Re: Re: Since the board is busy today..Newbie questions

January 24, 2003

I just time to read this today and it reminded me of something I wanted to share

with this group.

I know a woman that got hired about 6 months ago a local hospital. She had NO

training in MT work. She had NO background in any type of medical work or

medical terminology.

She is working for a department that does all the pathology, nephrology,

infectious diseases, endocrinology, rheumatology, and dermatology.

She went in with no training or background and in two weeks she was up and

running on her own.

I find this almost impossible to believe! I KNOW this woman and I know she isn't

lying! What I wonder about, though, is whether or not she's doing a decent

job????!! I wonder if there are lots of errors that she doesn't even know she's

making? But her QA reports are good. She is not fast, but they are happy with

her production.

This made me feel like I'm stupid! LOL! I went through Career Step's program. I

found it thorough and very good. I felt it prepared me well for my first job.

But even so, my first few weeks on my new MT job were HARD! It was only after a

few months that I started to really feel comfortable.

I recently started to do MT work for a local chiropractor. Again, I had a steep

learning curve those first few weeks!

A few months ago I started to do clinical consultations. Yet another learning

curve presented itself to me.

So, I'm wondering if some people are just better suited to this work? I always

thought I was a bright woman, but after hearing my friend's story I feel like an

idiot in comparison! LOL!

Well, any thoughts on how she did it? I just cannot imagine it, I really can't!

Her job would intimidate me for the first few weeks. I'm sure of it! I've been

an MT for over 2 years now, but I still think it would learning a lot of new

stuff. So how the heck did she do it?!!!! I even asked her that question and she

said she just didn't think it was all that difficult! WHAT??!!! LOL!

I'm babbling, so I'll sign off now. :-)

P.S. Please note my new email address. The old one is rapidly fading away.....

S.

vtmt@...

www.mt-resources.com

Re: Since the board is busy today..Newbie questions

Hi, Malea,

I'm qualified to address only the portion of your question related

to educational institutions--and maybe a little bit of the reason

AAMT recommends an associate degree.

First, " Can you learn enough doing a distance program? " The answer

depends on two things: The distance program and the student.

Some students are not cut out for distance education, and the best

program in the world won't work for them. I would recommend you

take a course, any course-- & Noble offers free courses if you

buy a book and FreeEd.net offers free courses, period, at

http://free-ed.net/mainpage02.asp. Perhaps you'd be interested in

trying their Medical Terminology course: http://www.free-

ed.net/fr02/lfc/020600/20/400/ The FreeEd.net courses were mostly

created by educators and donated to FreeEd.net. Taking one course

should determine if you have the discipline to do the work on

schedule and tolerate the isolation from other students.

Some programs are better than others, which goes without saying.

You have certainly done the right research by asking for graduates

of the programs--happy or not--to share their experiences with you.

Next, " I read on the AAMT website today that programs should be 2

years and associate degrees--is that really necessary? " Maybe.

You certainly need a particular body of skills, and working toward a

degree or diploma in medical transcription or medical assisting or

medical office technology will definitely expose you to the right

skills. Some of the transcriptionists on this list got into it

years ago and grew up with the profession. Some started out in

another health care field and transitioned into transcription with

minimal additional training. Some came in with little training and

succeeded anyway. They are all successful, to one degree or another-

-the unsuccessful transcriptionist-wannabes fell by the wayside and

are not posting here.

For that matter, if you asked a handicapper to lay odds on any

randomly chosen person succeeding in medical transcription by

getting started in all those different ways and becoming a respected

transcriptionist within say, 30 months--self-taught, mentored, high

school diploma plus a certificate in medical transcription, diploma,

or degree--I think you know which way the handicapper will set the

odds.

And AAMT recommends the degree because the officers of AAMT are

transcriptionists and transcription service owners, and they have

years of experience working with and employing MTs that got their

training in a variety of ways. In their aggregate experience, the

AAMT officers (and past officers) have seen transcriptionists who

come into the field better trained achieve more and achieve faster

than transcriptionists who had lower level skills and less

training. Not to say that a given individual would be a failure

with less training--but that is the way to bet.

The AAMT version II of its curriculum will cost you $60 as a non-

member ($50 if you're a member). I had a copy of version I, I have

not seen a copy of version II. However, as a long-time educator in

the field, I can tell you that any curriculum should include the

following skills:

*Medical terminology. THE most important course! I suggest a text

or program that uses the word-building approach and covers each of

the major body systems and most of the practice specialties. The

text I use has 24 chapters, which we cover over 2 semesters.

*Anatomy and physiology. A lab course isn't as critical for an MT

as for a nurse. A thorough coverage of the theory should suffice.

*Medical document production. This includes forms and formats as

well as language skills such as punctuation, spelling,

capitalization, number formats, and so on. It should include the

theory of each of the reports a transcriptionist will likely

encounter and ample practice at preparing them.

*Medical law and ethics. Transcriptionists are handling

confidential documents and should be aware of their responsibilities

and their liability.

*Medical transcription, of course. Probably a minimum of 24 hours

of dictation should be included in a medical transcription program.

*Office procedures and medical office procedures and word

processing.

*Pharmacology. If you can get a course it would be great--it should

at least be included as an adjunct study area in the transcription

course. There's a pharmacology course at Free-Ed.net which may be

more intensive than a transcription students actually needs.

*Medical insurance, coding, and billing. Okay, maybe this isn't a

make-or-break area. However, it puts the medical record one is

transcribing into perspective.

A degree will also include English, math, social science, fine arts,

and probably a health or CPR/first aid course. A specialty course

in transcription will not include them. Do you need them? If you

decide to get a 4-year degree, you'll have to have them. Take them

now, take them later. Also, those courses make you a better

educated person along with being a highly trained transcriptionist.

However, the on-line courses previously mentioned can--and do--do a

good job of preparing motivated adult learners for a career in

medical transcription.

Good luck with your research!

Valeria

>

> I'm going to bother you all once again with a question on MT

programs.. it seems my question about Global Medical Transcription

got lost yesterday.

>

> Has anyone done a program through Global or know who has? Also, I

read on the AAMT website today that programs should be 2 years and

associate degrees--is that really necessary? Did most people do a

home-study program? Can you learn enough doing a distance program?

Also, AAMT said the program should be based on the AAMT " Model

Curriculum for MT's " . Does anyone know of a program that

specifically uses that ?

>

> sorry for the multitude of " newbie " questions. I know how busy you

are with important work. I just want to make a good decision.

> Any --ANY--advice is greatly appreciated!

>

> thanks-

> Malea

January 24, 2003