is anyone a medical transcriptionist?

[abiyhayil]

Was it hard to find a job?
When do you work?
Is it worth it?
Any suggestions?

[bfoster2000]

To do any kind of transcription, you usually need some training and equipment. To do medical transcription, you need a medical background. If you're willing to invest in the training, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding work and I hear the pay is decent if you're good at what you do. It's not something that you can just suddenly decide you want to do for easy money (not that that's what you're thinking, but a lot of people do).

There are companies that do general transcription if you don't have a medical background. You can check out www.wahm.com for some listings. I have done transcription in the past so I thought about doing that for extra income now but most of the ones I looked at want you to commit to 2 hour shifts at the beginning of the week and I need more flexibility than that. Good luck!

[abiyhayil]

thanks for the tips! i'm in nursing school and thought this might be a good way to have a flexible schedule around clinicals

[bfoster2000]

Here's a thread for you to check out: http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/...=transcription

And you can PM Bean3. She runs her own transcription company and can probably give you some pointers. Good luck!

[abiyhayil]

thanks

[bean3]

Originally Posted by abiyhayil thanks for the tips! i'm in nursing school and thought this might be a good way to have a flexible schedule around clinicals

Nursing skills will HELP to becoming an MT, but it does not replace MT education. Just like an MT cannot step into the shoes of a nurse. Or an MT cannot step into the shoes of a coder. They all have a similar underlying knowledge, but the skill set for each is highly unique. I have a very good friend who is a nurse and we discuss this a lot. Even if she asked to do work for me, I would send her to a school specifically for MT, and she has been an RN for years. I think she would be a fabulous worker, based on her work as an RN, but she still needs to learn the documentation side of medicine, technology, industry standards, etc.

[bean3]

Originally Posted by bfoster2000 Here's a thread for you to check out: http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/...=transcription And you can PM Bean3. She runs her own transcription company and can probably give you some pointers. Good luck!

Thank you for posting this! I love new folks entering the field, but I really want them to have good information. Too many scams out there.

[momtojande]

My big warning is that if you want to do MT, you need to have someone else watch your kids while you do it. I thought I could do it at night after the kids are in bed, but my husband works 2nd shift and doesn't get home until late, and so if the kids are sick, teething, have a nightmare, have a hard time going to bed, etc., it's all on me to try to manage them and I just watch my night get later and later. I'm burned out from just always being so chronically short on sleep this way.

[pbresolin]

Originally Posted by JonsMommy My big warning is that if you want to do MT, you need to have someone else watch your kids while you do it. I thought I could do it at night after the kids are in bed, but my husband works 2nd shift and doesn't get home until late, and so if the kids are sick, teething, have a nightmare, have a hard time going to bed, etc., it's all on me to try to manage them and I just watch my night get later and later. I'm burned out from just always being so chronically short on sleep this way.

Yes, you can't do it with kids around. I was an MT for 20 years (yes, I'm old ) and had my own business for 10 of those years but now that I have the two little ones, there's no way I could go back to doing it. I loved it though. It was awesome.

[patcheskitty]

I'm an MT. I 'graduated' from CareerStep in October 2007 and started my job right around Thanksgiving. (It took 2 weeks for me to get my certificate of graduation and I needed that in order to really get the ball moving.) I work 4-midnight, DH works 3rds, so it really works for us. Around the time he gets up for the day, it's about time for me to work, so he keeps an eye on Landon until bedtime. I really enjoy it, it's rough sometimes though because I just want to have family time, etc. My pay right now isn't all that great and that makes it even harder because I put in 8 hours a day + and only bring home $250-$300 every 2 weeks. (Part of my job is editing voice rec and part of it is straight transcription; the editing pays less.) Personally, I enjoy the straight transcription more than the editing, but I like them both.

There are other 'versions' of transcription, I like the light legal and general overflow that I've had the opportunities to do - you may want to check into those as well.