Author: Stephanie (Page 9 of 9)

Medical Transcription Training and Single Moms

January 8, 2011 / Stephanie

Life is tough as a single mom. You have a lot of responsibilities that make it harder to get into a better career. It’s a good thing that medical transcription is a great career option for single moms.

This isn’t a career you can just jump into. That’s a good thing. It means that the pay can be pretty good. You want a career that takes some effort to get into as that means not just anyone can do it.

The best part for many single moms is that medical transcription can be done at home. This can mean huge savings on daycare costs.

The next best part is the flexible hours. You can be there for your kids. You can pick them up from school when they get sick. You don’t have to explain to a cranky boss about your kids needing you. You just write your schedule around their needs.

And as I said above, the pay is pretty good. How good depends on you and how good of a medical transcriptionist you turn out to be. That’s where high quality training comes in.

Many of the best medical transcription schools have their courses available online. That means that you can study on your own time while still working your day job and taking care of your kids. It will be hard to fit all of that into your schedule, but the stress will be worth it once you gain the flexibility you can have as a medical transcriptionist. Training at home is also a sort of practice for when you land a job working at home and need the ability to schedule yourself without a boss looking over your shoulder.

It’s vital that you research and find a good quality school for your medical transcription training. You want a school that is AHDI Approved. That’s your assurance that the school meets standards that are specifically related to their quality in training medical transcriptionists.

It’s also useful if the school is partnered with at least a few potential employers. This helps to get you past the experience requirement.

Getting past the experience requirement doesn’t mean you can goof around. You still have to have excellent scores to show employers that you really learned what the training course has to offer.

Many schools offer at least some form of payment plan to help you deal with the cost. It’s expensive to take a high quality course, there’s no question about that. A payment plan can make it less of a strain.

But the best part comes after graduation and when you’re working. It’s not just the flexible hours. It’s that you may be able to get a job that offers benefits tha you may very much so need for your family.

Medical transcription isn’t the perfect job for every single mom. It’s hard work and sometimes it just doesn’t suit you. But for moms who have great language skills, have an interest in medicine and are excellent typists it’s possibly not a bad choice. Give it some thought and decide for yourself.

Take a look at Career Step and decide if they’re the school for you.

Are You Ready to Train as a Medical Transcriptionist?

January 8, 2011 / Stephanie

Working as a medical transcriptionist isn’t easy and it is definitely not for everyone. Here are some of your skills you should have before you even start training for this job.

Grammar, punctuation, spelling. If you aren’t well above average in these basic skills, you are going to have a hard time as a medical transcriptionist.

Typing skills should be 45 wpm or greater. Your transcribing speed will be slower, especially at first, so the faster you are at the start, the better.

What about vocabulary skills? You need to start out with an excellent vocabulary and have the ability to add to it rapidly. This is a skill you will use throughout your medical transcription career.

How well do you work without supervision? If you plan on working at home as a medical transcriptionist, this skill is vital.

Take the time and be honest with yourself about the skills you have. If you aren’t up to par with these skills you should work on them on your own before signing up for classes. You will make much better progress if you are ready for it.

Is Medical Transcription a Good Job for Stay at Home Moms?

January 8, 2011 / Stephanie

Lots of stay at home moms want to work from home. It’s a wonderful way to keep contributing financially while being there for your kids. How do you know if medical transcription is a good choice for you?

The first question is if you’ll be able to afford the training. You can’t just land a job as a medical transcriptionist without it. Companies can’t afford to waste time training you from scratch. There’s too much information you need to know before you get started, such as anatomy, common procedures, terminology, drugs, how to research unfamiliar terminology and of course how to transcribe and format reports.

Training is pricey. You can expect to pay $1800 or more, sometimes significantly more, depending on the program you choose. Don’t choose a program that costs too much less, as not all schools offer the quality training you need in order to work.

You also need to think how you will work transcription into your routine. How easy or difficult that will be depends on the routine you have now and the ages of your kids.

If you’re wanting to work because they’re all going to school and you’d like to earn some income during the day, you already know when you’re going to work. You’re pretty much in good shape.

If you have an infant or toddler who needs a lot of attention, it’s going to be more difficult. You’re either going to need to commit to working hard during naps and after the kids are in bed or you’re going to have to look at some childcare. That childcare may just be your husband, but you’re going to need a good commitment that you won’t always be called upon by a child needing you.

If you’re homeschooling it can also be challenging, but you’re probably used to working with a good routine. It can even be a good example to your kids, although they should not be allowed to watch you work. Private information, after all.

You will also need to honestly assess your skills. Are you ready to work as a transcriptionist? How are your typing skills? How’s your vocabulary? Are you really willing to dedicate the time needed to learn transcription and to work when you get a job?

The beautiful part is that once you’re working, you can probably set your own schedule. You have to plan it out as employers need to know what your plans are, but you aren’t stuck with a schedule that doesn’t work with your routine. If you need to tweak it as time goes by, most employers will let you.

Look at studying at home as practice for working at home. The conditions are much the same. Using your training as practice work time can really help you to figure out the scheduling that will work for you.

Take a look at Career Step’s online training program. It’s highly flexible and a great way to get prepared for your medical transcription career.

How Hard Do You Have to Study During Your Medical Transcription Training?

January 8, 2011 / Stephanie

Deciding to become a medical transcriptionist is a big deal, but one that can be great for you and your family. Having a job where there’s a good chance to work at home rather than in an office is a wonderful thing. But you’re going to have to pay for your own training to have the background information you need to get a job in this industry.

Just how hard will you have to study? Can you do it while working your regular job?

The quick answers are pretty hard and yes, if you’re motivated enough.

How Many Hours Should You Study Each Night?

To become a medical transcriptionist means a lot of study. There’s terminology to learn, formatting to learn, research skills for unfamiliar terminology and drugs, plus the ability to connect your typing and listening skills as closely together as possible.

If you can, study as you would like to work when you get a job at home. If you can manage 3-4 hours a night while working another job you’re doing pretty well. It’s pretty likely that once you get a medical transcription job you won’t be working another job.

If you’re not working another job, consider studying more hours a day.

You’ll be learning more than just terminology. You’ll be learning how to understand even terminology you don’t know at the moment the doctor dictates it. Knowing a lot of suffixes and prefixes is a huge help in transcription, as it will help you figure out what unfamiliar terms are so you can transcribe them correctly.

You don’t have to study every day. It’s not likely that you work 7 days a week, after all. But the harder you work in your course the sooner you can finish it, hopefully with high marks on your tests and a true understanding of the material you’ve been studying. The better you know your stuff the more quickly you should manage to land a job and get your transcription speed up high enough to earn good money.

Studying at Home Doesn’t Mean Studying Alone

Just as in courses you attend in person there will be ways to get in contact with someone who can help you. Depending on your study hours you may have to wait for their "office hours" or whatever times they are available to be contacted. There may be scheduled live chats you can attend, a forum you can ask questions in, email contact and so forth.

Most at home transcription courses have student forums. This is great for when you need help or just want to interact with people who are in the same situation you are.

Just don’t let chattering on the forums mess up your study time.

Forums are great if you aren’t quite understanding something you’re studying. Often a fellow student can find a way to explain a concept that you’re struggling with. They may not directly give you the answer at times, but instead help put you on the path to finding it yourself.

It’s also very encouraging to hear about graduating students finding jobs and so forth.

Take Advantage of the Flexibility

When you study at home your schedule is generally flexible in two ways. One is that you can study whenever you want. The other is that you can take a break whenever you want. Take advantage of both.

When you have a lot of time and the inclination, study extra. Really push yourself. Do everything you can to become a valuable transcriptionist when you graduate.

But when you need the time, for your family or just to clear your mind, make sure you do that too. Don’t overload yourself if things aren’t urgent. Relax once in a while. Try to give yourself a complete day off from your regular job and from studying at least once a week.

Learning medical transcription is hard work. It’s best to learn that as a student so you’re ready for the real thing. Just don’t burn out in the process.

Ready to go? Get information on studying medical transcription at Career Step!

Will Voice Recognition Ruin Your Medical Transcription Career?

January 8, 2011 / Stephanie

One of the biggest fears medical transcriptionists have for their careers relates to voice recognition software. And indeed, some doctors are using it to transcribe their reports. But voice recognition is far from reliable enough to take over all that a good medical transcriptionist can do.

Current software just isn’t up to the job. Medical reports need an exceptional degree of accuracy that is incredibly difficult for a machine to match. It goes beyond figuring out which word or drug the physician said, and includes issues such as accurate punctuation.

When you think about words that might challenge a voice recognition software, you could think of too, to and two, or their and they’re but these aren’t even the biggest problems. Many drugs have similar names, sometimes just because you’re talking brand name versus generic, but other times the two drugs aren’t related. Then there are words that can run together, such as "you’re in" versus "urine".

The learning curve is a big part of what will keep many doctors from using software. It takes time to train the software to your voice, as well as to train yourself to speak slowly enough. I can tell you from personal experience that many doctors dictate their notes for transcription at an incredibly fast rate of speech. Many will simply be unwilling to slow down so that a computer can do the work.

And of course then the work would still need to be proofread. The extra work will not be of interest to many doctors.

However, some medical transcriptionists have tried voice recognition software too. It can work for transcriptionists, rather than against. The added step of needing to proofread is not always too much of a burden. But it can be challenging to speak as you listen. This technology is certainly not for all medical transcriptionists.

Voice recognition does better in other areas. My father loves using ViaVoice as he works on his computer, strongly preferring it to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It’s a way to put less strain on his wrists as he works on the computer.

Then there are the formatting and punctuation issues. Once again, obvious to a transcriptionist, not so clear to a computer.

People have been worried about voice recognition destroying the medical transcription industry for at least a decade. The changes are happening so slowly that you can pretty much rely on it taking a very long time for the software to reach a point where it could be a danger.

But there is one possible combination in which doctors dictate using voice recognition software, and transcriptionists clean it up. Faster for each, and cheaper per report for the doctor. It’s a distinct possibility that would allow doctors to take advantage of the technology without adding too much to their own workloads.

In other words, going through with getting your medical transcription education isn’t too bad an idea. The jobs should hang around for a long time yet.

Is It Easy to Do Work at Home Medical Transcription?

January 8, 2011 / Stephanie

Medical transcription is incredibly popular as a work at home option. That’s no surprise, considering that medical transcriptionists can earn a good living from home, and the work is fairly consistent. But is it easy?

Yes and no.

I spent three years working at home as a medical transcriptionist. I can say in all honesty that it’s easy in many ways, hard in others.

Your first challenge is in getting an education that is good enough to get you a good job as a medical transcriptionist. Go to the right school, and employers will gladly hire you after graduation if they have any openings. Go to the wrong school, and it’s going to be tough.

Learning medical transcription at home is your best way of preparing to work at home. You’ll enjoy some of the same challenges and benefits. You’ll know before you graduate if working at home is for you.

The best part about learning and working at home for some people is quite simply that it’s done at home. You don’t have to go anywhere. That saves a ton on childcare expenses if you have kids. It saves on gas and wear and tear on your car.

It can also mean feeling isolated. Many people find this one of the hardest parts of working at home. You don’t have the social aspect that is present in most other kinds of work.

Another big plus is the flexibility. You can pretty much set your own hours. There’s less worry about exact punching of a clock, although most medical transcription work at home jobs do want you to maintain a schedule. But it’s mostly your schedule to set. You don’t want to work on the weekend, you don’t have to in many cases. Holidays are pretty easily taken off.

Then again, you have to be self motivated enough to stick to that schedule. Many people find it easy to become distracted by housework, a favorite television show, getting too many snacks, and so forth.

Medical transcription work itself can be challenging. That much is true whether you do it at home or in an office somewhere. Doctors talk fast, they don’t always speak clearly, and the range of accents you will encounter may amaze you.

Then there’s the terminology and the sudden appearance of medications and procedures you never heard of and have to look up. If you’re going to love working as a medical transcriptionist, the research might just be a plus, as you get to satisfy your curiosity and love of a challenge.

I wouldn’t describe working at home as a medical transcriptionist as easy, overall. But I do not mean that in a bad way. Easy means that too many other people can do it, and that your skills won’t be valued. Medical transcription is challenging in a very good way.

Start your medical transcription online training now at Career Step.