AboutLynne Luckett Expertise I can answer questions about surviving suicide, about losing a family member to suicide and how to heal the hole that is left behind by a loved one committing suicide.
Experience My father committed suicide when I was 8 years old. It took me 13 years to even start dealing with his death but once the healing started it was truly an educational experience. I know now that he is with me all the time and though his physical self is no longer here, his spirtual self lives on in me and my son. I'm now 49 and have talked to several people about losing a loved one to suicide and have received some positive feedback about my advice. I am a medical transcripitionist and have been in the medical field for 20+ years. I feel I survived my dad's death to have the understanding to be able to help others. I love to help others.
Expert: Lynne Luckett Date: 11/1/2005 Subject: Medical Transcriptionist
Question I was actually going to ask you some questions about suicide, but see that you are a medical transcriptionist. Can you tell me a few things about that?
1. I have heard it described as a dead-end / monotonous job. Is this correct?
2. How long does it take to get trained for this job? I was trained as a chemist but found that that field has been exported overseas. Medical transcriptions sounds like something that might be stable. What does your typing speed need to be in order to be employable? What do you know about the training costs? I can tell you how much it costs to get an undergraduate degree. And a graduate one, too, for that matter. What about specialized training such as your?
3. Can you give me some ideas about the starting salaries for such jobs? It has been my experience that the only way to get accurate information about such things is to ask someone in the field, since people tend to grossly misstate salaries. How about the salary after three years or so?
4. It seems like the job of a medical transcriptionist would be like a glorified typist that knows a few medical terms. What makes what you do fundamentally different to a generic secretary?
Answer Hi Lemas:
I must say this is quite a change for me. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you have about medical transcription.
Transcription is an excellent career for people who are interested in the field of medicine but cannot tolerate the actual blood and guts of the field. You get all the details but none of the actual "hands on". Also if you are like me I do not want the responsibility of a patient's life in my hands. That is just too much for me to be able to handle. That is not to say that the transcriptionist's job doesn't carry its share of responsibility. What is transcribed becomes a part of that patient's legal medical record and follows throughout his or her lifetime. So accuracy is a must.
As to whether it is a dead end and monotonous job, that depends on how much you enjoy it. It is certainly not the same thing every day for me as I do acute care transcription in a hospital and the different types of jobs keep things interesting. It is only dead end if you choose for it to be.
I have no formal training in this line of work. That is to say that I do not have a medical transcriptionist certificate. However, I have 25+ years in the medical field and I did take a medical terminology course. The skills needed for transcription are a desire to learn everything possible about the medical field, good spelling and grammar skills, a good knowledge of lab values and medication dosages and uses and a knowledge of anatomy.
As to the costs, you can always research that online. There are many online courses available. I would direct you to AAMT for starters and also try a community college where you live.
Typing speed? I would say 50-60 words per minute to start. Of course, the faster you are the more you are going to make as long as you are providing quality work. Do not sacrifice quality for speed. And the more you type, the faster you will get.
Salary: I work at a very small rural hospital and of course my salary is not the same as in the city. But I can tell you that with the cost of gasoline and not having to drive very far it is suitable for me. If I chose to drive into the city, about 70 miles, I could probably be making $14 or $15 per hour if not more. I also work at home and the industry standard per line I believe is 11 to 12 cents. I have found that by working part time at home I can supplement my income very nicely. And, word of mouth has spread about my turnaround time now and I have had requests to do other work which I have had to decline at this time. My point is, quality work and good turnaround equals reputation. If I needed to it would not be difficult at all to obtain more clients.
Glorified typist??? After reading all of this, tell me if you still think we are glorified typists. We get referred to by that term a lot but I guarantee you that medical transcriptionists are highly trained individuals who truly care about the job they do. We have to deal with poor quality recordings and dialects. Many times we have to sort through messes to make sense of what is being said.
A generic secretary does not have to know medical terms (not only what they mean but how to spell them), drug dosages and what they are used for, lab values and corresponding medical terms and anatomy plus have good grammar and spelling. And on top of that, deal with personalities and dialects.
I hope this has helped explain medical transcription. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to contact me.
