexed. nm
x
Better but it really isn't a good show any longer
.
Nope! No longer consider too young. sm
Early spay or neuter (also known as "pediatric" spay/neuter) is pretty common now for shelters. It's been studied and found to be safe, and it helps keep shelters from inadvertantly contributing to the pet overpopulation proplem that they're trying to help solve. Not all vets offer it though.

Lots of websites and info. about it if you go to Google and type in "early spay neuter" but here's one:

http://www.tracylanddvm.com/html/why.html

You don't have to wait until 6 months old any more. For dogs, my vet (who is very cautious and took a long time to change his stance that they needed to be 6 months old first) likes to spay or neuter at 4 months of age, because it's after they've had all their shots, yet it's before (with females) they've gone into heat/estrus for the first time (health benefit to that - see above website - don't wait with your female dogs! ;O) For cats, I don't know if they get this same benefit from being spayed before their first heat cycle. One reason my vet changed it to 4 months is because he said he's seeing more dogs go into heat earlier than they used to. (Good diet = maturing earlier, like people? His theory, anyway.)

BTW, and I mean this is the nicest way (not trying to be the spelling police! LOL) it's spelled "spayed" rather than "spade" in this instance. :o)
it's not AAMT any longer, rather AIHD...nm

MP Count no longer free. (nm)
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