A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
I am no where near as experienced as some MTs even though I have been transcribing for 12 years. Problem is, I have only done ortho. When my in-house job went with the service, I went to. Then my work was offshored, so I moved to a different company, still doing ortho, and making better money, about $40,000 a year. Now the company has lost that account and I am unable to go with it.
I have been switched to an acute care account (clinic work only), doing VR. Can anyone out there know how I feel like a fish out of water? It is so difficult to learn to do the VR, using my hands differently and learning the function keys (not the best platform in the world). What makes it even more difficult is now I have all these new specialties like cardiology, oncology, neurology, on and on and on. I have to stop and research drugs, demos, abbreviations, procedures, etc. Absolutely everything is new to me except the ortho work. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I was just learning the VR or just learning the new specialties, but both at the same time is driving me crazy.
I decided that this is the way of the future, checked my attitude, and have tried to learn and push through. I am told that my work is very good, but I am very slow. Of course I am. When I look at my paycheck now I feel like crying. I have never worked this hard for so little money. How long is it going to take for this to improve, I don't expect to make what I was making in the past, but a 50% cut is tremendous. Should I stick with it, and hope to come back to maybe at least $30,000. Perhaps I could get a $25,000 to $28,000 job in my area and get out of MT altogether, but I don't want to wonder if I cheated myself.
Please hold any insults. I am just venting and wondering if anyone else has been through this who could offer some helpful advice.