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

"so MRI was cancelled due to the NURSES STRIKE" HELLO.....that's what we need. - mt2

Posted: Apr 30, 2012

I'm sick of working my butt off for crap wages. Why can't we strike? Because we work AT HOME. We can't group up and stick up for ourselves. I, for one, has had it. I have 30 years experience. I've watched my salary sink lower each year. If it wasn't for my husband's income, we'd be on the streets right now. I have 2 more hours on my shift but guess what - SCREW IT. I'm done for the night. What am I going to lose? A few bucks. Big fricken whoop.

nurses are needed... we are not - we are 100% replaceable

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We cant strike because WE DONT MATTER. Not to the hospitals, not the doctors, not the MTSOs, not to the general public! We are nonexistant!

If we are replaceable, - how come

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we haven't all been replaced? Could it be that machines and overseas workers were not the answer to get free medical transcription?

Not the answer? - really?

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Have you seen the ads for 3 cpl for edit and 5 for straight? I'd say that is pretty much free medical transcription, no?

Nurses used to barely make minimum wage, staged strikes... - sm

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organized unions, and are now paid what they are worth. Believe me it was not quick, not easy, and intimidation by hospital management was rampant.

that is because they are needed - MTs are not

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That is why they are paid their worth.

Nurses - Grateful MT

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Nurses work very hard, I never appreciated that until I had to be hospitalized for a couple of nights when I had ankle surgery. I received excellent care and truly appreciated all that they did to take care of me. My nurses worked 12-hour shifts, were there in the evening when I went to sleep, and the same ones greeted me the next morning. Anyone who thinks that job is a "sweet deal" needs to trade places with a nurse, even for a day, to see what they have to deal with: People get cranky and demanding when they don't feel well, the nurse is in the line of fire, and that's just for starters. I would never compare MTs with nurses, we don't deserve the same pay at all, IMO, I could never do a nurses's job. I'm curious - how much do you think you are worth, and what facts are you presenting to prove your point? I'm reading a lot of "we want it/deserve it because we are MTs" but without much logic to back it up. No one is going to take you seriously after the "strike" unless you are able to lay your cards on the table.

If management were paid what they're "worth", they'd - be making even less than WE do.

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XX

NURSES ARE OVERPAID - in my opinion

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My neighbor is a nurse and she only works Saturday and Sunday night, but gets paid a 40 hour week because she works every weekend. Well.... I WORK EVERY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY TOO! Where is my 40 hours pay for the weekend commitment I was forced into?

Nurses have a union, that's why they get the sweet deal - wheres_my_job

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no other reason. Stick together and get some of the goodies. Stand on your own, and as the song goes, "how low can you go?" Low, low, low, low, low....

RNs are highly skilled professionals. Not high school-grad - typists with some medical terminology. You want

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respect, improve yourself. Don't complain that others who worked much harder and longer to improve themselves and who work far more challenging jobs are more needed and more respected.

I moved to this work with my eyes open--from a busy stressful field where the skill I offered was judgement and analysis and where I was the one who dictated and signed my own reports (long into the night if that's what it took). Of course I did not expect the same pay and respect when I moved from a professional field to clerical work, typing up other people's reports.

Seemingly, being honest with oneself about this reality does lead to greater self esteem. I certainly do not need to tear others down to feel better about myself, and I do not resent that others earn more because they are more valuable in the workplace. My choice.

Hear! Hear! - Thank you!

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Finally, someone else who understands that MTs are not "medical professionals" on a par with doctors and nurses. For Pete's sake, we have no real medical training, we cannot diagnose or treat patients or prescribe medications, and we do not have licenses to practice medicine. We do not have anything close to the kind of education, training, and experience that real medical professionals have. We did not go to medical school. We know some medical terminology and how to format a limited range of medical documents. To try to put that kind of minor skill set on a par with doctors or nurses is delusional. I have seen comments on this board from MTs who claim to "know as much as doctors." Nonsense. MT is not a profession; it is a trade. It is an honorable trade, but it is still a trade. Even if you got your MT training from a "college", it was not a real college curriculum, no matter how much "science" the course included. It was a trade school. The "science" courses in an MT curriculum are very limited, watered-down versions of real science courses. Doctors and nurses take real science courses, lots and lots of them. MT training is a tiny drop in the bucket by comparison.

I'm an MT, not a nurse or doctor or other real medical professional. I render the dictated reports of real medical professionals into a prescribed format. That is all. I do not have the training or the resonsibilities of a real medical professional. Therefore, I do not command the same compensation level as they do, and I do not expect it.

You can be a highly skilled clerical worker... - wheres_my_job

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...who makes well above minimum wage, even if you aren't as highly skilled as nurse, etc. Shouldn't be a two-tier system - the highly skilled make good money - and everyone else is scraping to get by.

Yes, Where's, but not in this job. It's too limited, requires - too low level of knowledge. I know. I used

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to earn $60K in the 1980s as a high-level clerk in a fiduciary position that required a college degree. Just sitting for the license had prerequisites of a year of additional specialized classes and then 2 years of experience on the job. Then I was entitled to spend a grand or more a year just on mandatory continuing education courses and seminars to keep the license up.

Please note that by almost all definitions that level of clerical work, even though I wore a suit and had others type my letters for me, did not rise to the level of a profession, although the head of my department, an executive, would be considered a professional.

So, the simple truth is that calling transcription a profession is silly and an indicator of serious ignorance of the attainments required of professionals. This is a trade, white collar, but a trade that requires very little knowledge and has no responsibility. A job, not a career, because careers go places. People should understand the differences because they are very big and their impact on our lives are big. For instance, incomes for professionals have been rising even more in this era while ours have dropped. People don't to college for self-punishment, after all. There are rewards for all that investment in oneself.

People who want careers and a profession need to get on their sticks and go for them.

nurses overpaid definitely - just me

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My best friend is a nurse, and she definitely gets overpaid and only works 1-2 days per week, rarely 3. I work 16-20 hours per day and have to be knowledgeable in all medical fields AND pay for all costs, i.e., computers, dictation systems, software, hardware, 2 of everything, etc., and I went to school longer than she did plus internships. She on the other hand does not and is only required to know 1 field of medicine and has no computer skills.

So... we MTs are underpaid??? - wheres_my_job

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could be she's being paid just right...and we're the ones underpaid.

If we all chose to STOP EDITING VR and ESL c**p, - then yes, we WOULD begin to matter.

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Your own quiet, "May 1" PERSONAL PROTEST! Keep it up. - The summer is before us. SM

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Just be sure to come here each time to register it. We do want to make sure the messages get across, after all. :)

YEESSSSSSSS !!!!!!! - nm - Meerkat

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