A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

dinosaur transcriptionist - nojob

Posted: Aug 01, 2010

I have been out of the workforce for 2 years. Is there anything to do to refresh my skills? Is there a program for retraining anywhere?

to the dinosaur - from the pterodactyl

[ In Reply To ..]
Two years isn't that long, is it? Just brush up on your keyboarding skills-- can you edit? Are you familiar with Windows keyboard commands to get around the page-- home, end, CTRL + arrow keys, shift + home, shift + end, CTRL + delete/backspace, do you know all those things down pat? I've found that's as important as anything else, in editing. Those are not specific to any one editing program, they are just universal keyboard commands, but you will need to know them and use them without even thinking. As far as medical terminology or new procedures, that's another story, and that would depend on what medical field you go into. Everything else should come right back to you. (And why are you coming back into transcription anyway?!!)

transcription is the only thing I know. - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
n/m

Unfortunately, transcription is not a good career anymore...I would - try something else..Good luck...nm

[ In Reply To ..]
.

I was out 7 years but its like riding a bike. - It all came back

[ In Reply To ..]
like a bad dream I never quite woke up from. I had done a 20 year stretch prior to that. Sounds like a prison sentence, doesnt it?

My story - see message - CCMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I took a "forced" vacation due to an MVA of 5 years, then took a 2-year vacation into the world of fashion and retail being the executive assistant of the director of retail for a world-famous resort. While I loved this job probably more than any other job I've had (fashion is one of my biggest passions and my British boss was wonderful), it didn't pay well at all.

I was living in a very expensive part of my state close to the resort for which I worked and, as much as I loved my job, I could barely scrape by on the salary it paid. My boss was able to get me a 35% raise and, even after that, it was barely enough to support my daughter and I with cost of living expenses soaring.

The local hospital was advertising for part-time MTs, so I decided to throw my hat into the ring even though I hadn't transcribed in 7 years. The day of my interview, I was informed that one of the full-time MTs had opted to take the PT position, making the current open position FT. I said I'd go ahead and test for it and, if I were lucky enough to get the job, I'd decide at that point if I wanted to go FT.

They sat me at a station, handed me the headphones, and cued up the jobs. I had 3 jobs; 2 relatively straightforward by non-ESL (I believe they consisted of a pulmonary consult and an admission note), and the third was a pretty heavy ESL dictating an inpatient progress note.

Once I sat down, instinct just took over and it was if those 7 years I was away from transcribing just disappeared into thin air. I finished the 3 jobs with minimal research and the supervisor had me sit back while she looked them over. She then walked me over to the main hospital to meet with the department managers, who looked over my test and offered me the position on the spot, which, when I heard the starting salary ($6 an hour more than I was making at the resort), I immediately accepted. I started 2 weeks later and, when I left a year later due to my mother's illness, I was in the process of being promoted to department supervisor/lead transcriptionist.

If I can do that, so can you. I honestly think all it takes is a little brushing up and a good memory, Dinosaur. I'd have never guessed my brain had held onto all that information from 7 years earlier, but as soon as I heard the words, it was as if my brain went into automatic mode and sent the information to my fingers. Fortunately, none of my test dictations were op reports, otherwise with all the new equipment, etc., I would have needed to spend a lot of time researching. I was lucky in that the new medications dictated in those reports were enunciated well enough so that my phonetical spelling was either correct or close enough where spell check brought up the correct medication and I was able to change it. I'm sure it would be the same for you, Dinosaur. You'll never know unless you give it a try!

Please keep us posted on how you do, and good luck to you!

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