Contrary to popular belief, the MT field may - belong to newbies

This is not a post for the newbie board, because I would like to address the experienced transcriptionists to talk ABOUT newbies. ("Address"? Is this a speech or something? ha ha) There was a thread on the newbie board recently concerning whether we (as experienced MTs) should be encouraging, or discouraging newbies, or whether it is any of our business at all what they do. The last word was that we should be kind to them, which we can all agree on. None of us like to see any newbie duped into thinking this is the great career it used to be, though, and it is hard to say nothing when someone innocently asks, "As a newbie, where can I get a really good MT job and work at home and work my own hours, and make a good rate?" It is easier to fire off a short, sarcastic remark, than to go into a long, patient, detailed account of how working conditions have changed, and what factors have affected our jobs, etc. etc. and to try to explain that just perhaps, the newbie may have unrealistic expectations. It is really a complicated and delicate process to disillusion someone and do it in a kind manner, and not give vent to our own anger and stress about our jobs. ("Disillusion" only means to "cause not to have illusions," and it is not necessarily a bad thing!)

But lately I have started wondering if MT is going to become an entirely different field from what we have known. I first began to wonder about this while working at a hospital. We were making gooood money... (note to self: stop drooling, stop staring into the distance with that vacant look, nostalgia is not an attractive look for you). I have to confess-- we made way more than our neighbors, the lowly medical records workers. Yes, I was that arrogant, to think of their work as lowly, because they made half as much as we did. We were special. We made more money. Nobody understood what we did. We were set apart, the "production workers," shrouded in mystery, doing incomprehensible work, not socializing, making money that nobody talked about, even among ourselves. Publicly, we downplayed the money and emphasized the hard, unrelenting grind, the "assembly line," the constant pressure to produce that kept us from mingling.

Sometimes I would look at the other medical records workers and feel bad, thinking that they worked hard too, they had their own "grind" and assembly line mentality. Was I worth so much more because I knew medical terminology? Because I wasn't sociable? I wanted the other employees to be paid well, too. I felt privileged. We were the "haves" of the medical records department, they were the "have-nots." There was no real answer when I asked WHY I was so well paid. "Because... smart... hard-working... focused." The others were that way too. They had to navigate the intricacies of the EMR too, they had to be accurate too. They got yelled at for making mistakes-- we got polite emails. I had to admit, finally, "Life is unfair. Isn't it GREAT FOR US!"

And wondered, "How long will this go on?"

Then came the winds of change. Someone in a position of authority noticed the very large payroll of the transcription department. Uh-oh. Then the budget "adjustment." Then the reduction in incentive, the increase in production. The tears, the arguments. The children threatened with starvation, the houses about to go into foreclosure. We were still quite well paid-- just not AS well paid as before. Then the same Someone in a Position of Authority made a further remark about the "adjustments" not being final... Further studies to be done to look at transcription earnings nationwide. As if there were some great normalizing going on, a good and proper realignment, as if some sense of satisfaction would result: Ah, finally, things are as they should be. The transcriptionists at ABC Hospital earn exactly what they should be earning. There is no more painful and awkward gap between the national average, the good and comfortable national average, and what our transcriptionists earn. I thought: "They will not be content until they have reduced our pay to that of an average medical records worker. Our days of privilege and higher pay may be over."

Well, the above is a very long-winded attempt to get to the point of my subject line. Medical transcription may be becoming an entirely different career. Pay will indeed be that of an average office worker, with no more expectation of "good money" by a new employee than a new McDonalds worker would have. Knowledge of medical terminology will be required, but not as essential as it had been; the VR system will fill in most unfamiliar terms. Speed will take precedence over knowledge and accuracy, as it has in so many areas of society. Direct entry of diagnoses and dosages by the providers themselves will make 100% accuracy unnecessary on the part of the VR editor. Newbies will understand and accept these new working conditions without question (once the MT schools themselves and their propaganda become obsolete). VR editing and transcription will be no more or less than another step in the processing of medical records, and no more "specialized" or highly paid than the person who scans documents, or who makes copies of records. No one will be left from the "old school" who even thinks this is unusual, or who protests against the loss of MT skills or knowledge. The future will belong to the newbies. The scenario above is already playing out. The only conflict is left for us, the long-term transcriptionists, adjusting to this "downgrade," and for the current newbies, still recovering from MT curriculum spin formulated by other long-term transcriptionists. The future newbies will have no such conflict and no memories of "the way it used to be." So-- the future of medical transcription and voice editing indeed belongs to the newbies.

PS-- I am editing this post to add this question, What do you think? (Sorry-- I was getting tired-- ended the post with a sort of dead-end statement!) Where do you (as an experienced transcriptionist) see the profession going?