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

I finally enrolled at Andrews today! - Hopeful CMT

Posted: Aug 01, 2012

I am so excited, although I must admit that I'm just a little nervous about going back to school after 26 years in this field. I know it won't be easy but I am confident I can do it. I can hardly wait to get my books and get to studying!

Happy for you - Kat

[ In Reply To ..]
Hopeful CMT, I hope everything goes well for you. I am considering enrolling soon. This would be a change in Career for me. I am a little nervous too.

Great Way To Start Your New Career! - Well Done!

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I can't think of a better way to start your new coding career. Congratulations!

The nerves are healthy. They just mean you are seriously motivated. If you aren't nervous about a new career, new course, or new job, you are just too casual about it. You're doing well already.

I am CMT enrolled, many MTs are transitioning! - anon

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Congrats! You will find many MTs/CMTs enrolled! I am in my 50s and I am doing it! The biggest problem for me was setting up a regular schedule for studying and not procrastinating! The knowledge of medical terms/procedures helps. I am so glad I made the transition! Best wishes!

Study Time! - Kat

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That is my concern. I work full time and setting up a schedule for studying.

Oh, yes, study time - schedule that works

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Coding school from 6-9, work from 9-5, plus everything in between. Mentally, I am much better in the early morning than later in the evening. I juggled the schedule around for a while until I found one that worked. It still needs to be juggled from time to time, just part of it. Good luck.

new Andrews student - Hi there

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Hey! You will not regret your decision, and just take it one assignment at a time. I have been with Andrews for a short time, and I am really impressed. I have learned a lot! Your MT skills will definitely help out, even more than I realized in the beginning. You should be proud of yourself for moving on. I, too, have been a MT for over 20 years, and honestly just cannot take it any more. No need to get into details, you know what I'm talking about. See you on the Andrews boards!

MT Experience - Kat

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I am considering taking Coding at Andrews School. I do not have a background in MT. I have always found the field of Medicine interesting. Is it still possible to do well in this course without any medical background?

Yes it is. You don't have to have a medical background to do well - Personal Experience

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Agree. You do not need a medical background to do well. - Coder

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Look at it this way . . . everyone who has a medical background now, in whatever field it is, at one time had no more than you do. How were they able to learn whatever field they are in if they had no medical background?

Really look at other fields . . . do you see people avoiding medical school because they have no medical background? Absolutely not. How about nursing? Nope. Do you hear people worrying that they will not do well in respiratory therapy, PT, or radiology technology because they have no medical background? No. The thought does not cross their minds.

How do these people succeed? Their courses provde what they need to know. So do coding courses.

There is also no guarantee that a medical background will cause you to be a good coder. I have seen doctors fail at coding because they cannot read he code books literally enough. I have seen nurses who are great at nursing, but who do not seem to have the right kind of brain for coding.

There is also no guarantee that a person with medical background has much background that can be used in coding. Nurses can often figure out codes for injections, but are quite vague about diseases. And aside from injections, we do not code much that nurses do. Lab folks do well with lab codes and RTs do well with radiology codes, but most of the CPT code set deals with surgical and medical procedures. Almost nobody has any background to help with that. An endocrinologist will be in the same boat you are when it comes to hand surgery.

MTs have an advantage in that they understand medical documentation already. Old timers who do surgical dictation have a leg up in surgery coding and those who do reports of H&Ps and consults have an edge with coding those. MTs typically have good reading ability, which is critical, but you could have that, too.

The important thing is that you can learn what you need to know. You can also continue learning on the job.

Do not worry about background. If you are bright and read well, if you have attention to detail and enjoy figuring things out, you have a better background than a nurse who hates reading and thinks details are to be overlooked.

New Student - Kat

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I just enrolled at Andrews School. I am a little nervous about it.

You're going to love it! - Congratulations!

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You couldn't find a nicer group of people. Everyone is always nervous at first. I think that's healthy. See you there, and here!

Andrews? - Curious one

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I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer here, but I wonder if anyone has the statistics in regard to the percentage of Andrews School students who earn their CPC/CCS directly upon completion of the program and move on to jobs without any problem. I know it's a great school, but I have to say that when I repeatedly read about how wonderful something is and never any feedback from students who struggled or whose experience might not have been as good, I begin to wonder. I'm from the school of thought that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is. I wish all of you the best but sometimes I wish the comments weren't always so slanted in one direction.

I see your point -- thoughts about that - CCS, CPC Andrews Grad

[ In Reply To ..]
I think any school has students who are more and less successful, stable and disturbed, happy and unhappy, easygoing and confrontational, and so on. There is no way to avoid that.

However, what you see here might be a reflection of reality. Having taken that program, and having worked in coding long enough to know what is required and what other schools provide, and having 4 certifications myself, and knowing of a number of other successful, multicredentialed graduates, I think the school just does a good job.

The materials they use are top-notch. Some are reference-level publications that coders on the job consider essential.

The course is laid out in a way that adult learners appreciate. It offers the med terms, anatomy, and pathophysiology material along with the coding material that uses it, so you know why you need it. You can associate it with the coding, giving you a framework for understanding it and enhancing your retention. That is the opposite of the college model in which you take all the basic courses up front, have no idea how it fits in, and then have 2 or 3 coding classes at the very end. Adults do not do well with the college model.

As for those 2 or 3 classes in the college model, they are usually called beginning and advanced coding. They typically use one textbook, with the first half in beginning and the second in advanced. The second half is not really advanced, but is just the same level work from the second half of the book. Rarely is any distinction made between inpatient and outpatient coding. They try to teach it all together. Most coders cannot switch readily from one to the other while working, so how can you learn it that way?

Andrews fixes that problem by teaching all of the textbook in outpatient coding and then using a more advanced textbook for inpatient coding . . . in 2 separate courses. I had no trouble keeping them straight and covering that material with so much built-in review really helped me get it down. That is twice what colleges teach. There is a lot of built-in review and a lot of coding practice.

When you compare that to programs that teach all of ICD-9 in 1 or 2 chapters and all the basic sciences as word lists in another chapter, you can start to understand why Andrews students pass multiple certification exams.

They also teach you to use the code books correctly and use a formal, written-out coding process that really helps. I can't imagine that they have any students who flounder like some coders I have seen. You cannot learn it that way and NOT code correctly nearly every time.

It is well known that they will work with students until the student succeeds. That is why their MT program was always so successful.

This is the school that has the premier reputation with MT employers, after all. For years their MT grads have been able to get jobs with nationals without experience. They are the school employers prefer because their grads are superb. It does not surprise me that their coding program would be just as good.

I can see your point that you cannot believe what you hear about them, but from my perspective I would not expect to hear anything less. It fits with what I know based on my experience.

Congrats! - BellaCMT

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Congrats! I enrolled yesterday for coding. I'm very excited. Good luck to you!

Congrats - good for you! - student

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BellaCMT, congrats to you also! Best of luck with your studies.

BellaCMT - Hopeful CMT

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We enrolled at Andrews on the same day and we're both so excited! Congrats and good luck to you as well!

Thanks everyone! - Hopeful CMT

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Such nice responses and encouragement from all of you. I really appreciate it!

Hiya. Another CMT enrolling in Andrews here. -nm - FuzzyWuzAnMT

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^

Future Student - Kat

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I may be enrolling at Andrews School very soon now.

What are the odds that coding all goes to India next? - anon

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I don't want to spend $4K only to have the same thing happen to coding that is happening to MT.

I don't see why they won't ship it off overseas, all other computer type jobs are headed out.

Anyone have a crystal ball??

You can't live your life in fear, or at least I'm not going to - You can

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Right. - No crystal ball required

[ In Reply To ..]
If she would educate herself about what coding is, the financial and reglatory constraits it is under, and the job types available in the field, she would see why it is unlikely to go to India. Ninety percent of it is not what she is thinking of when she thinks of coding.

Of course, that has not stopped the various anons from slithering onto this board every month or so to try a little pot-stirring using this question as a paddle.

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