Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Personally, I think the books are a waste of money, with a few exceptions. sm

Posted By: NWMNMT on 2009-03-10
In Reply to: How often do you replace your reference books, or (sm) - rodawn

These days, I would get the CD instead of the book, if that option were available.

That said, I don't see the need for, nor can I justify the expense of, the standard reference series, like Stedman's. For the most part, anatomy doesn't change from year to year, and neither does the vast majority of the terminology. Of course, there are new procedures, new terms, etc., but chances are your book won't be up to date on those. So, a ratty old (cheap) used copy might be handy, but the Internet is much faster (provided you know how to use it properly and don't just accept any ol' c--p you find :-).

At most, I'd recommend (A) Stedman's Medical and Surgical Equipment Words (or whatever they're calling it in its latest incarnation), and perhaps the Stedman's word book pertaining to your speciality, if you have just one or two.

Otherwise, save your money.


Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

The CMT exam is overrated. Don't waste your time & money. Use that money on
paid anymore just because you have it.  There are a few CMT cheerleaders that post to people like you but they are pretty well sucked up into that association.
Don't waste your money just yet.......sm
There is no way of knowing what equipment you'll need until you get hired.  Unless you can afford to buy everything and anything, don't concern yourself with it until you know what your new company requires.  There is no rush.  You can buy whatever you need on line and get it within a day to two.
Don't waste your money!
There's nothing in that guy's books that you probably don't already know about, or can easily find out about...free!

I do "secret shopping" sometimes, but the shops pay very little.

There are a several MLM companies, (I'm in one), which are not scams, but it's not that easy to make money with them, & takes time.
IMO it is a waste of money. Not too many
companies pay more for CMT certification.
A waste of money
I have seen some companies who advertise more cpl if you are a CMT, not recently, but more like a "fad" a while back. I gawf at that because even if I was certified, I have over 20 years of experience and no certification is going to make me more experienced than actually working that long.
Don't waste your money on it.
nm
TALK ABOUT A WASTE OF MONEY!
Why not pay us more, or pay the people with no work to do this???
Don't waste your money.... A very reputable...
physician was speaking at a conference, a doc who specializes in weight loss and  has a practice for same and I was able to ask about these products.  She said they are just a waste of money.
Why waste money on Lanier

Just seems like a big-time waste of money
to buy a keyboard just because a letter is worn off.
Don't waste your money or your time. sm
I was a CMT for 15 years. It never did a bit of good money wise. Like another poster said, there use to be bonuses for production with some companies (large bonuses) and they never had anything to do with CMT.

You will be spending more money than you want to as well as having to get CECs all the time. AHDI doesn't care about American MTs. This test (in my opinion) is just like the "almighty" BOS, just something else to get the MTs money that will never do the MT any good but keep funding AHDI.

AAMT/AHDI or whoever they are has been saying for years it will be mandatory to be a CMT some day. That is baloney. Any decent employer will go by your experience and what you can show them you can do and not by any stupid CMT certificate.

I wouldn't think a second thought about it if I were you. Its not worth the paper its printed on.
CMT is a waste of money & time. Times are different in the MT

industry anymore and having a CMT doesn't make a hill of beans difference. Companies are going to pay what they want to pay. Having a CMT isn't going to get you anymore money.  That's a fallacy.  There was a time when having a CMT would have gotten you a little better pay but those days are LONG gone. Save your money because that's all AAMT wants.  AAMT are big corporation suckups, offshore suckups, and will suckup to anyone or any company that has BIG BUCKS!  AAMT care NOT about the American MT, which became crystal clear with the announcement of their upcoming name change.


Waste of time and hard-earned money
when you can only make may be 1 cpl more if you are a CMT.  They should not charge you, they should just let you take the test and send you the certificate. 
Nope. Huge waste of time and money.
x
A big waste of effort and money. You won't make 1 penny more.
x
Heads up folks! I use Express Scribe wav player, but don't waste your money on their other

paid for products because they're buggy and have horrible customer support!  I bought Express Dictate for my doctors and Express Delegate and I have had nothing but one problem after another.  Forget calling, that's not an option.  I have emailed until I'm blue in the face and the "support" I get are canned responses and they do not address the problems I'm having.  They have a forum you can post on, but no one ever posts responses. My client has been extremely patient, actually too patient, and now I'm looking for another alternative.  I can't tell you how many sleepless nights I've had over the past almost 4 weeks.  Thanks for letting me vent...sigh....


I wouldn't take the money personally. In a hospital...
they are certainly operating under strict budget guidelines and even though they may "want" to give you more money, it's possible that they probably just can't.
Personally, I think lawsuits only give lawyers more money
nm
You will spend a lot of money on acute care books because there are many that you need sm
since acute care covers ALL specialties in a hospital setting: Neurology, cardiology, nephrology, psychiatry, gastro, urology, ENT, infectious disease, orthopedic, ophthalmology, orthopedics, podiatry, laboratory medicine, some pathology depending on where you work, OB/Gyn, pulmonology, and maybe some others I am forgetting.

Stedman's has a full line of reference books for EACH specialty and each book can cost between 38.00-42.00 or more.

To be honest, I have all of them, but don't use them very much since Google and search engine websites offer more up to date answers than any Stedman's who can't compete with the internet. Good luck! Acute care is fun!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - emergency medicine!

Now do you know why radiology transcription has a dept. unto itself? LOL
Good money? Can we ask how much is considered GOOD in your books????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
FYI I HAVE reference books, but in case you hadn't noticed, thing change a lot faster than BOOKS
I was simply asking for suggestions of other places on line that I might look for the latest info, especially considering that my work is on the internet, what the hell is wrong with trying to be more productive and efficient?!?! Good Grief!!
I prefer books. I'm kinda old school. I like to be able to write new terms in my books. I do

have Stedman's Medical Dictationary on CD and I do use it quite a bit, but that's more because the actual print dictionary is so darn heavy to pick up and look a word up!


exceptions
Well, there are exceptions to every rule, and as always, the few ruin it for the many.

I am a newbie, even less, I am still a student, an online student. And yes, I am hoping to work from home, and bring in any amount of money I can.

I am not trying to step on anyones toes, insult anyone, or the like. Don't think this is an easy profession, never did. I was a paralegal and a CNA before I stayed home with the kids.

Anyway, I agree with the negativity on here. On the other hand, I have also learned alot and got a lot of great info from some members of t his board.

Sorry y'all feel that way. Guess I can't really blame ya. :)
and there are so many exceptions to all those rule! lol
that's the english language for ya! I really don't know.
Maybe there are exceptions per client.
One client I has uses part of the BOS, other things they ignore.
Tell her NO exceptions, work has to be back. If she is not

able to do the work don't give it to her.   You wouldn't tolerate it with the other MTs and I sure which I had an account that wouldn't drop me if work was that late.  Send her (if you haven't already) a form where you state TAT and ask for her commitment on a monthly basis.   You can state in the form that failure to meet TAT could/would result in termination.   She is taking advantage of you but only because you allow her too.  


Maybe only give her work 2 days a week  and give her only an amount that she seems to be doing currently.  If you give her less work maybe she will be able to meet TAT. 


 


You probably have a lot of words in the autocorrect exceptions if
you backspace a lot. Click the exceptions button and go through all of the tabs in the dialog box and delete the words you don't want in there. Uncheck automatically add words on all of the tabs. That's the setting that will add words and change them to no proofing.
Exceptions to everything but majority parents
x
Money, money, money, mmonnneyyy. Singing the Apprentice song.
:+
There are exceptions when Word won't cap after periods, like in numbers or after colons.
nm
those are exceptions to the rule and those are KING-PIN drug dealers, not the middle men who run
the drugs. If you have an EDUCATION and make enough money you don't have to deal drugs. The kids in ghettos running the drugs who are getting busted are doing this because they have no education and nothing else to do to make money. THEM's the proven statistics.

You are talking about apples and oranges. Yeah there is a temporarily rich meth guy living in a nice house but the majority of the rich guys are using punk kids with no education to sell the drugs. They aren't their on the corner in the ghetto dealing their own drugs.
The autocorrect dialog box has an exceptions button. Click that and delete what you want.
nm
Have you ever checked the autocorrect exceptions list to see if you added those letters without
You need to uncheck the automatically add box.
Make money? I'm not making any money because of my decision. You read my reasoning
You can agree with me or not, but don't make false assumptions please.
You're working to make money, not to spend money.
These people should be ashamed of themselves taking advantage of people this way!
I also blew some money signing up with Quixtar... The only way to make any money is to bug everyone

you know into signing up.  I felt like a snake oil huckster.  I hated it.  I was flushing money down the toilet from the moment I handed over my money. 


RUN, do not walk away!  I do an entirely different side business now that I really love (in addition to my MTing, which I also love!)  Find something you're good at and that you truly love doing.  Then make a business out of it.  That's the best way to have a side business.  Selling discount toilet paper through Amway/Quixtar?  Not so much. 


The generalization is the real picture. There are exceptions to the generalization but
people are not generalizing things that are not true. I visited a friend who lived in a trailer park and it was very bleak and depressing and that was without red neck loud neighbors.
Yeah, money, that's it. I paid $20.00 for my dog. Money is NOT THE ISSUE
walk him daily, play ball daily, he sleeps in my office daily while I work. Yeah, I got a lot of money, NOT HARDLY. And, my dog is HORRIBLY HORRIBLY ABUSED because he wears a collar around his neck. It's people like you that make me sick. I am done defending my use of the shock collar. I am going to continue with it and my dog will continue to be pampered , educated, fed, kept warm, and love me for everything that I do for him even when I remind him that his barking needs to stop. So, with that said, I will not respond to any more of your CRAP in reference to the shock collar.
Waste of $$ (sm)
If you've been an MT for many years, why are you wasting your time & money on a CMT exam? If you read up on it in these forums, you will see that it's nothing but a ripoff. So is AAMT. What matters is your own skill and proficiency, which can be proven. A bunch of letters after someone's name proves NOTHING, which became obvious repeatedly in my office, when "CMT" people proved to be incompetent, and yet older, more experienced non-CMT's (who had usually been around since before those people figured out that ripoff scheme...) turned out to be our best workers. If I were you, I'd use the money on references, or a new computer, etc., rather than wasting it on that worthless test.
re: Waste of $$(sm)
Your opinion of being a CMT or of AAMT was not solicited nor warranted as it was not even asked. The original question was not to seek out someone's biased opinion.
do not waste with another course
you're in, do your time, learn and find another place later.
Now THAT was not a waste of
x
YOU DID NOT WASTE
TEST FOR THE BIG COMPANIES. I work for Diskriter, test for them. Someone will give you a shot. I started out 18 years ago with no pay at the hospital as a trainee, and here I am today as a QA/editor/account manager for a large MTSO. Never say never, just have to keep knocking until right door opens for you.
LOL It would be more of a waste to sue
They have the right to set any standard they want as an association.


Doing VR I waste most
of my time putting in and correcting PUNCTUATION.
What a misery!
The letter was a waste of

who wrote it and are now trying to make it smell better.


and it was a waste of the time for the MT who got it.


All these silly pre-letters and anticipated packages that nobody can tell you what is in them or what they are about, and 1/cent checks being mailed out to people, just make MQ look really foolish from a business standpoint.  If they were trying to run people off, they did a darn good job.  And if they weren't trying, then whoever thought of this business strategy, needs to go rework it.  Because in my case it  was the final obtuse act by a smarmy company that helped me make the decision to invest my experience in the competition.


Don't waste your time there
Very unprofessional. Outdated system. Lacks work. I resigned shortly after getting hired, and I gave them the 2 wks' notice, still worked during those two weeks, mailed an invoice, and still has not received my pay.
You are a big waste of our time.

I would definitely call first.....why waste gas?
xx
IMO waste of my time
VR is not taking over the MT position anytime soon. I hated doing editing because it was twice the work and half the pay. I always ended up typing everything over because it was so wrong. Especially w ESL. Docs have to train the computer to recognize their voice and they don't take and don't have the time to do so. I found a company with straight transcription and I am much happier.
Waste of time
nm