Shopping for Levi’s - Career Step · 2012-03-28 · MTSOs (medical transcription service...

In This Issue

I’ve decided that finding and keeping a job is like shopping

for the perfect pair of jeans. Having recently bought a new pair of jeans, I was reminded of this process a few weeks ago. Scenario: You see lots of different lengths, shades, washes, and sizes around (job postings). You walk into a store and try on a bunch of pairs (send out your resume). You get rid of some that are too long, too tight, too blue (take a few employment exams). Now, you’re down to three. They all fit great, so you give each of them another shot (phone interview). Finally, you decide to buy the perfect pair that’s the right length, the right fit, and the right blue (get hired!). In this economy, finding and keeping a job is like finding the perfect pair of jeans—it’s out there, but it’s some-times hard to find.

Although you don’t go into an of-fice every day, pro-fessionalism is still a key part of being successful in your career. Presenting a well-organized and detailed resume, obtaining a high score on an employ-ment exam, and completing a positive phone interview will help you get a job. Once you are on the job, you will need to act in the same professional manner as you do when looking for a job. It’s also important to complete accurate work so that the company

Shopping for Levi’s

3) Professionalism: Courtesy. When corresponding with compa-nies, always be polite and respectful. In the workplace, there is nothing worse than burning a bridge with an employer because of a rude email, a complaint, or a bit of gossip about a company or other employees. Al-ways maintain the highest respect for future and current employers in both your correspondence and speech.

Volume 15 | Issue 1 | SPRING 2012

Two Sides of the Same Coin . . . . . . . 2

Boring, Stupid, and Overly Long! . . . 3

Keys to Successful Testing . . . . . . . . . 4

Nov/Dec Med Gab Answers . . . . . . . 4

Student Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Layman’s Medical Dictionary . . . . . . 5

Finders Keepers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Graduate Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Mixed Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Work From Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Dear Susan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Speech Wreck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

knows they can count on you to be a de-pendable and solid employee. Even if you work for a large company with thousands of MTs and/or MTEs, you will always be accountable to your supervisor and QA lead, and accuracy is a large part of that!

To break it down a little bit, here’s a list of eight things that demonstrate pro-fessionalism and accuracy on the job:

1) Professionalism: Be employable. Think: Would you hire you? There are a lot of people out there who are profes-sional, and companies do not have the time or resources to hire those who are not. So, be employable! Display a high level of professionalism on your resume, on an employment exam, and in a phone interview.

2) Accuracy: Be attentive to de-tail. Especially for an MT, your quality

of work is so important that your entire work-ing reputation depends on it. Working as a Skills Assessment Advisor, I have the opportunity to review assessment

tests and final exams with students and (hopefully) give them useful feedback. It’s amazing how much difference it can make when a student is very detail-oriented—it can save a lot of points! It’s the same in the workplace—if you are attentive to detail, it will really make a difference in your work and save you a lot of trouble.

“There are a lot of people out there who are profes-sional… So, be employ-able!”

Continued on pg. 9

Professionalism & Accuracy on the Job

2 SPRING 2012 STEPPING UP

ProfessionalismWelcome to the Spring issue

of Stepping Up! We’re excited to be on our new quarterly schedule and, as always, are committed to providing fun, informative articles and tidbits for your pleasure and continued learning.

Our theme this year is an im-portant one: Professionalism. Each issue will explore aspects of pro-fessionalism in the medical tran-scription world so you, the student, will be as prepared as possible for transitioning into the workplace. To begin our year, the focus of this issue is the twin priorities of ac-

curacy and productivity in terms of professionalism. The three longer feature articles explore the subject in terms of the student experience, the workplace experience, and from the perspective of an employer.

We’ve also made a couple of changes we hope you’ll like. We have ventured into comic strip terri-tory with our popular Speech Wreck column; please let us know what you think! We’ve also replaced a cou-ple of columns that have run their course with an editorial-style article that will be different each issue, but always specific to the coursework.

This issue’s offering is called “Stu-pid, Boring, and Overly Long.” Sound interesting? Again, please let us know. Of course, we have kept our beloved Student Spot-light, Graduate Spotlight, Dear Susan, and Finders Keepers.

We’re anxious to hear from you. If you enjoy this issue, or if you don’t, or if you have something you’d like to submit for consider-ation, please get in touch and let us know at [email protected]. Thank you!

Two Sides of the Same CoinProductivity & Accuracy

A coin is an interesting thing. It is shiny and portable, and

in the company of other coins, it jin-gles in your pocket. A coin is fine-ly crafted, with required markings. Some refer to “coin” as another word for money, in general. It has value; you can trade a coin for something else you desire. Professionalism, as defined in terms of your ability to produce lines and maintain a high degree of accura-cy, is your coin.

When beginning the course, some-times students ask why we instruct them to type as fast as possible in some of the Keyboard Kinetics exercises, without worrying about accuracy. After all, isn’t accuracy important as well? Of course it is! The nature of the Keyboard Kinetics typing module, however, is to test against the clock; while errors will count against your score, the main goal is to forge those synapses and create the muscle mem-ory needed to master the keyboard by pushing to get through the material as quickly as you can. It’s okay—you can take the speed tests over if you don’t

be working against a deadline, with your paycheck on the line. The more you learn in the program, the easier your transition into the workplace will be.

The workplace is where all the training you received in the course is tested, and it’s also where the balanc-ing of speed and accuracy becomes most critical. You will work with two basic goals: you must complete the volume of work you’ve contracted to complete, on time, and you must com-plete it to a very exacting quality level. You must be fast, and you must be ac-curate—both are important. As a new MT on the job, this can be frustrating because it’s much easier to be one or the other. If you must temporarily choose between speed and accuracy as a newbie, it’s best to be accurate; the speed will come with experience and familiarity with the particulars of your account, but accuracy must be there from the start. An employer will be much happier with a new employee

like your score. With practice, you can’t help but become faster.

The rest of the entire program is focused on accuracy. From Medical Word Building right through to Final Exam Preparation, the training turns you into an effective researcher, a me-ticulous proofreader, a finely tuned listener, and a sharp critical thinker, as well as a seasoned keyboard master. All of these skills must come together to make you an excellent medical transcriptionist. It is a complex task, and we often tell students not to be overly concerned about how fast they’re getting through each report in Clinic Notes, but to allow themselves the time necessary to learn as much as possible from each report instead. Don’t rush through your time as a student! Now is the time to make your mistakes, backtrack, make corrections, and move forward having learned something valuable—something you can apply to all the rest of the reports that are still before you in the course. Once you’re on the job, you will con-tinue to learn every day, but you will Continued on pg. 10

Continued on pg. 6

Boring, Stupid, and Overly Long!Many times the good people

in Student Support talk to students who are upset about how long the MTE program is—specifically the practicum. “There are too many reports,” they say. “It’s ridiculous,” “I feel like I’m training to be a doctor,” and “I’m shocked!” This is often accompanied either by sideways questions to see if some of the program can be skipped or sidestepped, or by lobbying to make a special exception because of time anxiety, family responsibilities, or the general shock of it all, etc. The muttering and angst often seem to stem from a cluster of assumptions that really are not correct: The training is too rigorous, it’s much too long, it’s really boring, and there’s no reason to have to finish it all. Let’s explore these.

Erroneous Assumption Cluster #1: The training is much too rigor-ous; the course goes waaaay over-board, and it’s ridiculous to have to actually complete all of it. The real job is pretty easy; after all, you just type what you hear! The training is too hard, and it’s just not necessary to prepare this much.

The Real Deal: This kinda makes me scratch my head. Because the pro-testers don’t have experience in the MT industry, or working knowledge of the field, the complaint doesn’t re-ally make sense. If you don’t know what’s expected for the job, how can you also be an authority regarding how to effectively prepare for it? This is like complaining to MIT that the math requirement for an engineer-ing degree is just too rigorous and it should be made easier. After all, a stu-dent who does not have an engineer-ing degree—let alone an engineering job—probably knows more about preparing to enter the engineering field than the college, right? No, of course not.

Okay, all snarkiness aside, the Career Step program does include a thorough and rigorous practicum, it’s true. This practicum has been devel-oped over many years, with input from MTSOs (medical transcription service organizations), which are the compa-nies that hire Career Step graduates. They tell us what they need to see in a well-prepared newbie job applicant and recommend training aspects that will result in an applicant they would hire. We listen to these recommenda-tions because, bottom line, we want you to get a good job. We have imple-mented many changes, updates, and improvements to the course over time, based on this kind of feedback from the industry. We added 150 specifi-cally chosen reports to the practicum with the introduction of version 6 of the MT program, for instance, when employers indicated that graduates would do better on employment tests and be more successful the first year of employment with more exposure to certain specialties and more experi-ence with more difficult dictators. The point is, the course is not artificially bloated or arbitrarily designed; the practicum is challenging on purpose and for your benefit! We listen to your future employers so you will have a better experience after graduation.

Erroneous Assumption Clus-ter #2: The course is super boring because the reports are sooo repeti-tive! You could learn what you need to learn with four or five reports in each specialty. It’s stupid to have to do every single report in the whole course—you should be able to skip the rest when you get tired of it. The training is just a big, boring obstacle to the real job, which will be much more interesting.

The Real Deal: Again, not really. As already pointed out, there are a lot of reports in the practicum, but to a working MT the whole practicum is only a few weeks of work. Once

employed and established in an MT position, you’ll blast through hun-dreds and hundreds and hundreds of reports, day in and day out—and if you’re working on an account with a finite number of doctors, a lot of the reports will be similar. If you get bored stiff with the relatively small number of ENT reports in the pro-gram, how will you handle working for an ENT clinic with 12 doctors? It’s what an MT does!

We say something is boring when we either know it thoroughly or when it’s difficult for us. My daughter likes to tell me that her English class is boring, but she struggles with it, so it’s not that she already knows the concepts thoroughly. What she re-ally means is that it’s hard for her and she’d rather be doing something else. This is not the fault of the subject matter or the assignments; the per-sonality of the teacher may factor in, but the majority of her problem with English is what she brings to it. It’s the same with medical transcription and the Career Step program. The training is challenging, realistic, often frustrating, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s not the same thing as boring.

Quite a while back we ran some internal statistics on our graduation rates and learned that every single student who attempted the final exam without fully finishing the program failed. Every single one. The passing rate for this group was zero. This is a powerful statistic, and we realized that the policy we had in place at the time, which allowed students to take the fi-nal exam at any point they felt ready, was not really serving our students. All we could say in this situation was to go back to the course and fully fin-ish it before taking the exam again, but by that time one of the three precious exam attempts was wasted.

STEPPING UP SPRING 2012 3


Keys to Successful Employment TestingA Grader’s Perspective

Has your heart ever sunk when you’ve opened an email from

a company you really wanted to work for, only to find out that you failed their employment test? I know mine has--several times, in fact, back in late 2004. Despite that, I was able to enter the medical transcription field with a small company in early 2005 and am presently enjoying the unique oppor-tunity of grading employment tests for a much larger company. My overall experience—from failing employment tests to passing them, from taking em-ployment tests to grading them—has provided me with a well-rounded per-spective of how to successfully take employment tests, and I’d like to share some of my knowledge with you.

Each issue of this year’s Stepping Up will address a topic that will help you submit quality employment tests. Even if you are a student just begin-ning the course, pay close attention to this article series; it will prove to be very valuable in the future. To get this series started, let’s look at some aspects of the biggest determining factor in passing employment tests: accuracy.

Follow Instructions CarefullyMost employment tests do not

include instructions on how the tran-scription is to be presented. However, some do. It is very easy to overlook these instructions, as employment tests often look much like the final exam, and any additional instructions may be buried within the usual test instructions. As boring as it may be,

read these instructions carefully each and every time you test to make sure that you do not miss a link to addition-al instructions or a sentence with key directions on how to do something important, such as leaving blanks or flags. With account instructions some-times running many pages long, it is imperative that you do not display an inability to follow instructions. Fur-ther, not following specific instruc-tions may result in a failing score.

Pay Attention to ContextRemember, being a successful MT

involves more than just typing what you hear. If you hear, “A right arm incision was made,” in an operative report about AAA repair, chances are you’re wrong. Just because you hear a real word, it does not mean that what you heard is correct. Look at the con-text of the report and of every sen-tence within the report and ask your-self, “Does this make sense?” If it does not, do not transcribe it; leave a blank (a blank must be indicated by black characters, such as the underscore or the pound sign, not by using the space bar; most testing platforms do not recognize the difference between one space and several spaces left using the space bar, so your blank will not be evident to the grader).

Know the BasicsNothing shouts “Newbie!” more

than transcribing AT&T instead of HEENT, View of Systems instead of Review of Systems, HNH instead of H&H, or CNS instead of C&S (or vice-versa). Not only that, but some

of these errors could carry hefty pen-alties. For example, there is a common grading scale used in employment testing that requires the grader to hit the MT with a whopping 3-point de-duction for transcribing CNS instead of C&S.

Research What You Don’t KnowIf you come across something that

you’re unsure of—and you will—look it up! Do not assume that the first thing that comes to your mind is cor-rect or is the standard in the industry. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen MTs use a decimal point instead of a hyphen in suture sizes, or the cap-ital letter “O” instead of the number “0.” All this tells the grader is that the MT (1) doesn’t know enough and (2) doesn’t care enough to know. This can apply to spelling (even when the spell-ing is dictated), capitalization, spe-cialty standards (such as classification systems, pacemaker codes, obstetrical history, etc.), and so on.

Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. This is especially true with companies that may keep your test results on file for months or even years! Approach each employment test as though it was your final exam. In fact, be even more careful when transcribing em-ployment tests because you are not af-forded three attempts. Make your first attempt your best attempt!

- Heather GarrettCS Skills Assessment Team

Nov/Dec Med Gab Answers1. I broke my leg2. Her dog bites3. Scraped knees4. I split my lip open5. Chicken pox

6. I hate ear infections7. I stub my toe a lot8. Fevers are miserable9. Pneumonia10. My tummy hurts


Student SpotlightTrinity Burak

mary tumors had started in my right breast. Having cancer gives you a unique perspective of what is impor-tant. I have lost my hair twice, had a bilateral mastectomy (both breasts re-moved at the same surgery vs. bilater-al mastectomies, both removed but at separate times), and survived the re-construction process. Living life to its fullest is my mission. Thanking G-D for each and every moment on this earth is a given in my world today.

I started in the forum almost imme-diately after signing up for the MTE course in October, 2010. This would be my classroom. The Study Buddies thread was initiated by me in Novem-ber. I wanted a place that beginning students could post their progress and feel safe asking the “dumb questions.” We can ask questions, question the an-swers, and share our “Ahak!” moments with each other. We all have our mo-ments! (I am also Jewish, “awe hawck” is the correct pronunciation!) KOKO (the Keep On Keeping On forum study group) is another haunt you can find me in.

This course has brought out in me a love of research—the searching and digging for answers to the questions that come up in each different report. I use an expander called InstantText (IT) to keep all that research at my fingertips. My goal is to only research something once. On Mondays I host a webinar to discuss IT. I also have a huge library of Stedman’s, Dorland’s, and a plethora of medical books just in case the internet is down or I need a visual reference.

This course is tough! It is not for everyone; however, all it takes to ex-cel is motivation and determination. There are a thousand reasons to give up and quit, but find one to give you the motivation to finish. This month I will be starting my second extension, and I will finish as a high honors grad by June 2012. It is up to me to make that goal come true!

- Trinity Burak

Hello to all! I was flattered that CS asked me to be part of

the Student Spotlight, to say the least. Most of you know me as BossQuilter on the forum, founder of Study Bud-dies and InstantText guru.

Everyone has a story; mine has had its ups and downs. I lived in North Da-kota for over 20 years, owning an ad-vertising agency for most of that time. In 1994 I divorced, moved back home to Idaho, purchased an orchard, start-ed a retail quilt shop (2 Sisters Quilt-ing Shoppe), brought my great aunt to live with me until her death, married, got cancer, got divorced again, and got cancer again. I was forced to leave my beloved orchard and close my store af-ter 17 years. I still do machine quilt-ing for people, so I have not given up my quilting passion just yet. I have a wonderful Russian man (ESL) in my life, with 3 children. He owns a secu-rity company and a precious metal-re-fining business that I work at now.

In 2003 I found the dreaded lump in my left breast. In 2007 more pri-

Layman’s Dictionary of Medical TermsAnti-Body : against everyoneArtery : study of paintings Bandages : The Rolling Stones Bacteria : back door to a cafeteria Barium : what to do when treatment fails (Bury ‘em)Botulism : tendency to make mistakesBowel : letters like A E I O or U Caesarean Section : a district in Rome Cardiology : advanced study of card gamesCat Scan : searching for one’s lost kittyCauterise : made eye contact with her Coma : punctuation mark Congenital : friendlyCortisone : the local courthouse Dilate : to live long (Die late)

In response to this information, and because your success is our concern, we changed the policy to require full completion of the program before fi-nal exam access is granted. There was some kicking and screaming at the transition, but since then our gradua-tion numbers have improved. J

In these uncertain times, it’s un-derstandable to worry that you’ve made a good decision with the pur-chase of training for an online career

you can do at home—there are a lot of unsavory types out there and a lot of scams. If you’re anxious about this, please check our history (nearly 20 years in the business) and our Better Business Bureau rating (A+); in addi-tion, you’re invited to contact MT em-ployers like Nuance, Transcend, and M*Modal, and ask them their opin-ions of Career Step. You’ll find Ca-reer Step is well-known and respected in the industry. With this in mind, please relax and trust in the program. It’s been purposefully designed and

fine-tuned to your benefit. Even if you don’t understand all of the rea-sons behind the training, please take our word for it, take a deep breath, and know that when you finish, you’ll be well prepared to pursue your goal of becoming a successful working medi-cal transcriptionist.

- Jill McNittCS Student Support Team

Continued from pg. 3 - Boring

inders KeepersFSometimes something we hear in a report is difficult to research and verify. A wild goose chase through our

resources is not much fun if it’s not also successful, but sometimes we find exactly what we’re looking for. These moments are powerful learning moments. We’re calling this column FINDERS KEEPERS because when you research and find what you’re looking for you’re likely to keep it in your permanent knowledge banks!

I had been a medical transcription-ist for several years and considered myself quite well-rounded in multiple specialties when I suddenly found my-self transcribing compensation and pension assessment reports for a vet-eran’s clinic, without any sample re-ports to assist in this new adventure. For the most part, the terminology was familiar, but every now and then a new word or abbreviation would be thrown at me that was specific to vet-erans’ reports.

After bravely trudging through a few very lengthy reports, a physician dictated a heading I had never heard before. He said, “duh-luke-ah.” Excuse me? Did you just sneeze? Is that a real word? I listened again, “duh-luke-ah.” Nothing familiar came to mind, so I logged into BenchmarkKB for a quick word search. (For those not familiar with BenchmarkKB, it is a subscrip-tion-based all-in-one resource that holds Stedman’s word book series, a medical dictionary, a drug reference, and other goodies in the same place.) The problem with my word search

was that I didn’t know how to spell the word. A phonetic search left me empty handed. It was time to turn to Google for some help.

I put what I considered to be a pretty solid phonetic spelling of “duluka” into the Google search bar, along with “veterans” to help narrow my search (after all, I was looking for a term that seemed specific to veter-ans). Google didn’t think my spell-ing was as good as I had anticipated and suggested: “Did you mean deluka veterans.” Well, I didn’t really know. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. More often than not, their spelling sugges-tions are worthy of exploration, so I clicked on it to change my search to [deluka + veterans]. Next, I scanned the results.

Depending on your location (did you know that Google will present you with different search results de-pending on where you’re located?), your search results might pattern mine. The first result was for an an-cestry site, which probably would not

have been very helpful in this situa-tion. The second result had to do with “Veterans’ Rights/Appeals.” Sounded interesting, but I didn’t really think that a previous court case would have much to do with the report I was tran-scribing.

The third result had to do with “Veterans’ Disability Benefits.” Hmmm, I seemed to be onto some-thing. It was a government website, so I knew it would be relatively reliable. The article did not contain the type of information I would normally expect to read while researching information found in a medical report. However, it proved to be very helpful.

As it turns out, a case heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veter-ans Claims resulted in VA claims ad-judicators being required to consider whether range of motion is further affected by fatigue, pain, weakness, or other factors during repetitive use or a flare-up. This case, heard in 1995, is known as DeLuca v. Brown.


Continued on pg. 7


Continued from pg. 6 - Finders

Graduate SpotlightMichelle Sutphin

The medical field was not complete-ly foreign to me because I had worked at a home health agency in Virginia for three years with my mother, who is an RN. My younger sister is going to school for her nursing degree, my sister-in-law is an ER nurse, and my mother-in-law works with patients with disabilities. I have had exposure to medical terminology, anatomy, and so forth in the past, so this career field seemed like a great fit for me. The de-ciding factor that helped me choose this line of work was the possibility to work from home, which will be ben-eficial when my husband and I decide to have children.

I can honestly say that Career Step prepares you for the working field as a medical transcriptionist and/or a medical transcription editor. The tools and resources that were avail-able to me were definitely helpful in getting me through the program. The MTE program is undeniably chal-lenging; however, I found motivation and encouragement, mostly from my fellow classmates and graduates, which helped me get through the program. The forums are what com-pletely helped me stay on track and pushed me to finish. Being interactive with other students, graduates, and the Career Step staff in the forums, moderated chats, and the MT chat

room immensely helped me gain mo-tivation, confidence, and encourage-ment. Any time I had a question about anything, it was nice to know that my fellow classmates and the Career Step staff were always willing to help. The moderated chats, every third Thurs-day of the month, were definitely an essential part of helping me find a company that was a perfect fit for me. Being able to ask a potential employer questions about benefits, pay, employ-ment tests, flexible schedules, etc. be-fore even filling out an application was an enormous part of helping me nar-row down my employer search.

Placement Direct was also very useful in providing me with advice and helpful tips regarding my resume, employment testing, interviewing, as well as applying for jobs. Gradu-ate Support helped me perfect my re-sume, and I am very thankful to have had their assistance. I passed the fi-nal on my first attempt and attained honors on my second attempt. It took me about eight months to finish the program, and I was hired by Nuance about three weeks later. I cannot thank Career Step enough for giving me the learning tools, resources, experience, and fundamentals to help me reach my goal of being an MT!

- Michelle Sutphin

Hello! My name is Michelle Sutphin, and I graduated

from the MTE program with honors in December 2011. I am originally from Williamsburg, Virginia, but my current state of residency is Ohio. My husband is in the military (Navy) and we are currently located in Pensacola, FL. I have two cats, Jinx (3) and Naia (2), and they are my children. I have two sisters, one older and one younger. My younger sister’s husband is also in the military (Navy) so we are both always moving around.

My decision to get involved in this type of career was due to the portabil-ity. After moving around so much with the military, it definitely became rather difficult to find a job in each city and state. I did a lot of research regarding different portable careers, and medical transcription really caught my eye. I was fortunate enough to have the pro-gram paid for through MyCAA funds for military spouses. I also did a lot of research about online schools and realized Career Step seemed to be the perfect fit for me. Career Step comes highly recommended from many top companies and graduates, and I could not have asked for a better course, preparation, or transition into this field.

Learning this bit of information actually ended up solving two prob-lems I had come across in this report. One, I was able to conclude that the physician did not sneeze and that “s/l duluka” is spelled “DeLuca.” Two, it made perfect sense that the ranges of motion provided in the physical exam section were different than the ranges of motion provided in the impression section by about 5-10 degrees, as it must have been concluded that the pa-

tient’s range of motion would, indeed, be affected during flare-ups or repeti-tive actions. I would later learn that “DeLuca” is often followed by “issues,” for “DeLuca issues.”

Logging back in to BenchmarkKB, which really is a superior resource despite not having helped me in this situation, I was still unable to find “DeLuca.” No single resource—even one that is a consolidation of many resources—can contain every word

that an MT might have to transcribe. This word quickly found its way onto my own word list, and hopefully you will soon add it to yours!

- Heather GarrettCS Skills Assessment Team

Mixed Media

In the spirit of professionalism and accuracy, you may wonder how you will ever increase your accuracy to keep a job. Not to worry! Everyone has their own way of improving their accuracy and balancing it with their typing speed. Read on to find out what some students have tried and what has worked for them to improve accuracy while transcribing and editing reports.

Okay, folks, I am hearing don’t worry about accuracy, worry about speed . When I read posts on here, you all say definitely worry about accuracy first! Which is it?

Accuracy is job one, as they say. Companies are patient about speed, but they are pretty darn unforgiving about a lack of accuracy. To pass the course, you need 85% on all module exams and unit tests. To keep a job, you need 99%. Every day. Day after day. Companies guarantee some of their clients 99% accuracy, so they HAVE to have it from us if they expect to stay in business.

I have been keyboarding for most of my adult life, and what I have read

confirms my own experience. Name-ly, that every time you key something incorrectly, you have to key it correct-ly 10 times in order to undo the neural path you created with the error .

The way to learn to key accurate-ly is to SLOW DOWN until you can consistently control your keying and make no errors . When you get to that point, you can gradually begin to push your speed—but never to the point of making errors . Over time we auto-matically begin to key faster as we key longer and longer, so there really is no need to frantically push ourselves and then make all those errors .

I have been using a key-board for a long time and I have my own bad habits already ingrained... oops! I can already see in Clinic Notes and Inter-mediates (the transcribing por-tion of the course) that speed isn’t a big factor for me at this point. Occasionally I find my-self typing out whole sentenc-es very swiftly, but usually I slow down while I sound out a word, or I have to stop and rewind several times, or I need

to stop and look something up. I’m sure my speed will increase once I have a lot more experi-ence in transcribing. I think the highest I scored on my typing tests was about 75 wpm. Good luck!

It takes more time to key it wrong, back up, correct it, and go on than it does to slow down and key with 100% accuracy .

And my theories do work . I started the course at 90 wpm . When I gradu-ated, I was transcribing 100 lph . Now, almost 4 years later, I transcribe 350+ lph for up to 10 hours a day, and if I have to correct 2-3 keying errors a day that is a LOT! So I know it can be done . It took patience and persistence and blood, sweat, and tears—oh, and my first-born son, too! :) But, it does pay off in the long run .

- Melanie GassinCS Graduate Support TeamCS Skills Assessment Team

Career Step has come a long way since the first text version of the MT course was mailed out from a residential basement. Currently, all our students have access to Student Support on the phone and email (both traditional and directly through the course), as well as the course forums, chats, and Facebook every day! This column is comprised of student comments from all of these media sources, so we call it Mixed Media. Enjoy!


Please join us for Career Step’s Thursday moderated live chat room sessions. The topics vary weekly and include course-related topics, industry topics, and employment issues. This is a very user-friendly system—you just click on the chat room and join the fun! www.careerstep.com/forums

1st Thursday of month, 12-1 pm Mountain, Skills Assessment team 2nd Thursday of month, 12-1 pm Mountain, Student Support team 3rd Thursday of month, 12-1 pm Mountain, Industry Topic/Guest

4th Thursday of month, 12-1 pm Mountain, Graduate Services team 5th Thursday of month, TBA, wildcard topic when applicable

Career Step also hosts Blitz Chats on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12-12:15 pm Mountain time in the Moderated Chat Room. These chats are a great opportunity for students and graduates to pop in, ask questions, and receive live responses from a member of the student support team before heading back to their studies. We hope you join the fun!

Moderated Chat Schedule


Continued on pg. 12

Continued from pg. 1 - Levi’s

4) Accuracy: Make sure of things. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! It is better to ask questions from the get-go than to find out several months down the road that you have been do-ing something wrong the whole time. If you ask specific, detailed questions, it will reflect in your accuracy.

5) Professionalism: Be candidly cooperative. Speak with your super-visor about things that are worrying you or bogging you down. Be respect-ful and eager to improve, and your su-pervisor will be able to give you help-ful feedback. This will increase your professional attitude not only toward those with whom you work but also toward the work itself.

6) Accuracy: It’s more than just a wish! I see many students’ resumes that say, “I would like to transcribe and return reports in an accurate and timely manner.” Do it! Be true to your word.

7) Professionalism: Hustle. “Working from home” is not code for “working whenever it’s convenient for me.” Of course, working from home has the benefit of flexibility, but the companies that hire our graduates take our students very seriously, so you need to take them seriously. Stick to a schedule, or to the schedule the company has made for you, and really push yourself to complete the amount of lines or reports you are expected to complete.

8) Accuracy: Remember that ac-curacy is better than speed. Your company would much rather you transcribe fewer, very accurate re-ports than return a lot of reports, very quickly, that QA has to send back because they contain too many errors. Of course, you want to be produc-tive, but your productivity level will increase with time. Remember that these are people’s health records that you’re dealing with, and you need to be as accurate as possible.

If you feel like you already knew this stuff, try to improve. If you didn’t already know it, try to improve! Com-panies will be more satisfied with your work and you will feel more accom-plished as you internalize these con-cepts and do your best to be profes-sional and accurate in your work.

Save the hassle of having to return a pair of jeans that doesn’t fit right, or shrinks in the wash, or gets lost to someone who fits into them more comfortably. Shop carefully and make sure you’re a good fit. A good pair of jeans only gets better and more com-fortable with time and wear, and ev-eryone knows there’s nothing better than a flattering, comfy pair of jeans.

Happy shopping!

- Melanie GassinCS Graduate Support TeamCS Skills Assessment Team

Work From Home ≠ Easy Slacker JobHigh school teachers have a

big job. While high school students are learning to take on responsibility, it’s understood they are likely to sometimes fail to take note of deadlines, and so teachers take roll, keep track of absences and tardies, mark each student’s progress, and send notifications and reminders about late and/or missing assignments. They make themselves available after hours and during teacher conferences; they often deal with discipline in the classroom, and they sometimes are the first to spot personal and family problems, and so are the first to suggest appropriate help. They also chaperone dances, lead student clubs and organizations, organize and direct performances, go on field trips, and mediate teenage drama.

College professors also have a big job, but it’s different. They also deal with young adults, but the expecta-

tion is that the student can conduct their personal life responsibly and make adult decisions. Beyond an-noyed glances, college professors do not keep track of tardies or even class attendance. The lessons and lec-tures and assignments roll on out, but there are no reminders to make sure they’re turned in on time, or at all. Office hours are posted and strictly observed. There is no chaperoning or babysitting, and definitely no drama mediation. The understanding is the money spent on tuition, along with the students’ personal goals, are a strong enough motivator to drive class atten-dance and to keep track of one’s own progress.

As an adult student in this pro-gram, you must recognize your mo-tivation and take charge of your outcome. If you really want to be suc-cessful with a job in the medical field that also allows you to work in the

comfort of your home, and you stick to a study schedule with a reasonable deadline and put in the hours required to accomplish your goals, you’ll prob-ably make good progress and do very well. On the other hand, if you sort of want something easy to do in your spare time between the soaps and housework while you lounge in your pajamas, or meeting friends for lunch and hanging out at the gym, you probably won’t make much progress. Instead, you’re likely to become dis-tracted, not finish on time, lose your enthusiasm, and become discouraged.

You won’t make much money if you only work in your spare time, ei-ther. Please realize that finishing the course will take a lot of work and time and dedication, and then the job will also take a lot of work and time and dedication. Please don’t make the


Continued from pg. 2 - Coinswho delivers solid work but may need to work on speed than one who spits out lots and lots of lines that need to be redone because of errors—make sense? Of course, your motivation to increase your productivity is strong, because the more lines you produce, the bigger your paycheck is. Know-ing you are producing accurate work will also gain you the praise of your employer, more work opportunities, and the personal satisfaction of a job well done.

Now, let’s return to the analogy of comparing two aspects of profession-alism—accuracy and speed—to a coin. The analogy works pretty well when you consider that a coin must be prop-erly minted to pass as legal tender. If one side is blank or the stamp is crooked, the coin will be discarded at the mint, never to be circulated. Obvi-

ously, if your MT skills are lacking in either area, you won’t be as successful as you would be otherwise.

Some of us who are older may remember when we could fool a soda machine with a blank round “slug,” but today’s coin-operated vending ma-chines are more sophisticated and will not let go of the soda for anything less than real money. The analogy works with this example because the field of medical transcription has become more demanding and sophisticated in the past several decades. What may have passed as just fine 20 years ago is no longer the expected norm, espe-cially in terms of accuracy.

Finally, a coin is a piece of money; at least one goal of every professional medical transcriptionist is to make money. Your professionalism—your ability to produce lines and maintain

a high degree of accuracy—is your coin. It’s what you can offer to trade for other things you desire, and it translates well into a direct application as the monetary reward we all seek.

It’s a simple analogy, but true, and if it helps you understand how impor-tant it is to have a firm grasp of these two seemingly opposing priorities, then it works! Here’s to a long and re-warding career, being the best of the best, having the necessary “funding” to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, and a pocketful of shiny, jingly change!


Dear Susan...Dear Susan—

How many reports should I get done each day in order to go through the course at a reasonable rate? I know each report is different, so maybe that’s not the right question. What I need to know is the approximate ratio of time it should take to transcribe and edit a report, taking into account the length and difficulty of the dictation. Also, is this ratio the same when I’m working (not a student anymore), too?

Worried I’m Going Too Slow

Hi Worried--

We hear this question frequently! You’re right—because some reports are short and easy to understand while others are long and difficult to

understand, I can’t say exactly how many reports you should be getting through each day; however, I can give you an overall ratio that might help.

A very general rule of thumb is 1: 8-10. In other words, for each one minute of spoken dictation, it will probably take you 8 to 10 minutes to turn the audio into text form, including all listening passes, researching, and editing. Using this math, a basic 2-minute clinic note might take between 16 and 20 minutes to transcribe; a 4-1/2-minute report might take between 36 and 45 minutes to transcribe; and a long 8-minute clinic note with average dictation might take between 64 and 80 minutes to transcribe. Of course, this will still vary from report to report, depending on the difficulty of the subject, complexity of formatting, and quality of the

dictator, so don’t beat yourself up if a tough report takes you more like 1:13! Another report will come in at 1:6 to balance it all out—you can bet on it.

These ratios take into account the fact that you’re learning, and that’s your focus—not necessarily speed at this point. In the workplace, the expected ratio will be closer to 1:4-5.

The good news is you’re probably doing better than you thought!

Sincerely,

- Susan Tuckett, CMTCS Student Support Team


Speech WIt’s fun to read speech recognition platform blunders, and it’s just as fun to read the Sunday comics. So let’s

double the fun of this issue’s Speech Wreck feature and read a speech rec blunder comic! (Reading it on Sunday is optional.)

(Note: “SR” refers to what the speech recognition program interpreted the dictation to be. “D” refers to what the doctor actually dictated)

reck

Speech Wreck by Heather Garrett

SR: He has been unresponsive to multiple tacos.D: He has been unresponsive to multiple topicals.

Stepping Up is published quarterly by Career Step for its students, graduates, and client partners .

This newsletter is produced for electronic viewing . The electronic version is available to all current students and graduates at no cost .

Career Step Quality Medical Transcription Training

4692 North 300 West, Suite 150Provo, UT 84604

Phone: 800-246-7837 or888-657-5752

Fax: 801-491-6645Email: [email protected]

Website: www.careerstep.com

Jill McNitt, Editor-in-ChiefHeather Garrett, Associate EditorMelanie Gassin, Associate EditorAlesa Little, Layout Editor


mistake of confusing “work from home” with “easy slacker job.” Yes, most medical transcription positions assume you will be working from home, but the emphasis is on the working part. The MTE pro-gram is a good training ground for you in terms of specific training for the job; it’s also a good training ground for ar-ranging your schedule and circumstanc-es to prepare for the realities of working at home.

A good approach is to treat the course as if it was your job. Try out different schedules and see what works best with the demands of your family. Train your kids and spouse and inlaws and friends to understand that when you’re at the computer and under the headphones, you’re working and cannot be disturbed unless profuse bleeding is involved. Get-ting these boundaries established while you’re a student will help so very much when you begin working; if you allow

yourself to be on call every moment, the expectation will remain after you graduate and make productive work very difficult.

College freshmen often struggle with the transition from high school. Those who realize their outcome is in their own hands are successful; those who depend on reminders to turn in assignments never get them, and as a result, often wash out of college within a couple of semesters. By the same token, Career Step students who realize the training is a realistic preparation for the demands of the job—and treat it as such—will be much more successful in both arenas.


Continued from pg. 9 - Work From Home

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