Medical transcription

Nurses Career Support

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Okay, I'm asking this in here because it is a career question... however it isn't really a NURSING career question, so it may not actually belong here, or even on this site. If that's the case, I'm sorry. :o But, I'll give this a shot anyways. I'm actually asking this for a friend of mine, who doesn't use this site.

Does anyone in here know anything about being a medical transcriptionist, or know anyone who IS a transcriptionist? How would one most successfully get involved in this career? My friend is looking for a good job that she can do at home. I suggested transcription, but I don't know much about it. I got on Yahoo! and just typed in "medical transcription careers", and about a THOUSAND web sites belonging to different schools, popped up. I have heard that when trying to get into this career, one has to really beware of scams.

I really wanted to ask the transcriptionists at my hospital, but I don't really know how to get ahold of them to talk to them. I'm never working when any of them are actually AT the hospital, and I don't feel comfortable Emailing any of them because our facility doesn't really allow personal Emails. And, I don't KNOW any of them.

Thanks for any help! :)

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Well, I've worked as a medical transcriptionist in the past, and I can tell you that if it is your friend's intention of working at home, many companies require that you have experience working in a hospital medical records department. Unless she has some doctors already interested in working with her, it is very difficult to get started working at home. Also, like many jobs, medical transcription is being outsourced to places like India and Pakistan because it cheaper.

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Medical transcription actually requires schooling for it in most cases. Plus most transcribing is no longer done in house. The hospital where I am at uses a company that is about 200 miles away for all of theuir dictation.

And some actually goes overseas.

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We have 90+ docs at our clinic and have both in house and "home girls." We do NOT send our work out of state, out of town. Our doctors feel that it is important to keep things local.

She will need to take some terminology courses and become familiar at least with that aspect. I took a 2 year course many moons ago to get my associates in it.

Good luck to her!

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I did alot of research into Med. Transcription and Medical Billing/Coding before I decided to just go back into nursing. I found that the very best online school for Transcription is The Andrews School. It's not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but they have a very good, solid reputation in the field.

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I am currently working as a medical transcriptionist at home and I have been one for 10 years. I am making a change to be a nurse because I am burned out on typing and I also do not feel that there is a bright future in medical transcription. I have worked both at a hospital and at home and I have been scared so many times about losing my job to outsourcing. In fact, just last year I got my at home transcription job back after the company had outsourced the work to India but after only four months, they brang the work back home because of the quality of work. I can't say that I would recommend someone go into the medical transcription field for this reason. :o

S

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I did medical transcription for about 2 years, after practicing as an RN for 5. I took the Career Step Program which I would highly recommend, as many national online companies will hire you fresh out of the course to work at home with no experience, which I was able to do, working for a company called Spheris. Yeah, the pay wasn't as great as I had been led to believe, but I know it is possible to make a good income as an independent contractor, just not sure I had what it takes to market myself in that way.

I eventually went back to nursing last year, because 12/hour (my average MT earnings) was just not paying the bills. Now, however, I'm planning on researching the field a little more thoroughly and seeing if I can get back into it, at a higher level of pay. Yeah, there is some outsourcing going on, but I think there will still be a market for local MTs for awhile.

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