Author: Stephanie (Page 5 of 9)

Interested in Becoming a Medical Transcriptionist, But Not Sure Which School Is Best?

February 7, 2011 / Stephanie

Choosing the best medical transcription school is pretty challenging. They all try to look appealing. They’d like you as a student, after all. How can you choose the best school when you’re interested in becoming a medical transcriptionist, and be sure you’ve made the right choice?

Research is the key. It’s not terribly difficult, but it is vital. Otherwise you could find out you’ve paid for medical transcriptionist training through a school that really wasn’t worth the time or money. Most of us don’t have either to waste.

The school must provide you with an education good enough that you can work as a competent medical transcriptionist after graduation, assuming you study hard enough. You’re part of the equation too! It may sound difficult to figure out which schools offer good enough training that you’ll get the skills you need, but it’s not as hard as it may sound.

AHDI Approval is one factor to check. If the school is on their list, they’re probably a pretty good school. They’ve had their curriculum reviewed for quality by an association of medical transcriptionists.

Another factor to consider is how employers feel about graduates of that program. One of the biggest complaints newly trained medical transcriptionists have is that all employers seem to want at least two years of medical transcription experience before they’ll even consider hiring. A good school can train you well enough for certain employers to waive that requirement. Not all employers will, but some do. That’s your foot in the door for this career.

Cost matters too. This is why different people will come up with different answers for which is the best school. What’s best for you is not best for everyone.

Cost can be a big part of the decision. No one wants to spend more than they have to on their education, but it does cost some to get good enough training to get the job. That doesn’t mean the most expensive school is the best. You can go to a more midrange priced school and do well so long as they offer high quality training.

You can never forget that even the best program is only good if you make the most of it. You have to gain the skills they’re teaching you. If you aren’t a focused, determined student, you aren’t going to do so well in this career. Even when you find an employer willing to consider you without two years of experience because you attended a good school, you’ll have to prove your skills through a test. If you didn’t really learn the skills during your training, you won’t make it.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

What Is the Best Online Medical Transcriptionist School?

February 3, 2011 / Stephanie

If you’re going to pay for the training you need to become a medical transcriptionist, you probably want the best training you can get. How will you know when you’ve found the best online medical transcriptionist school?

You just have to know what you’re looking for and what makes a great medical transcriptionist school.

It’s not just the price, of course. A higher price does not guarantee a better education. Good schools will usually cost more than bad schools, but that’s not a guarantee. Schools can set their fees to whatever they think they can get for their training, after all.

AHDI Approval is one good indicator that you’ve found one of the best online medical transcriptionist schools available. They only approve a relatively small number of schools, and only after they meet strict criteria in terms of training, finances and more.

Cost is a factor in terms of what you can afford. If you’re trying to decide between two schools, sometimes it comes down to the one you can better afford to attend. You can’t go cheap, but if all else appears equal, you may not need to go with the most expensive either.

Some things you’ll find to be true of most programs. You’ll often see that online schools allow you to learn medical transcription at your own pace. This is great if you need to work another job while you train or if you have small children or other family members to care for. You can do your training when your other obligations allow. You’ll then also be learning how to manage those obligations once you complete your training and find a job.

Quality programs also have teachers available to you by email, chat or phone. Most students don’t just learn on their own. It’s important to be able to ask for help when you need it. Having a qualified teacher available to you is vital to your long term success.

You also want to know that employers trust the school and will hire their graduates. Otherwise, you’re going to have quite a time getting past the standard requirement of two to three years experience in medical transcription that you see in most job ads. Finding a job with training but no on the job experience is a bear no matter what industry you’re talking about. If the training you’ve gone through is sufficiently trusted by employers, you’ve just minimized the experience issue.

Schools often but not always have job placement assistance. It may be as simple as job boards available to new graduates. You want your school to give you some sort of resources for landing that first job. You can’t always rely on the big employers having a need for new employers. You need to know how to find other employers so that you can apply for as many positions as it takes until you find a job.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

How Do You Become a Medical Transcriptionist and Work From Home?

February 2, 2011 / Stephanie

Once you find out that it’s possible to become a medical transcriptionist and work from home, the idea can be quite appealing. There just aren’t that many work at home jobs that sound so possible to many people, especially with a clear income potential.

Then you start looking at jobs and realizing it’s just not that simple. Everyone wants you to have at least two years of experience, except a couple of questionable companies that are asking you to pay them for the job. Isn’t there some way to become a medical transcriptionist from home and not get scammed?

Of course there is. Many people succeed at this, while others end up working as medical transcriptionists in an office somewhere rather than at home. The only problem is, you’re going to have to pay for your own training.

In many ways, this isn’t any different from any other job that has demanding requirements. It’s like a job requiring a particular certification or a college degree. You get the training you need from the source you choose, then you can start finding the jobs that will take you on as an employee.

What about that two years of experience thing, you ask? Choose the right training, and it won’t be so much of an issue. You can get around it if employers trust the school you trained with.

Online Medical Transcriptionist Training

The great part about medical transcriptionist training is that you can do it online, from home. You must be careful to choose a school that is AHDI Approved, so that you know their training is high quality. You should also confirm that employers are willing to hire their new graduates, so you have a shot at getting past that annoying experience requirement. There are few things more frustrating after spending months on training than being constantly asked how much experience you have, especially when you know you’re ready and able to work now.

Training to become a medical transcriptionist online is a smart way to go if you want to work from home after you graduate. It’s experience in work at home skills. You’ll be learning how to cope with many of the issues you’ll face when working at home for real, such as dealing with distractions, getting family to take you seriously and so forth. It’s also nice not having to drive to school and deal with parking issues, child care issues or schedule changes. Online training works with you for the most part.

What About After Graduation?

After you graduate is when you really know how much you needed a high quality training program. If the school you chose doesn’t have such a great reputation with employers, your job hunt is probably going to be more difficult. There can still be challenges in finding a job after completing even the best of programs – it all depends on the competition for the particular jobs you apply for, and the jobs you find.

The great part about working from home is that you don’t have to limit your job hunt to local companies. You can apply to companies all across the country if they hire home based employees. Most will never need you to come in to the office, so your location relative to them won’t matter. The internet and telephone will take care of all your communication needs.

Not everyone will find a work at home position, no matter how badly they want one, however. It may pay you to take a local, in office transcription job if that’s what you find. The job hunt gets easier with experience.

But if you do get the work at home job, work hard and really show that you’re a great employee. Over time you can effectively increase your pay as you become more productive, as home based medical transcriptionists are often paid on production. As you gain experience you can move on to better opportunities or be promoted within the company you’re working for. You may be surprised where this career takes you.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

Is Being a Medical Transcriptionist a Good Stay at Home Job?

February 2, 2011 / Stephanie

You’re ready to start working from home and heard about medical transcription. But you aren’t sure. The pay rates sound promising, but how realistic are they? Can you really be a medical transcriptionist for your stay at home job?

With the right training, you most certainly can. However, you need to be aware that not all positions in this industry are home based.

Training is a very important first step into this career. If you don’t get good quality training, you’re going to have a very hard time finding work, especially from home. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to convince potential employers that you will be a productive and accurate transcriptionist. You have to know how you’re going to cope working from home, which isn’t as easy as many people assume it is.

When you’re considering a home based career, I like to suggest that you learn your job skills at home too. There are a few really good medical transcription training programs out there that will let you do your studies entirely at home, usually at your own pace as well. It’s great for learning the job skills as well as how you’ll cope with staying at home to work, which is an entirely new skill for most people that takes a surprising amount of time to figure out. There are a lot of distractions at home that slow many people down, plus the isolation to deal with.

That said, if you enjoy having a stay at home job, medical transcription is a pretty good one. The hours for stay at home medical transcriptionists are usually very flexible. You can decide what your work hours will be, so long as you meet whatever the agreed upon minimum is with your employer. If you work at night better than during the day, or mornings, you can set your schedule to be during those times. If you need time off for a special event, you can usually manage that. If you need to work while the kids are sleeping, that’s usually possible too.

You aren’t going to earn a spectacular living as a stay at home medical transcriptionist. You can earn a fair living, with $15 an hour being fairly possible once you have a bit of experience. $20 an hour is harder to achieve. Don’t be surprised to earn under $10 an hour early on when you get a job, as you learn that the reality is different from medical transcription training, no matter how well trained you were. Being at home means you’ll probably be paid on production, so as your skills improve, so will your effective hourly pay rate. Call it motivation to work hard on improving your skills.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

What Are the Future Prospects for Medical Transcriptionist Training?

February 1, 2011 / Stephanie

You’re ready to learn medical transcription, but you’ve been hearing some things that have you a bit worried about the future of this industry. Will it all be worth it? What kind of future is there in getting medical transcriptionist training?

It’s not as bad as many would say, I believe. There is a future for medical transcriptionists, and you can use your time in training to prepare for it.

The big thing medical transcriptionists are concerned about is the growth of electronic medical records and voice recognition software. Why should a doctor pay a transcriptionist to do work that his or her computer can handle for him at the instant of dictation? It would save money to skip that part, right?

There’s some truth to that, and certainly many doctors are going to voice recognition software. But that doesn’t mean they don’t need someone to check to make sure the dictation came out right. There’s still a need for an editor to confirm that the software got it right, and that the doctor didn’t misspeak. They both make mistakes, and it’s important to keep such mistakes out of the medical records as much as possible. That’s where the future of medical transcription is likely headed.

This is something to consider during your training. Schools such as Career Step now offer training that includes preparation for dealing with electronic medical records. While it’s hard to say just how important that’s going to be, anything that gives you a step up in career related knowledge is likely to be a good thing.

Even so, you need the basic medical transcriptionist training to do the work of a medical records editor. You still need to know all the terminology, all the physiology, anatomy, disease processes and so forth.

As a career, medical transcription is still expected to continue growing in demand. Just think of all the requirements of an aging population, as the Baby Boomer generation gets older. Jobs in the medical field in general will probably continue to be high demand. The technology may change exactly what is demanded by the work, but the work will not disappear entirely for some time.

You’ll probably encounter some naysayers when you talk about pursuing this career from people who know how the technology is changing. Don’t let them get you down. Instead, learn to discuss the great options you have to keep things going. The changes don’t mean your career will vanish overnight, just that it’s changing. Be prepared and you’ll do fine.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

Is It Possible to Become a Medical Transcriptionist Without Any Formal Training?

January 31, 2011 / Stephanie

Many people want to become medical transcriptionists. Finding out the training requirements can be a bit daunting, however. Do you really have to go to school for so many months just to type up what the doctor says? Can’t you become a medical transcriptionist without all that formal training?

To put is simply, no. It’s not a good idea and it’s close to impossible. You will very, very rarely find a position that will train you completely from scratch in medical transcription. It’s much simpler for employers to hire experienced workers and new graduates from training programs than it is to spend the many months it takes to train someone who has no idea how to do the job at all.

Medical transcription is a tough job, and it is not just typing what you hear the doctor dictate. There are formatting rules. There’s confusing terminology. There are mistakes made by doctors that a transcriptionist can request clarification about to help keep errors out of the patient’s medical records. It’s a highly demanding career.

Good quality training will teach you these things and more. You have to learn about anatomy, physiology, disease processes, drugs and much more. You have to learn how to format the different types of reports. You have to learn what to do when a doctor makes a mistake in his or her dictation so that the report can be corrected.

You may also want to get training that will help you to advance your career as electronic medical records become more common. The work done by a medical transcriptionist keeps changing, and the better trained you are for the career and the changes coming now, the better off you will be in the long run.

Formal training can be a smarter move for your career in medical transcription as well.

First and foremost, it will cut down on how long it takes you to find work. You aren’t going to find many, if any at all, positions that will even consider you as a medical transcriptionist without training. Think about how much money you could be earning monthly once you start working. If you spend less time training and job hunting than you would spend in job hunting without the training, isn’t that a good deal?

Given that it’s extremely close to impossible to get a transcription job without training, I would expect this to be the better option.

Second, many medical transcriptionists are paid on production rather than hourly. This is especially true among home based medical transcriptionists. The better trained you are, the more you will earn as you work because you’ll better understand what you need to type. The terminology the doctor is so quickly throwing at you in his or her dictation will be familiar if you’re well trained.

It may not be easy to find a way to pay for training, but if you’re serious about this career, it’s what you have to do. Check with the schools you’re considering, and you may be able to get a payment plan that will allow you to pay for the training you need for this challenging career.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

What Is the Difference Between a Medical Transcriptionist Diploma and Medical Transcription Certification?

January 30, 2011 / Stephanie

You need training to get a job as a medical transcriptionist. It doesn’t take long to find that out. But then things get confusing. You hear schools talk about the certificate you get upon completing their medical transcription course. Others offer a diploma. Then there are jobs that want a Certified Medical Transcriptionist. What do all these terms mean?

The first thing you need to understand is that completing a medical transcriptionist training course does not make you a Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT), even if it gives you a certificate for completing the course. That’s simply impossible. You have to have at least two years of acute care medical transcription experience or equivalent before you can take the test to become a CMT through AHDI. That’s the only way to gain that certification.

When a school says you get a certificate of completion for your training, that’s all it is. Nothing at all to do with becoming a Certified Medical Transcriptionist.

A medical transcriptionist diploma is another way of saying you’ve completed the course of study. Those employers who are willing to consider freshly trained graduates will want to know that you’ve finished your training, no matter what the school offers you upon completion.

You may also hear of the test to become a Registered Medical Transcriptionist. You can do this with much less experience. It is not required in order to find work, but it is a positive thing to have on your resume.

Don’t worry about not being able to get a CMT designation immediately after graduation. For most job openings in medical transcription, it really doesn’t matter. A CMT gets paid extra in some positions, but it’s not a requirement for employment in the industry. Otherwise, how could you get the two years of experience required to test for that designation in the first place?

It amazes me how often people get confused about these things. I see people complaining on forums that they’re a Certified Medical Transcriptionist, but they can’t find any jobs to get experience. That’s how common it is for people new to this industry to be confused by the terminology used by schools. You cannot become a CMT when you have no experience. You can get a certificate saying you’ve completed your studies, but that comes only from the school you studied with, not from the AHDI, which handles the testing and certification necessary to get the legitimate CMT title.

Don’t worry so much about what your school calls it when you graduate. It’s better to be concerned with how well you’ll be trained so that you can find a job after graduation. Certificate, diploma, whatever, it just needs to mean that you can do the work you spent months training to do.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

Is Medical Transcriptionist Training a Good Choice for Military Spouses?

January 29, 2011 / Stephanie

If there’s one constant in the life of a military family, it’s change. You never know when you’ll need to move to an entirely new area with little notice. It’s great serving your country, but hard on a military spouse’s career.

That’s where a career in medical transcription can be a good thing for military spouses. It’s highly flexible, in demand, and may even be done from home. Medical transcription is a job that can travel with you. Even if you don’t get a home based position, you have the skills to find work in most areas.

There’s even funding for military spouses to go through medical transcriptionist training. Schools such as Career Step are eligible for MyCAA funding, so that you can get your training with no out of pocket expenses. It’s a great way to take those first steps into a new career.

Key to success as a medical transcriptionist, of course, is good training. You will want the flexibility of home based training. Not only does this ensure you can continue your training with minimal interruption if you have to move, it’s practice for home based working conditions. You’ll learn exactly what it takes to get your work done without supervision. You’ll learn how to keep the kids distracted when you need to study. These are skills the home based medical transcriptionist needs to master above and beyond their transcription skills.

While many medical transcriptionists dream of working from home, and many succeed in that dream, it’s important to understand that home based work is not your only alternative. You can work in a doctor’s office, hospital, medical school, transcription service, clinic, laboratory, rehabilitation center, veterinary office, and many more locations. Any place that deals with a physician’s dictation will need a medical transcriptionist. Some will allow home based work, but others won’t.

One of the greatest benefits a career in medical transcription offers military spouses is its flexibility, especially if you are working from home. Home based transcriptionists usually set their own hours, making it easy for you to be there when your spouse or children need you. You can move your work hours around to when they’re convenient to you. You will probably still need to work a certain number of hours, and even have something of an agreed upon schedule, but they’re usually easily changed to suit your needs at the time.

If you’re ready to start a career that’s flexible enough to cope with the lifestyle of a military spouse, take a look at medical transcription while MyCAA funding is available. What better way to be there for your family while enjoying the transition to a new career?

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training, and inquire about receiving MyCAA funding for your education.

Are All Online Classes for Medical Transcription Created Equal?

January 26, 2011 / Stephanie

There are a lot of online classes for medical transcription out there. They all say they’ll give you the training you need to become a successful medical transcriptionist if you sign up for them. But should you sign up with just any of them?

Of course not. There are always differences, and you should make sure you’re getting the best deal you can. That includes being certain that the classes are worth signing up for in the first place. I define that as classes that will really prepare you for your first job in medical transcription.

One way to tell if an online class will do that for you is to check with the AHDI. They review courses and give approval to the ones that meet their criteria. These are courses which will teach you much of what it takes to transcribe successfully. Work hard in your studies, and you improve your chances of graduating well enough to land a job after.

You also want to consider if the courses are preparing you for the future. Medical transcription has gone through some changes in recent years, and will continue to do so. Electronic medical records are changing the job significantly. The better prepared you are for dealing with these changes, the better off you will be in the long run.

Don’t sign up for online classes, or classes anywhere, that promise you too much. No excessively quick training. No promises of higher pay than what can really be expected.

You should expect them to offer significant support during your training. There should be ways to contact a teacher quickly. Forums to chat with other students are handy also. Job placement assistance is great as well, for after graduation.

Some will claim you can do it almost entirely on your own. Online classes do mean you’ll be doing a lot of work at your own pace, but most students need some support. Medical transcription is a highly challenging industry, one that demands accuracy. You don’t want to be adequate. You want to be great. Having the right support in your online classes will help you become a great transcriptionist.

Take some time to learn about the online classes you’re considering to learn medical transcription. Make sure they’re a good choice for your budget, schedule and career. Think about the long term to be sure you get a good one. You don’t want to find out after graduation that you wasted time and money on a class that didn’t teach you enough.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.

How Long Should Medical Transcriptionist Training Online Take?

January 18, 2011 / Stephanie

When you decide to study to become a medical transcriptionist, it’s natural to be eager to finish your studies and find a job. That’s your actual goal, after all. It’s perfectly reasonable to wonder how long medical transcription training online should take.

Don’t believe every answer you read.

Some courses will claim you can learn medical transcription in as little as eight weeks. I don’t believe it, and I don’t feel you should either, at least not if you’re serious about a career in medical transcription. You can learn quite a bit in eight weeks if you work hard at it, but not enough to become a really productive medical transcriptionist. That takes time.

The programs offering to teach you to be a medical transcriptionist in a very short period of time will rush you through things you need to spend more time on. That’s especially true of transcription practice. Becoming a medical transcriptionist is not all about knowing the words or being able to type. You have to know how to transcribe, and that takes something a bit more.

On the short side of things, four months is not an impossible goal for a serious student with plenty of time for studies. You can do it that fast, and really that’s not too bad for learning an entirely new career. You’ll have to work hard to make it that fast.

It often takes longer, however. Nine months isn’t entirely unreasonable.

Some schools offer two year programs in medical transcription. This usually comes from a community college, and they may expect you to take unrelated courses in order to graduate. If you just want to become a medical transcriptionist, that’s not necessary.

Add in the inconvenience of having to register for each individual course needed to graduate from the community college program, and being slowed down if your schedule doesn’t work out with the classes available, and you may see why I suggest sticking with training online.

Many online training programs for medical transcriptionists are self paced. There’s no real promise about how fast you will complete the course.

That’s useful. That means you can keep your day job or continue with your family obligations as you learn your new career. It’s harder to get into a new career if it means giving up your old work before you’re even qualified for the new.

Do not rush yourself as you learn medical transcription. Take some time. Make sure you’re really picking up the skills you need.

If you find you can do this more quickly than you had originally planned, congratulations. That’s a wonderful thing.

But if you find you’re struggling a bit more, or your schedule isn’t working out, or other challenges slow you down and the whole thing is taking longer than you planned, well, that’s how things go sometimes. Be glad that self paced programs are flexible enough to allow you to learn at the rate you can do best. You don’t have to worry so much that you aren’t going to finish on time. The amount of time medical transcriptionist training online takes can be the amount of time you need it to take.

Get free information from Career Step about their online medical transcriptionist training.