How I Got to Work From Home
marji
Here is a message that I sent to Kelli off list about getting into medical
transcription. If you are interested in hearing more or have questions
about this, please let me know. I'd be more than happy to help.
----------
I've been doing medical transcription now for five and a half years, five
of them from home. The story of how I got into it and all that is
below. The thing is that medical transcription is definitely skilled
work. When a person is starting out, the pay is pretty low until they can
get up to speed. The overhead is low, though, and that's a good thing.
The other thing about medical transcription is that it is very demanding of
a person's attention. It requires the full dedication of a person's eyes,
ears, hands, and brain. And, as you know, so does being with a small
child. Sometimes I can work while Liam and I are alone together, but many
times I have to wait for him to fall asleep or be occupied in some other
way. He understands that I have to work, and he understands that if I
don't work here, I'd have to work somewhere else, and that would put his
being at home in jeopardy. So, he's fairly cooperative about my
working. My favorite, though, is when he wants me out of his hair for some
reason (like he's going to do something he'd rather I wasn't privy to), and
he'll say, "Mom, shouldn't you be working?"
Anyway, I had answered the question about getting started at medical
transcription for several people in the past, and then got wise and stopped
re-typing it each time. So, below is that canned response. But, please
please please feel free to ask me more specific questions about it, if
you'd like! No kidding!
Take care,
Marji
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's how I got started in medical transcription. Understanding that MT is
pretty skilled work requiring a thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology,
pathology, pharmacology, and grammar, I started out by taking a course at
home when Liam (my son) was a tiny baby. I think he was about 5 months old
and still in arms when I took the course. I did some research to find a
good course, and the one I went with was PCDI (Professional Career
Development Institute). Here's a link to their site:
http://www.pcdi-homestudy.com/courses/yy/
One of the reasons I went with this school was I was able to finance the
course and pay a very reasonable amount per month interest-free.
I completed the course in about four months, and I thought I'd be able to
contact the local doctors and get work at home right away. But, I had no
takers, even though I did very well in the course. What I did not know
when I completed the course (and I have since learned that to be true no
matter what kind of a course you take, whether at home or at a college) is
that a big part of an MT's education is done on the job through a
combination of mentoring and trial and error. There is so much to know,
and it's really vital to be in some kind of a situation where you have
someone who can look over your shoulder, review your work, and answer all
the questions a person is going to have. This is true even for people who
are already in the medical profession (like RNs who become medical
transcriptionists).
I waited until Liam was about 2-1/2 years old and I felt I could leave him
at night and then I lucked into a part-time job overnight at a local
hospital. After about 7 months of working at the hospital, I really lucked
into getting a job working from home. About a year later I quit the
hospital and now I work exclusively at home.
This is just my experience. There are companies that will hire folks with
no experience. But, it takes a long time to make a decent income because
most companies pay on production. For example, I earn $0.11 per line (but
companies usually start a person without experience at around $0.06 per
line). I know that sounds pretty low, but I make between $17 and $35 per
hour. When I started working at home, I think I was lucky if I was making
about $3 an hour, so there is quite a learning curve associated with this
work. That's because in the beginning you have to look everything up, and
you have to listen over and over again. Some doctors don't really try to
make it easy for us MTs and sometimes it's a real struggle. Sometimes I
get a doctor who is very clear, but that's not always the case. That's one
reason why I was very grateful to have the part-time job at the hospital
(which paid me a flat hourly rate, though it was low) at the same time as I
was beginning to work at home so I could continue to earn while I was learning.
Here is a link to a very informative web site called MT Desk:
http://www.mtdesk.com/
My suggestion would be to browse around the site. It'll give you an idea of
what MTs do, what their struggles are, and how folks break in to it. In
fact, I got my job at home through a website called MT Daily
www.mtdaily.com (which is now only available by subscription). I had been
using that site frequently for networking and supporting other MTs.
Please let me know if you need any other information.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
transcription. If you are interested in hearing more or have questions
about this, please let me know. I'd be more than happy to help.
----------
I've been doing medical transcription now for five and a half years, five
of them from home. The story of how I got into it and all that is
below. The thing is that medical transcription is definitely skilled
work. When a person is starting out, the pay is pretty low until they can
get up to speed. The overhead is low, though, and that's a good thing.
The other thing about medical transcription is that it is very demanding of
a person's attention. It requires the full dedication of a person's eyes,
ears, hands, and brain. And, as you know, so does being with a small
child. Sometimes I can work while Liam and I are alone together, but many
times I have to wait for him to fall asleep or be occupied in some other
way. He understands that I have to work, and he understands that if I
don't work here, I'd have to work somewhere else, and that would put his
being at home in jeopardy. So, he's fairly cooperative about my
working. My favorite, though, is when he wants me out of his hair for some
reason (like he's going to do something he'd rather I wasn't privy to), and
he'll say, "Mom, shouldn't you be working?"
Anyway, I had answered the question about getting started at medical
transcription for several people in the past, and then got wise and stopped
re-typing it each time. So, below is that canned response. But, please
please please feel free to ask me more specific questions about it, if
you'd like! No kidding!
Take care,
Marji
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's how I got started in medical transcription. Understanding that MT is
pretty skilled work requiring a thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology,
pathology, pharmacology, and grammar, I started out by taking a course at
home when Liam (my son) was a tiny baby. I think he was about 5 months old
and still in arms when I took the course. I did some research to find a
good course, and the one I went with was PCDI (Professional Career
Development Institute). Here's a link to their site:
http://www.pcdi-homestudy.com/courses/yy/
One of the reasons I went with this school was I was able to finance the
course and pay a very reasonable amount per month interest-free.
I completed the course in about four months, and I thought I'd be able to
contact the local doctors and get work at home right away. But, I had no
takers, even though I did very well in the course. What I did not know
when I completed the course (and I have since learned that to be true no
matter what kind of a course you take, whether at home or at a college) is
that a big part of an MT's education is done on the job through a
combination of mentoring and trial and error. There is so much to know,
and it's really vital to be in some kind of a situation where you have
someone who can look over your shoulder, review your work, and answer all
the questions a person is going to have. This is true even for people who
are already in the medical profession (like RNs who become medical
transcriptionists).
I waited until Liam was about 2-1/2 years old and I felt I could leave him
at night and then I lucked into a part-time job overnight at a local
hospital. After about 7 months of working at the hospital, I really lucked
into getting a job working from home. About a year later I quit the
hospital and now I work exclusively at home.
This is just my experience. There are companies that will hire folks with
no experience. But, it takes a long time to make a decent income because
most companies pay on production. For example, I earn $0.11 per line (but
companies usually start a person without experience at around $0.06 per
line). I know that sounds pretty low, but I make between $17 and $35 per
hour. When I started working at home, I think I was lucky if I was making
about $3 an hour, so there is quite a learning curve associated with this
work. That's because in the beginning you have to look everything up, and
you have to listen over and over again. Some doctors don't really try to
make it easy for us MTs and sometimes it's a real struggle. Sometimes I
get a doctor who is very clear, but that's not always the case. That's one
reason why I was very grateful to have the part-time job at the hospital
(which paid me a flat hourly rate, though it was low) at the same time as I
was beginning to work at home so I could continue to earn while I was learning.
Here is a link to a very informative web site called MT Desk:
http://www.mtdesk.com/
My suggestion would be to browse around the site. It'll give you an idea of
what MTs do, what their struggles are, and how folks break in to it. In
fact, I got my job at home through a website called MT Daily
www.mtdaily.com (which is now only available by subscription). I had been
using that site frequently for networking and supporting other MTs.
Please let me know if you need any other information.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]