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How difficult is Andrews? - MINNIE

Posted: May 03, 2015

I am an MT, I am 51, I haven't been in school for over 30 years. I know there was a discussion below about being too old to start school. But I wonder from the MTs who did this in their 50s, did you have trouble with the work? I am not stupid, I don't feel that I am too old, but I am afraid that I won't be able to do it. Just wondered if anyone else felt the same way. Please no comments about if I don't think I can do it, I won't be able to. I know I probably can but I just don't want to get in over my head, it's just a scary step for me. Thanks.

Forgot to mention - - MINNIE

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I would be doing this while still working FT.

If I can do it, you can - MT

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I am 3/4 of the way through Andrews now. I am 52 years old, working FT and taking care of the family. It is going to take me about 15 months total to finish.

Well, hmm, how hard is it . . . - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
No matter what coding course you take, you will still have to scrounge up 14 to 15 hours a week for it. That is only 2 hours a day.

The nice thing about Andrews is that they don't limit you to completing it within a certain time-frame. You also don't have to go in lock-step with other students, as you do at a college, nor do you face being unable to enroll in courses because they are all full, fail courses if the instructor hates you, if there is a hurricane/snowstorm/plague during final exams, or if you can't understand how to answer questions on the online exams. They work with you as long as you keep trying and they don't use the dreadful online software that colleges use.

Andrews is no more difficult than any other coding program, and probably easier because you have instructors. Not just random people who answer questions, but instructors who review your work and offer help when THEY see that you need it.

The main thing is for you to be self-motivating. You have to want to do this and you have to find those 14 hours a week and you have to sit down and get it done.

Are you an MT? Well, you know a lot of the basics already. Med terms, some of the A&P, the content of medical records, how to read physician notes and understand them. You do this every day, after all. If you write the darn things, you can read them.

I'm going to be simplistic here, but if you see a note that says a patient came in with chest pain, and also had hyperlipidemia, and diabetes, and if I tell you that you need to code those medical conditions, do you think you could look them up in a book? Don't you do things like that every day? Look up a recipe in the index to a cookbook and find it on the correct page?

If I then tell you that the main condition treated should go first, do you think you could tell which one it might be? Chest pain?

Or, how about procedures. If a physician sutures a 3-cm wound, do you think you can look down a list of codes for suturing wounds and figure out if you need the one for 1-cm, 2-cm, 3-cm, or 4+? Or find a procedure for an appendectomy by looking up "appendectomy" in the index, finding it in the main pages of the book, and deciding which kind it might be?

That's basically it.

Coding is really difficult for people who have never worked at all, and can be difficult if you never worked in healthcare and have no idea what doctors do. It can be impossible for people who are "slow readers." You aren't any of those people. If you can transcribe, you can write medicalese, and if you can write it, you can sort out medical notes. I'm sure you can because you do it already.

Seriously, when you see a discharge summary where a patient had an MI, had an angioplasty and a stent put into some vessel or the other, and was started on statins, had his metformin adjusted for his diabetes, what do you think should be Discharge Diagnosis No. 1? What was the patient admitted for? The MI? Yup. What do YOU do when you are typing this and the doctor dictates DischDx1 as "Number one foot fungus." OMG! How did that happen! Where did he get that? He didn't say that before! That's not right! AAAACK!

I'm sure you do this, because I used to do it.

Or, if you transcribe all the notes on that stay, and on day 2 they described a UTI, and it's not dictated in those DDx's, do you sit up and think "Hey! He missed that UTI!!!"

Or . . . and I know you pride yourself on this one . . . how about a nephrectomy. It's the right kidney, but the surgeon keeps dictating left. I know you see what's wrong there.

Or, what about those body systems on a PE. HEENT, etc. I know you know what those are. You can even sort out where statements like "abdomen nontender" and "lungs clear to auscultation" should go.

Those are all skills you can use in coding. You already know them. You can already do that.

Remember how hard it was to learn all that at first? Well, that's why most non-MT coders think coding is so hard . . . because THEY have to learn it from scratch. You don't. You're already about 6 months ahead of them.

I think you're smart enough to do this. I also think you have a lot of skills you can transfer in. If you like MT, and you like looking up medical conditions and learning about medical things, you'll probably like coding even better.

It's a worthwhile, challenging job. I think it's also a lot of fun.

Wow, Coder - just passing thru

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for taking time to post such a wonderful response.

Why do I see so many people saying coding is fun? - see message

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I see a lot of people who love the job and find it so enjoyable. Is it the research involved in looking for what to code? Coders like the challenge? I'm asking because I'm in the middle of a course myself and hope I love it as much as everyone else seems to.

Some find it fun, but it depends on how good you are at it - sm

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I think it's fun when I know what I'm doing. Andrews teaches students to know what they know, what they don't know, and when to query the doctor for more information. That makes it fun.

There are several people I know who have taken shorter courses that loved coding while they were in those courses, but not afterwards when they found out they hadn't learned anything. That was their words, not mine. I'm sure that's an exaggeration. They obviously learned something, just not enough to pass tests or get jobs.

The fun for me is to do something that not everybody can do, and do it well enough for someone to pay me to do it. If I had found out my training didn't prepare me for that, it would no longer be fun.

It is fun for me because ... - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
It is fun to me because it involves continuous learning, is a subject I like (medicine & science), is detailed and organized, involves precision work, involves something I am really good at (reading and absorbing information), and it is a lot like solving puzzles. It is a kind of mystery-solving game where you comb through a story looking for clues, which you then assemble as the solution. Along the way, you hunt for bonus clues that you can cash in for extra points (like labs that point to an infection that was not documented).

It is fairly solitary work, too, but every time you do interact with others, like doctors, they think you are fabulous.

It also comes with "badges," i.e., credentials, which you can earn and collect. Fun!

Did I mention the pay? That is good, too.

It is win-win no matter what way I look at it. Sherlock would love it.

The money is fun. That's why most of us work. - sm

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Seriously, I work to make money. If the work that I do is worth someone paying me well to do it, I find that rewarding enough, even without the benefits of working with everything related to healthcare, which I love.

It is scary - a big commitment

[ In Reply To ..]
I know you can do it. It is difficult, but doable. The workload is hefty. I did not have trouble with the work itself, but I did have to have self-discipline and keep at it steadily. I always got all assignments in and done that were assigned weekly. I was working full time as an MT and got through it. All my spare time was studying. It took me one year and 4 months. I had a few meltdowns, but then got right back at it. Was it worth it? Yes! I am where I want to be with the best job I have ever had. You have to want it, you have to be determined, you have to be ready to get down and do the work. I started at age 53.

You made my day! - LB

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Thank you for your post, you are an inspiration! I am just starting a coding program and going to be turning 50 this summer. Lost my MT job to outsourcing. I am hoping I can do this. It scares me that I won't remember all this information! I am hoping that as long as we know how to use the books and the guidelines that it will be okay. I LOVE medical terminology so I am really enjoying learning even more new terms. It definitely is scary at this age especially though....

You do not need to "remember" all of it. - We do not memorize ...

[ In Reply To ..]
...at least not like you may think. We look most of it up. Granted, eventually we remember much of it, or some of it, but the goal is to USE the information, not memorize it.

Everything you need is in the code books. You work with the books and you will have a set of code books on the certification exams.

The only things that are not there are the basic sciences, like AP, pharmacology, and pathophysiology. You will need to remember that, but you already remember the part of it that you have been using, so you can learn some more.

My very stern advice to you is to stop thinking this way, stop believing it, and stop talking about it. Your age has nothing to do with this and, frankly, you are NOT that old. You CAN do this. You can also do it better than many, many others.

You need to change this focus right now because you are using up energy on it and setting yourself up for failure.

Please look up "self fulfilling prophecy." That is what happens when, say, a person thinks they will have trouble and unknowingly sets up the very conditions that will cause trouble. No joke, if you believe, worry, and expect to be unable to do this, you probably will be.

You can get much better results from believing that you WILL SUCCEED. In that version of the story, you think about success, accept that you will (of course!) learn easily and well, see yourself as an inspiration to others, look forward to offering advice to the younger crowd, recognize that your experience is awesome, and you quite naturally start doing great in school.

Contrary to past beliefs, our brains continue to learn and change. I recommend that you try the FREE online course I linked to below, Learning How to Learn. It is really good. It WILL help you understand how we learn and it will give you some techniques to use that really work. It will also debunk some techniques you may have learned 30 years ago that don't help at all.

Valuable informatoin - LB

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for the encouragement. I think losing a job I had for so long has put me in a bit of a whirlwind of doubt that I need to stop. I will check out that online course, it sounds like something that will help me. Thank you again, I truly appreciate it!

Information! Geez. Sorry about that..... - LB

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

I'm doing it while working as a FT and PT MT job - sm

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It is doable. I did fine the first 3 modules but am really having a tough time on module 4. I was able to get all my assignments in on time. You'll find that you will get into a rhythm of how best things will work for you. Good luck! I'm sure you will surprise yourself.

Thank you ! - MINNNIE

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Thank you so much for the replies!! I am starting to feel excited that I CAN do this and look forward to getting out of MT and having a better life!! Thanks again!

you can do anything you set your mind up for!! - pto

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Inspiration - New life

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I just have to tell ya'll that this post has given me some fresh hope. I think I may be starting over myself after fourteen years of doing medical transcription. I'm 43 and scared, but feeling a bit hopeful?

Good! I think you should feel more than a bit - hopeful! (nm)

[ In Reply To ..]
NM

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