Love the idea on using a phone book A-Z for writing down
Posted By: words, use a note pad now- sm on 2005-11-19
In Reply to: wanted to share something from my 15+ years experience.... - lilworried
I have almost 4 year experience now and may branch out on my own next year I think, or at least try. Love the idea of using the phone book, can't believe I never thought of it. Thanks for the tip.
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in addition to the phone book
Go get 2 Rolodex's. They are cheap at any office supply store. Use one for medications and one for medical terms that are new to you. Also for a pharmaceutical book, the Monthly Prescribing Reference is free on line. Just Google it under that name and download it into your system. It will give you weekly updates to the drugs that are either being taken off the market or being put on the market. It's the drug book physicians use and far superior to any book that has to be renewed year after year.
Yes, the Rad book is good, as is the Ortho & Rehab words. A drug book helps or one on CD. Book mark
,
Sted's Ortho/Rehab Words, a lab word book, and at least 1 drug book. nm
s
A C-phone is a special phone (see inside)
that you can plug a headset into and a footpedal into, and then dial into a system and get the dictation over the telephone line, instead of over the internet.
Even an "open book" tests requires you to look in your own book, not just as the guy next to y
x
Love, love, love your story! nm
x
Your writing skills
concern me more. It appears you have not learned punctuation. I'm not trying to be mean, but there is enough to learn without having to learn basic writing skills too. I'd rather see English whizzes go into MT.
writing skills
well, I wasn`t being all picky on here. I see mistakes,typos on here all the time. Sorry
"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 enjoy MT, but I see the writing on the wall. I have started another at-home business....(sm)
I love the tax benefits of working from home, so I have gone into another business. I am probably about six months away from having this business surpass my current income. Once that happens... I am out of MT. Sad, but true.
I don't want to be the last rat off of the sinking ship! (Not that I consider myself a rat, mind you. More like a cute, fuzzy mouse, perhaps...)
Ha ha!
I had no idea...
Since this was new to me, I had no idea of where to go. I went to the BBB, but they don't do employee/employer disputes amongst other things. I didn't know where to go after that.
idea
Well, let me tell you how I got around that. I know what I did was morally wrong but it got me two jobs. I was so sick and tired of everywhere wanting 2 years or more of experience. I mean when you graduate how are you susposed to get that experience if no one will hire you? So anyway I decided to fudge on my resume about the experience. I made up a fake company name and everything. The first place I applied for didn't check for references or anything and I was hired because I passed the test. The second company wanted to check for references so I gave her my mom's name and number as my supervisor. lol I called my mom and asked her if she would fudge a little for me which of course she did because she rocks! lol But I was hired there too. I figured what's it gonna hurt? I do know that some companies may hire newbies like I think focus infomatics will. And keep checking the jobs here. Sometimes companies are specifically looking for new grads. Or you could be sneaky like me. Just tossing the idea out there.
just an idea
I know this is far fetched, but this is the first thing that came to my mind. What if you are transcribing a report about a friend's or relative's significant other, and you see that they have an STD such as HIV that your friend/relative is not aware of.
I had the same idea
Several years ago,I did what you are thinking of doing. I have a good job with a high salary and good benefits, but my home needed quite a bit of work, I didn't want to take on debt to get the work done, and I also wanted to beef up my retirement savings as I am single and have only myself for support. I heard about MT from someone whose relative was an MT and decided it sounded like just what I needed to make some extra money.
I didn't have a clue about what constitutes good MT training, so I took the MT training courses offered by my local community college. The medical terminology training was the only part of that program that was worth anything. None of he practice transcription was real doctor dictation. It was actors reading scripts. Apparently, their MT program is similar to programs at other CCs and technical colleges, which may be why so many people who get training that way complain of having difficulty finding a job.
I was very, very lucky. My friend's MT relative turned out to be responsible for hiring MTs for the clinic she worked for. My friend put me in touch with her MT relative, and I was hired with no experience. I had to work very, very hard to make up for the deficiencies in my training, though I was fortunate to have a background in general transcription and a very good ear for transcription. If I had not had the good fortune of an introduction, I think it would have been very, very difficult for me to find the first job with the poor training that I received. I would certainly not have been able to find a job with one of the nationals.
If I were looking for training today, and knowing what I know now about how hard medical transcription can be with inadequate training, from my personal perspective (you will want to do your own research to determine what is best for you), I would choose Andrews or M-Tec (often mentioned as the two best schools). There are other good programs, and some community colleges and technical colleges do provide good training, but without knowing what good training is beforehand, it would be very difficult to judge a program's quality.
With the experience I gained working for the local clinic, I was able to get a job with a small national that does clinic work when the first clinic I worked for transitioned to an electronic medical records system that does not require human transcriptionists. I submitted at least fifty applications, from which I was offered six opportunities to test, and from those I received four job offers, three of which were untenable (one company turned out to have a bad reputation because of treating MTs badly, one company appeared to be hopelessly disorganized and was therefore not very appealing, and the third appeared to be managed by crazy people). The offer I accepted has worked out well so far because I am working on the only specialty I have ever done. I was not even invited to test with companies that do hospital transcription because I do not have either the necessary experience or suitable, recognized training.
If you want to have the widest range of employment options, you will need good, comprehensive traning that is recognized as good training by employers. If you think can get your foot in the door with a local clinic, it probably won't matter where you get your training. If you want to have a chance at the widest range of available jobs, you will need training that employers recognize as good. Otherwise, it might be difficult even to get an opportunity to test for a job and you might find your options very limited.
Good luck with your plan. MT has worked out very well for me as a second job. I hope your experience is good, too.
I second that! Wonderful idea!
*
Great idea!
Thanks for the tip!
That's a great idea! Let's do.
Best idea I've heard all day.
Good idea, thank you.
I hadn't thought of working on preparing and learning an expander. I don't actually use one right now. Is there one Expander program that will work in all programs/platforms? Just wondering.
Thanks for the suggestion. I think that is a pretty good.
Good Idea
Thank you for the suggestion. I'll go ahead and ask the school and see what help they can provide.
That is a great idea
I just recently completed all of my course work towards my degree and am just waiting for my degree to get to me and I think it is wonderful that you are even considering reaching out to others in the same shoes as me.
Experience is required for almost every MT position, but you can not get it until someone else is willing to help you.
I know if there was a company or established Transcriptionist that was willing to offer their help in helping me start my career I would jump at it, but many times the cost is way to high for me. I just keep looking ahead to my student loan payments that are coming up.
Since I am trying to find entry level work, or an internship/mentoring program, I think that what would be the most helpful to me is more practice. Building accuracy takes time and since my experience is limited to my training in school and my externship I feel that I may not be able to build that accuracy fast enough. I think being able to find an internship/mentoring program that allows you to get more "real" experience done would be the most beneficial to the new graduate. It also allows us to find our weaknesses and the things we need to do to avoid them.
Best of luck in making your decision, I am sure it is not an easy one to make.
---Christina
Agree with this. I have no idea how many wpm I
type anymore. When I started doing MT years ago, I typed about 85 wpm. I tested about 5 years later & was over 100 wpm, but I haven't taken a typing test in years, so who knows. Knowledge makes you faster rather than simple typing speed in MT. It doesn't matter how fast you type if you have to stop and look every other word up. A slow typing experienced MT with knowledge will make many more lines per hour than a newer fast typer who is having to do more research.
WAS THIS A GOOD IDEA?
I am almost done with my transcription training and I read on these comments how bad the job market is. People on here say that there is no real need for transcriptions any more. Is this all true if so did I waste my time and money?
Re: was this a good idea
Two things:
1. People who have the most to complain about are the people who have the most to talk about. Everyone else is too busy working, so take the negativity you read on message boards with a grain of salt.
2. There is going to be a strong market for GOOD MTs for a long time. GOOD MTs are hard to come by. MTs from TV commercial schools are a dime a dozen.
Can you explain what you're looking for? No idea! nm
s
Too many people get sucked into the idea that
you can work at home right away; maybe 10 years ago, maybe even 5 years ago you could, but not now. Did you check out MT before you took the class? So many come here only after completing their schooling and most complain they can't get a job, but they didn't investigate it before starting and they are expecting to be working at home right out of school. Some have taken programs through correspondance schools that were pretty worthless, again because they didn't investigate the schools or because one has a more affordable program.
It doesn't matter what your grade is, whether your grade is 97% (which is not the same as GPA) or not. If you went to one of the better recognized/accepted schools and then have that grade you might have better luck.
You need an eye for detail in this job and that will be helpful, but that is only a tiny portion of what an MT does. I have been in this business 20 years and I learn new things all the time and I think most MTs with several years of experience will tell you the same thing. I still have days where I spend up to 30 minutes researching something. I still have days where I have to leave a blank because I can't document a piece of equipment or I just can't understand what the dictator is saying. You have to be able to understand accents/dialects, be able to make out what the doctor is saying while they are dictating and eating an apple. You need to be able to tell the difference between abduction and adduction because they pretty much sound the same most of the time. You need to know that when a doctor spells a piece of equipment or a drug that you shouldn't take his word for it, investigate it yourself. Doctors spell things wrong all the time. You need to know when a doctor mispronounces a word - doctors all the time say "Perm a Cath" but it is PermCath. All this comes with practice/experience, which you just don't have fresh out of school.
I know I sound like it is hopeless and it isn't, but your expectations are probably unrealistic too. Post your resume. It doesn't cost anything and you never know what will come of it, but I would recommend you come to this board or the company board and ask about any company just to be sure they are legitimate.
You could also contact local doctors. Find a doctor in practice alone or maybe just 2 doctors. Since you are only wanting to work PT and take care of your daughter you probably shouldn't take on anything more than that. You will also have to look up lots of things to start with, which will slow you down.
different program, similar idea
The internship I speak of is not the Jumpstart program but is a similar program. I took part in a medical transcription course of study at a community college. In order to obtain my diploma I must complete the internship. I think it is a wonderful idea and provides experience, not to mention real world learning. I didn't determine before I started how the clock hours necessary would be calculated. I thought clock hours meant 8 hours per workday 5 days a week. Wrong! Lines typed are divided by 200 lph. Yea, way longer than 120 actual clock hours! That's okay but I wasn't given that information at the beginning which I think I should have been.
You learn things the hard way when you new and naive!!
c-phone
what is a c-phone, how does this work, how necessary is it to purchase one??
C-phone
Thanks for the response. Phyllis
Not a good idea to lie about work experience -
Chances are there is a reason they do not want someone with less. More than likely it will be obvious to who hires you that something is amiss. Never a good idea to lie about these things because you more than likely will be found out! Good luck to you. :-)
You need training, not just "classes" -- obviously you have no idea what is involved.
It's more than just typing. You need to know anatomy, pharmacology, terminology, etc. Doctors don't dictate slowly and clearly, and they don't always dictate in quiet places. Take peroneal, peritoneal, and perineal. If you don't know what the doctor is talking about you will not know which word to use. There are many sound-alike words like that, not to mention zillions of drugs. You need good training (Andrews School or M-TEC) and nobody is going to hire you without experience unless you have good training.
as far as the C-phone is concerned...sm
the MTSO doesn't always get to pick the method of voice files. The hospital does. So if it's a place that uses the Dictaphone C-phone, ya gotta get if you want the job. I do a PT account that uses a C-phone and I've made scads and scads of easy money. Best account I ever had. Pays gross lines and blank lines! American dictators. They call us and apologize if they slur a word that we can't hear. I would cry if I found out I passed up that baby because of a lousy 400 bucks. But I think she said if you didn't want to pay the 400 bucks, she wasn't offended - just don't apply.
phone interview
I am having my first phone interview today with a company. Can someone please tell me what I should expect from this? Thanks.
Phone interviews
I am a recent graduate from At Home Professions, and I have a couple of phone interviews coming up. I already passed their online tests. Can anyone give me any advice on phone interviews. What kind of questions do they ask? What information should I be prepared with? Any help or advice would be appreciated Thanks.
Phone interviews
I've had phone interviews where they just asked me questions about which hours/days I wanted to work and to review my resume.
Then, I've also had phone interviews after passing the online exam that asked me to move away from my PC and reference books, get pen and paper, and then rattled off about 40 questions ranging from medication usage, meanings of medical terms, expanded abbreviations, body parts, spelling tricky medications and longgggg medical words, etc.
I'll never forget when I was asked to tell the recruiter what EGD stood for and also to spell it!
I told her, first off that is a word that most docs can't even say, no less spell and you want me to attempt it? lol Recruiter laughed, and laughed again when I told her I spell it by typing *egd and watch it magically appear on my screen. lol
Just relax during your phone interview(s) and don't be afraid to tell them you are a bit nervous if you feel that way.
The more you interview with different companies, the better you will get at it.
Good luck to you!
DSL operates over the phone line
The presence or absence of satellite service is irrelevant.
C-Phone/Dial-in Dictation?
Can someone explain to me how a C-phone works. Currently, I am working for a company that uses the WinScribe dictation platform via the internet. Prior to this, I had only transcribed via microcassette tapes. I look forward to an answer as I am clueless about this. Phyllis
Is a C-phone a good investment?nm
nm
BCB PC-Dart C-Phone information
Does anyone know anything about this transcription system or know where I can find the company on the web? Thank you in advance for any help.
God Bless.
Can she get a cell phone signal where she is at.
I also cannot get DSL or cable, but I do get a strong cell signal where I am at so I got wireless broadband through my cell phone provider. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile all offer internet service and you do not have to already have a phone through them. I went with Sprint as they offer the fastest speeds in my area.
As for CS, I graduated 2 years ago and have never had an issue finding a job. I had 3 job offers within a week of graduating. I don't know if I was lucky or what. I have heard many CS grads lately complaining that they can't find jobs. I wonder if the marketplace is just becoming saturated with new grads and so it is more competitive than when I graduated.
Good luck to your SIL. Hope it works out for her.
I have a phone interview with Medivoxx next Tuesday.
Any info on what to expect during this phone interview is much appreciated. Do you feel that there is a good chance for hire since I made it to this point with them?? Thanks!
Yes, but make sure your cell phone contract allows
xx
I love this one, you can
click on whatever body system you need for lots of really helpful info.
http://medicine.ucsd.edu/clinicalmed/introduction.htm
love MT
AmyAmyO,
Do your research on the field locally and go to the library. call local doctor offices and ask to speak with their MT to get info. Find out about a refresher course and there is a book at the library about researching to prepare for the field. Very good book. I love it! Good luck!
I do and so far I love it!!
I do too and love it as well.
nm
WOULD LOVE
to see the list of jobs/companies earlier poster mentioned.... could you post a link on this forum? It might bless a lot of folks! ![](http://forum.mtstars.com/smileys/shake.gif")
Where's the love??
I beg your pardon, I'm an Allied grad and I'm working as an MT.
book for MT
Go find "The Language of Medicine" and go through it chapter by chapter. It has a CD with it and do all of the tests, each worksheet, etc. That will give you a good start. I have been in the business for 17 years, and have taught from the bottom up, and have also taught MTs who had a solid MT certificate. I can say with all certainty that this is not an easy business by any means, but it is worth it. The first years I did MT work, we were paid hourly and I made decent money. Seventeen years later, I make great money, but without those years behind me and knowing every discipline of medicine, every tool used in surgery, every disease known to man, every laboratory value and study, ad nauseum, I would not be making the money I do at this point. If you are good and persistent, it is easy to make anywhere from $25 to $40 an hour in this field (with a good shortcut program, I prefer ShortHand 8). I have taught nurses, chiropractors, anyone with a medical background, and those were the people who needed the most help, not the ones who had gone to actual MT school, although they needed help too. With the ESL dictators, if you don't know the procedures, etc., being a fast typist with a basic medical background will not be of any help. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but honestly, do the schooling before you attempt this career and expect to be placed. Otherwise, try transcriptionmatchmaker.com and see what she can do for you.
It's rare to get the 2nd phone line reimbursed, so need to think about that cost, too. nm
s
Been at it 25+ years, still love it the same way I did at first. NM
x
Would love one! but like I mentioned
locally, there aren't any. I have went to all the dr.'s offices and the hospital and they have went to a paper form. They had used a service in a town 10 miles away and I applied and tested with the owner, who I knew and she would have hired me but she was notified that the work she had was being cut, since the paper form was being implemented, and she was going to have to down-size her workers. I had had a job line-ed up that paid hourly before they decided to go to this new form and lucked out. Now, I need to find something over the internet.
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