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

Im an LPN but am looking for work from home due to a back injury. Is MT right for me or is medical b - razorsgirl

Posted: Oct 26, 2010

I have been an LPN for 8 years. I have 3 children ages 3, 7, and 12. I recently injured my back in December on the job at a nursing home and I am interested in working from home. I just don't know what to do. Is MT better than billing/coding? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also suggestions on what school/online program to go through would be great also. Thanks!

Hurt back - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Hope you filed for disability. I don't think I'm alone in telling you that I definitely wouldn't advise you to go into transcription. Read the other posts on the board and you'll see why. Most billing and coding jobs are done in-house, in my experience, not at home. JMHO

I was once an LPN who became an MT and... - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
if I knew then what I know now, I would NOT do it again. Please don't become an MT just to work from home. I have kids and it is impossible to work when they are here (they are small and this is jus my opinion). I have been an MT for only 6 years but I made more money when I first started out. This is a dead end career and there is no money to be made. I cannot make enough money to pay my bills even. If I were you, I would research some other career. I am going back to school to get out of this job because soon enough there will be no work for US MTs.
Good luck

Becoming an MT - mt2

[ In Reply To ..]
Working at home should not be your major motivation for being an MT.

Not everyone can work from home, especially with children around, unless you can afford to pay daycare while you work.

Having a back injury is not conducive to sitting for 8-10-12+ hours a day in front of a computer.

If you decide to do MT, please do not choose your school based on the "cheapest" one. Research them all and check out the NEW MTs board here to see how much trouble many of the graduates are having finding work.

Hope your back is feeling better soon!

Agree with the above ... - MTme

[ In Reply To ..]
I find I'm very tired and sore at the end of most 8-hour days. My back hurts, my hands hurt, physically and mentally exhausted. I can't imagine doing this job with a back injury.

Like the others have said, it's very difficult with children. It takes a lot of concentration especially with difficult dictators (ESLS, mumblers, fumblers). Some specialties require lots of research to figure out what is being said - and not conducive to children running in and out of the room.

No benefits, low pay, running out of work constantly, and bottom line most straight transcription jobs will eventually go to voice recognition, which is really a whole different ballgame from transcription - and much more difficult than it sounds.

No, I don't recommend this career for anyone now. It's dead-end.

LOOK ELSEWHERE NO FUTURE HERE! - OAF

[ In Reply To ..]
!!! If you can get retraining for your injury look into something that has a real future. MTing is not a viable option these days. Soon we'll ALL be out of work!

razorsgirl - Mikela

[ In Reply To ..]
MT is moribund. Don't waste your time/money.

Would not recommend - Kat

[ In Reply To ..]
I still have my LPN license and I am curently an MT working from home. I make about 1/4 of what I did as an LPN. But, having cancer and in treatment, working from home as an MT is the best thing I can do as it allows me to take time off for treatments and see doctors that I am sure I would not be able to as a nurse. I too worked in nursing homes primarily during my nursing career. I have a back problem and two hernias from lifting patients. There is no way I'd be able to push a med cart right now or run the halls, much less drop to the floor and give CPR. So, right now I'm stuck. Still, I love my job because I enjoy the work as an MT, but it does not pay my bills. I do have a working husband, which makes this possible, fortunately.

I thought becoming an MT would be a lateral move from nursing and that I could slide right over into this career. I was way wrong about that. There is a tremendous amount to learn and even relearn from nursing to the MT world. I used to have the worst time with abbreviations. In nursing, they would primarily be uppercase without periods, but lowercase with periods in MT. There are rules in MT that I never expected and it is an exacting career, a lot tougher than I had expected when I first went into it. Had I known five years ago what I know now, I would not have gotten into this. The future of the MT seems a bit uncertain right now. If you do go into this, please go to one of the best schools and hang on to your LPN license in case you need it in the future. This is just my opinion based on my experience.

Good luck to you. God Bless.

coding - eamb

[ In Reply To ..]
I noticed on some respones, they said coders are in-house, but at our hospital, the coders work from home, except for two who chose to stay in-house. We also have one transcriptionist in-house, all their decision not to work from home.

One of the coders told me that he wanted to stay in-house so he could be around others, as he lives alone, and wanted the contact each day.

Coding is much better than transcription these days!

Good luck!

Good luck!

reply - razorsgirl

[ In Reply To ..]
thank you for all of the info. I think i might check into billing/coding instead. anyone know of any good programs for that

Andrews or Career Step - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Andrews or Career Step - me

[ In Reply To ..]
Andrews is by far the better. There is really no comparison.

Andrews or Career Step - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm a Career Step coding student - Trust me, you do not want to go there.

Andrews or Career Step - Retired MTSO

[ In Reply To ..]
In my humble opinion, it is like comparing Harvard with the local community college. I am sure that Career Step is adequate; Andrews is excellent.

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