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Being real - MT

Posted: Oct 29th, 2019 - 9:13 pm In Reply to: Your basic assumptions are incorrect about my life. - Sam

MT work is a possibility. The number one major requirement (contrary to the belief system of the major companies offshoring to Indian MTs who don't speak English as a first language) is a solid and unusually advanced grasp of English grammar, spelling, punctuation, and anatomy, physiology, terminology, etc. I say contrary to because anyone can learn the latter three with good training, including ESLs, but the first three seem to be somewhat of an art, even for Americans (note the quality you see on social media, right? :) ) and very challenging to ESLs who are questionably educated to the level of desiring to do MT work in non-primary-English-speaking countries.

For some of us, grammatical and spelling errors jump off the page and are glaring and almost painful. If that is you, you will do well. If you don't mind tediously proofing work because 1) you can't stand errors (like fingernails on a chalkboard) and 2) believe medical documentation should be accurate enough to be published in a journal or quoted in a courtroom, then you will do well.

You definitely sound likely to be especially skilled in the latter few medical categories (chief of surgery? really?), but to do MT work, it is essential to be skilled in the first three, too. If you are all of those and also have a grasp of the basic formatting of medical reports, and if you are person who is obsessively, compulsively perfectionistic when it comes to detail and accuracy, MT might be a good fit for you, even without the 12+ month training courses most of us have taken, and without the certification, which some of us would not bother with, for better or worse, arguably, as we had been doing excellent MT work long before AHDI certification came into existence.

If so, if you go to work for an MTSO (Nuance, AQuity, and a few others who mostly take work siphened off from the first two), they will educate you on your liability through HIPAA training.

When I first started 20+ years ago as an IC, I looked into private insurance coverage (also having a strong legal background in my family) and in the end the counseling I received led me to believe private insurance would be a waste of money.

If you interview over the phone with an MT company, I suggest asking about legal/insurance liability issues. From there, you will be better able to decide about what you personally feel comfortable with.

If you decide to go with MT work, brush up on your grammar and spelling (spell-check is often wrong) and punctuation, and then realize that it will take some time to develop an "ear" for transcription. Once you develop it, though, if you understand formatting and the medical aspects, you will probably do just fine, if you have the patience to wait awhile as you gain experience and build up speed. So much of this work is getting accustomed to voices and voice fluctuation, getting familiar with things that are routinely dictated to help with occasional slurs, knowing the field so well that even things that seem incomprehensible from someone with a thick ESL accent become decipherable because you know what is usually said.

So, with a medical background such as you imply yours to be, I kindly suggest: Don't assume your grammar and punctuation and spelling are as good as you might think. That is the mistake most people make, and it also takes quite a long time to develop an ear. That takes some patience but you will get there, and if you are forced to work from home, as I am now, it may be well worth the effort, and you may not be in a big hurry to accomplish this, which is the ideal situation for someone starting out.

You do have to be on good terms with googling for answers quickly because as a new MT you will be looking up terms far more often than you would think, regardless of your experience, believe me. Equipment, specialties, you name it. All of this is doable, it is just not always anticipated, and I have been really shocked by some of the questions being asked on the Word Help board here this past year that could have been easily resolved with a quick, skilled Google check. Maybe "skilled" is the key word. Like all things MT, it is yet another crucial skill.

I think it's safe to say we all underestimated the importance of all that, and how time consuming it will all be to master, in the beginning.

There are plenty of MTs who just don't have a knack for grammar and punctuation, or an interest in it, or maybe just don't have an eye for detail, and are failing audits and leaving the profession. (Never mind India because that is a separate catastrophe, working its way to a completely separate outcome and who knows where it will wind up.)

As a contractor trying to hire help a few years ago, it became very clear to me how many sincere people attempt to transition to this field without any real talent for it. It would take me hours to correct their work and would have been easier just to do it all myself! And I had 2 nurses working as ICs for me, one an RN and former charge nurse. Totally different skills. Never in a million years would I disrespect the skills of a charge nurse, just as I believe wholeheartedly the work of the MT is misunderstood. But MT work is just a different animal and there is no comparison, unfortunately.

Speed is one thing, accuracy another, and to do both, which is what is required now in order to make any money at this, is a completely new skill altogether and requires a great deal of experience and training. Straight typing versus voice recognition are again two different animals and require different skill sets.

All of this is doable. Everyone here has been full of decent to great advice so far, some blunt, some tactful.

If money is not your primary concern and you just don't want to be sitting at home doing nothing, then the effort you put into this may be worth it. But do it because it is work you are proud to do and because you feel it has meaning, not because there is nothing else to do in your reluctant retirement circumstances. Be proud of this work because it is honorable and challenging and takes a lot of skill. A few months of training is nothing compared to the years necessary to really develop skill at this, with an already established solid English language/spelling/punctuation background. And absolutely, find out about insurance because it is a very smart thing to do in this litigious society, especially if you are new and working as an independent contractor.

Good luck to you!

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