Online Medical Transcription Course? The Truth.
By Chuck Huckaby, Thu Dec 8th
Should you take an Online Medical Transcription Course?
The question has at least 2 right answers... depending on YOU!
The answers are:
Yes, if you want a career that can be completely homebased and let you earn up to $30,000 per year (or more)!
No, if it's the WRONG career move for you.
If it's the WRONG move, then taking an Online MedicalTranscription Course (or off line for that matter)
If you're NOT cut out to be a medical transcriptionist, youcould invest $4,000 in books, software, and training (not tomention a brand new computer) and never make a penny doingmedical transcription.
So, for better or for worse, I'm going to try to tell you how todecide if an Online Medical Transcription Course is rightfor you.
From our experience, your choice in an Online MedicalTranscription Course should be based on the credentials ofthe owners of the school.
There are many Medical Transcription schools online and off linethat turn out a completely inferior transcriptionist.
In other words, such schools are good at taking yourmoney but not producing qualified trainees.
When Renee chose a school, she chose one where the ownersconducted a free orientation at our local community college.Even though the couse was entirely online, it was sponsored bythe community college.
Community colleges tend to be so "image conscious" we were surethey'd never sponsor anything remotely "interesting" or"relevant" to the work at home field if the program weren'tentirely legitimate. In fact we later learned this program wasapproved for retraining people who'd lost factory jobs. Is yourschool state approved for training workers?.
So when the owners were endorsed by working with our communitycollege, we were fairly certain their Online MedicalTranscription Course was "for real". If you're just taking acourse without such a local endorsement, you may want toinvestigate DOUBLY HARD.
But there's more to this. A local community college can bewrong. We also suggest going to a school where the owners RAN AREAL MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION BUSINESS... preferably one contractedwith a hospital or other large clients with a variety of medicalspecialities.
It's one thing to type for a single, slow speaking, courteousphysician in one specialty. It's another thing entirely to typefor 50 doctors from New York City who come from 10 differentcountries and represent 20 different specialties!
Rest assured though that the owner of an Online MedicalTranscription Course who served large multi-specialtypractices will know how to produce competent transcriptionistswho can live anywhere, work over a DSL line, and make a goodliving. If you hope to do the same, you need THAT kind oftraining and NOTHING LESS!
The owners of Renee's school had the air of professionalismabout them. They didn't dodge questions. They had plenty of "warstories" about the field and were honest about the earningspotential.
This leads me to another point. If a school says you can make$100,000 per year easily... run in the opposite direction asfast as you can.
To be safe, "on average" according to the Bureau of LaborStatistics, medical transcriptionists earn around $30,000 peryear.
Some will earn much more... if they have exceptional typingspeed, exceptional hearing, and exceptional desire. Our ownershad some transcriptionists who earned $50,000 to $100,000but that wasn't the norm. Most just wanted a nice, stable incomewith a certain amount of flexibility.
While it's ok for schools to use their "in house" text books,for the most part, the texts studied and software used should be"off the shelf" commercial grade software and recognized medicaltexts. In the real world, you will need to upgrade software getnew books as new medicines come out, etc. You can't rely on anysingle school to be expert in all the fields you'll need tomaster as a transcriptionist so - like a college - a greatOnline Medical Transcription Course should show you wereto get current expert resources in the "real world". Schoolsonly use 100% proprietary curriculum to maximize their ownprofits. You should be able to buy your materials somewherebesides the school to make sure you're getting the best dealtoo.
Finally, an Online Medical Transcription Course that'shonest about the difficulty should do PRE-SCREENING ofapplicants.
Orientations, pre-study assessments, sample lessons etc. shouldbe required.
Why? Medical Transcription requires as much pure knowledge asany other medical field. One complaint my wife heard was afellow student saying "I thought I'd just be typing, not have togo to medical school!" But, really, it's like going to medicalschool for 3 to 12 months depending on whether you're full timeor part time and how hard you'll work. No slackers need show up!This is not a nice slow paced typing job. It's a critical timesensitive component of the medical field with quick, 99.9%accuracy required! Many will not pass the test and you shouldtest yourself to see if you will LOVE doing this work or failout because you're really bored by it all! No school will turnaway people who insist on paying, but some effort should be madeto make people understand the magnitude of the task ahead!
Let's summarize: Legitimate Online Medical TranscriptionCourses should have these characteristics:
1. Owners should have a state approved school if possible 2.Owners should have real world experience in a multi-specialtyenvironment 3. Owners should have been frustrated with the"average graduate" of other schools 4. Owners should behonest about the earnings potential 5. Owners should userecognized expert texts not just their own in house publications6. Owners should prescreen applicants to screen out those whowill just be wasting their money.
Chuck & Renee Huckaby publish an page related to OnlineMedical Transcription Course information that goes intothese and other issues regarding being a medicaltranscriptionist more deeply and welcome your visit.
About the author:Chuck Huckaby publishes 1stHowToWorkAtHome.com. He and his wife Renee publish an information course aboutwhether to enter medical transcription and how to succeed in thefield if it's right for you... or how to avoid losing $4,000 bychoosing the WRONG Career!
