In This Issue

I’m a snob. It’s true. You heard it here first. Why am I a snob?

Well, I read a lot. When I go to res-taurants I like to talk about “flavor profiles.” When I go to movies I like to talk about great examples of mise en scene. When I go to museums I like to talk about an artist’s use of chiar-oscuro. When there is a conversation about anything from the latest pop music to tennis stats, I like to be a part of the conversation and feel like I have a viable contribution to add to the conversation. I do not like to feel stupid or “out of the loop.” To that regard, I consider myself a constant student. Education is key to helping me stay on top of the world’s pulse, whether it’s degree seeking or sim-ply self-educating with lots of read-ing. Really, if I could, I would be a professional student, seeking degrees in all the liberal arts and just soak-ing in the learning atmosphere from various professors and field experts. Oh that would be delightful, I think. Hopefully, we are all constantly learning.

“Art for art’s sake,” is a phrase credited to French poet Theophile Gautier. In similar forms, this phrase was used earlier by other various art-ists such as Edgar Allan Poe. The phrase conveys the idea of art be-ing valuable for itself alone without any outside influences pushing on it to have some moral or educational purpose. In the same vein, I assert education is valuable for its own sake,

Education for Education’s Sakerather the whole point of our pro-gram—to prepare you to enter the industry as a trained allied health-care professional. So what happens if you don’t graduate from the program? Do you consider all that time, energy, and, indeed, finances wasted? Allow me to ask another question: How many of you read-ing this article obtained a tradi-tional four-year degree and ended up working in a position outside the realm of your degree? I can’t

Volume 14 | Issue 4 | JULY/AUGUST 2011

Case Studies in Success . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Notes From the Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Med Gab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Personal Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . 4

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

What’s Your Objective? . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Graduate Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Dear Susan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

From Thoughts to Threads . . . . . . . . . 7

Finders Keepers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Work Smarter, Not Harder . . . . . . . 10

Med Gab May/June Answers . . . . . . 10

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

without the weight of outside factors such as income or career advancement.

My parents, like many, were pragmat-

ic in the raising of their family. Because children came maybe a little earlier than expected, education was relegated to a “maybe in the future” possibility while the immediate care of their family came to the forefront. They are each success-ful in their respective fields, with a back-ground of “on-the-job” experience alone, but sometimes their positions can be ten-uous depending on the condition of the company and the economy. Without the security of a degree, they sometimes feel that pressure of “if only.”

I’m sure many can relate to that situ-ation. While my parents were not able to fulfill that goal in their lives, the expecta-tion for their children was always to get a degree. My opinion has always been that because they couldn’t do it right away, they wanted nothing to stand in the way

of their children’s edu-cation. It didn’t matter in what field, just that we enjoyed what we studied and that we completed

our degree. They gave us no pressure re-garding some specific career trajectory or income potential. For them, the value of education was simply to have it—what we did with our degree after the fact was somewhat superfluous because my par-ents felt that if we had a degree somehow that meant we would be all right in life.

Many students enter the MT train-ing program with a specific goal in mind: working as an MT. Admittedly, that is

"I assert education is valu-able for its own sake...”

Continued on pg. 8

2 JULY/AUGUST 2011 STEPPING UP

The Value of EducationThere’s a great scene in the

movie Good Will Hunting where the main character, Will, chastises an arrogant Harvard student for pay-ing a fortune for an education that would be free but for the price of a library card not to mention the fact that the student seems to take that education for granted. Not every-one has the ability to attend an Ivy League college, but regardless of where or how we gain new skills and knowledge, it’s important sim-

ply that we continue to learn and to value the education we have. Did you every have a dream college or univer-sity you wanted to attend, but pretty much knew you couldn’t because it was too expensive? Not to wave my nerd flag too high, but I certainly did. I always wanted to attend Em-erson in Boston. Still, I greatly value the education I received, and hope to continue cultivating my skills and knowledge. In this issue we will dis-cuss the value of education, and Co-

lumbia University’s approach to success. To help you, the student body, continue to cultivate your skills we will also touch on tips to eliminating your mistakes and im-proving your productivity. Never forget to balance your education with spots of fun, and to that end join us for a TV themed Med Gab and the always hilarious Speech Wreck. Who knows? Through the laughter, you just might learn something new!

Case Studies in SuccessThe Columbia Approach

In 1754, eight students attended the first class at Columbia Uni-

versity in the City of New York (then known as King’s College). Those eight students were in attendance to receive an education that would “en-large the Mind, improve the Under-standing, polish the whole Man, and qualify them to sup-port the brightest Characters in all the elevated sta-tions in life.” In 2010, a total of 27,606 students attended classes to receive an edu-cation that would do the same.

What has made Columbia Univer-sity so successful over those 256 years to warrant several moves to larger facilities and hundreds of millions of dollars in expansion projects? No doubt, it has been a combination of faculty and student commitment as well as a strong desire to provide and seek superior education.

It is interesting to note that Co-lumbia University has been a leader in medical field education. In 1767, Co-

continued growth and demand for additional quality education, we now offer various programs in administra-tive and technology training. While we cannot boast 27,606 enrollments in a single year, we stand proud at knowing we have assisted over 65,000 students over the span of 20 years to enlarge their Minds and improve their Understanding, thus polishing the whole Man.

Remember I said that it is no doubt a combination of faculty and student commitment that has made Columbia University so successful. Columbia University is set in a metropolis, which lends itself to both vast resources and great distractions. There is no ques-tion that a university in the middle of farmland would provide a focused learning environment. With the ex-ception of the occasional cow-tipping adventure, there would not be much to take one’s mind off of study; but by the same token, unless one is studying farmland, there would not be much to draw from outside of the university’s four walls. Thus, those that attend Columbia University must strike a balance between being committed to education while taking advantage of

lumbia University granted the M.D. degree, becoming the first medical school in America to do so. In 1928, it became the first university to com-bine teaching, research, and patient care when the Columbia–Presbyteri-an Medical Center was opened. Un-der Columbia University President

George Rupp, the Audubon Biotech-nology and Re-search Park was developed in the mid-1990s, once again putting Co-lumbia at the fore-front of medical research.

Likewise, Ca-reer Step has made significant strides in expanding its education opportuni-ties, not to mention the fact that the facility itself has also made several moves due to growth since its found-ing in 1992. Career Step has been a leader in online training, especially in the fields of medical transcription and medical coding. As the school has grown, more programs have been added within allied health services, such as medical editing, medical bill-ing, and pharmacy technician. With

Continued on pg. 10

Notes From the TopRyan Ewer, Vice President of Enrollments and Marketing

I have been with Career Step for almost three years and

joined Career Step with over 10 years of experience in online and direct marketing. I have previously worked in both the education and healthcare industries and was attracted to Career Step by the school’s market leadership and potential for growth, both within the medical transcription space and with the addition of new programs.

As Career Step’s Vice President of Enrollments and Marketing, I have a rather unique vantage point of the medical transcription industry. Over the last year in particular, I’ve seen two major factors emerge: (1) con-solidation and (2) speech recognition technology.

First, over the last year we’ve seen a lot of consolidation within the medical transcription space. As large national companies are acquiring the smaller MTSOs, many of these small companies are finding it harder to compete. However, I think the small MTSOs that are serving specialized, niche markets, such as a specific locale or specialty transcription work, will

still thrive. While on the surface this overall consolidation may seem like a bad thing for our students and gradu-ates who are out there looking for jobs, I think it will actually improve the job market. The creation of these larger organizations means more jobs in the long run, and these large companies often offer better benefit packages and more stability than smaller MTSOs. Overall, I think this consolidation is strengthening the job market for medical transcriptionists and Career Step’s graduates.

The second thing I’ve seen over the last year is the emergence of speech recognition in earnest among both the large and small MTSOs. We’ve been talking about speech recognition for years, but this is the first time the technology is really beginning to move into widespread use. This shift is caus-ing the industry to pause and redefine as we move forward, and I think ev-eryone has realized that the belief that speech recognition could ever truly replace medical transcriptionists is a fallacy. The widespread use of speech recognition technology has shown the need for human intervention and just

how relevant, efficient, and necessary high-quality medical transcriptionists are. The emergence of speech recog-nition at this time also shows Career Step’s industry leadership as we were among the first to offer dual tran-scriptionist and transcription editor training. Our employer partners told us that this shift was coming, and be-cause of those relationships we were able to make sure our students would be competitive in the marketplace.

Looking forward, I think the next area of impact and change will be electronic medical records. It will be interesting to watch how healthcare as a whole evolves to include elec-tronic medical records. Right now, we are starting to see doctors who are self-reporting and even self-coding records, but in the end a better solu-tion will need to be found. Doctors are very expensive medical secretaries, and I think this area will be the next to see the continued evolution of what a medical transcriptionist is and does.

- Ryan EwerVP of Enrollments & Marketing

STEPPING UP JULY/AUGUST 2011 3

Med Gab

1. Dew Key House Her ___________________2. Broil Pay Yawns ___________________3. Mow Bull Are Me Sir Jiggle Oz Bit Tall ___________________4. Call Lift Tux Tub Ball ___________________5. Nor The Turn Next Pose sure ___________________6. Pry Vet Purr Act Us ___________________7. Ye Are ___________________8. Ducked Irk Win Mad is When Woo Men ___________________9. Jen Near All Awe Spit Tall ___________________10. Greek Gore Ye How Us ___________________

Sometimes when comparing what you heard to the comparison grader, you have to sit back and wonder, “How did they get from that to that?!” Many medical TV shows have become an indelible part of our pop culture. In honor of them, our Med Gab challenge this month features many current and classic TV favorites. Enjoy!. Hint: It helps to read the phrase out loud and sometimes quickly to understand the hidden phrase. Good luck!

4 JULY/AUGUST 2011 STEPPING UP

Personal AccountabilityPersonal Discipline: A Practical Look at What To Do

Discipline can be defined as the ability to control behavior.

Personal discipline is the ability to control your own behavior. It sounds simple, but it can be difficult. To have an ability is an abstract concept, but exercising that ability and showing measurable results are the concrete, defining characteristics. Until you show results, the ability doesn’t really exist. I confess; if I could actually ac-complish things with theoretical plans and imagination, I’d be much more than I am today!

The question now becomes: Can we control our behavior, or are we at the whimsy of circumstance? It’s a load-ed question. Of course we can control our behavior and, frankly, feel a little annoyed at the suggestion otherwise! Speaking for myself, however, there are many times when I don’t really seem to be winning the battle between discipline and the whimsy of circum-stance. I procrastinate. I rationalize. I annoy myself because I know bet-ter.

What do I know? The same things you know! I know making a clear plan is important (if you don’t know where you’re going you might end up some-where else, right?), so let’s start with the plan. Many of these have been mentioned already in past issues of Stepping Up this year, but they bear repeating. To make a clear plan, follow these steps.

• Evaluate priorities. A priority is something that is important to you. A high priority task is more important than a low priority task, so it should be accomplished first. Nearly every student who calls Student Support says their coursework is a high pri-ority, but many have made very slow

progress in many months’ time. This indicates it’s a nagging concern, it’s a worthy wish, and maybe the undone coursework creates feelings of guilt, but it’s not really a priority.

If the program is a high priority, it must come before many other activi-ties. Sometimes the choice is not be-tween a good thing and a bad thing (should I work on the course or get re-ally drunk?); sometimes we must say “no” to other very worthwhile, good things to get this done. A clean house is a good thing, but if you find your-self cleaning during your designated study time instead of studying—even if your rationale is that you can’t stand a messy house—then housework is your real priority, not studying. If you are truly dedicated to finishing the program it will be more impor-tant than the dishes. (And the dishes will always wait until your studying is done!) Evaluate your priorities and make study a high priority—for real.

• Identify and eliminate time wast-ers. Have you ever sat down to just check your email before you start to work and an hour later you’re still checking your email because you got a funny video from your friend that you had to watch and then send a little LOL back; and there was an email from your favorite store, with a link and a coupon for a good sale so you did a little browsing; and you got tagged in some Facebook pictures so you hopped over to Facebook to check out your friend’s new photo album, and then you replied to a few posts and then they replied and then you re-plied back…? Well, I have. And it’s fun, but it keeps me from accomplish-ing my task. Then I feel bad. Ugh.

Perhaps your time wasters are differ-ent. Maybe you obsessively vacuum your rugs, or you play WoW until 2:00 am all the time, or maybe you devote too much time to exercise. Whatever it is, squarely face it eye to eye and rec-ognize it. Don’t make excuses, don’t rationalize. That’s an important step.

We often feel we don’t have enough time to get everything done. If we identify our time wasters and elimi-nate them, however, we can often find a surprising amount of time. An on-line time management calendar can quickly and graphically illustrate our time availability. Give this one a try: http://www.studygs.net/schedule/

• Once you’ve identified your personal time wasters, the next crucial step is to eliminate them. Set a timer for yourself when you check your Fa-cebook page so you don’t get sucked into three hours of it. If you know something you like to do usually takes up a chunk of time, do it after your coursework is done, not before. A lot of things that bug us or beckon us can actually be done with family around, or in spare time, but studying can-not. Once you have your study time identified it needs to be sacrosanct. If you fritter away your quiet study time with online shopping or watch-ing the CSI episode you missed, you cannot make it up later when the kids are bouncing around, no matter what you tell yourself. If you study during your quiet time, however, you proba-bly CAN browse your favorite catalog or watch TV with the kids.

Now for the kicker: The defining as-pect of discipline is the follow-through, the doing.

Personal accountability: Standards you set and promises you make to yourself about your level of performance and mode of behavior. It involves accepting responsibility for your choices and how you choose to react to any situation; it affects all

areas of your life, it shapes your personality and, in many cases, influences your level of success in your chosen field

Continued on pg. 12

STEPPING UP JULY/AUGUST 2011 5

Student SpotlightChristina Lyons

a therapist while being pregnant and raising my children. I knew I had to leave that type of work.

I have 2 little girls now, ages 4 and 2, and they are a handful! My 2-year-old was recently diagnosed with au-tism, which only reinforced my desire to work from home. Before her diag-nosis came, deep down I knew she needed my help; I just did not know exactly how.

I enjoy learning medical terminol-ogy and the challenge that it pres-ents. I also like the fact that there is so much to learn, that you can never be done learning all there is to know for medical transcription. It is an end-less stream of learning! Another way that Career Step has been a blessing is

the wonderful people I have met along this journey. I do not think I could have completed the course without the awesome support I have received from my fellow students. The Career Step forums have been invaluable.

Career Step has been a huge bless-ing for me. It has given me hope and a sense of accomplishment. Hope for the future, that I can help my family while, at the same time, being here for my girls.

I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to study with Career Step, and I am very excited to see what the future holds for me. Cheers!

- Christina Lyons

I’m Christina Lyons and I am currently a Career Step medi-

cal transcription student. I have actu-ally finished the course; just working on the final exam now and hoping to graduate soon.

I am originally from Los Angeles, CA, where I studied clinical psychol-ogy. I received my master’s degree and became a mental health thera-pist, working primarily with foster children. I worked as a therapist for 4 years. I had great experiences during those 4 years and I will never forget them, but I decided to stop for several reasons. The first was burnout and the second was that I had my first child on the way. I could not imagine hav-ing the daily stress from working as

What’s Your ObjectiveThe importance of a targeted objective statement on your resume.

ing—the one that helps you to focus specifically on your subject. Similar-ly, the objective on a resume conveys your focus, your purpose, and your goals. Most resume objectives have completely lost their focus; they are not targeted. Instead, they are writ-ten very generally and don’t convey a whole lot to the employer.

Targeting your objective statement is one of the quickest ways to get an employer’s attention and you can do this in two ways—First, write it to include very specific details. Name a skill or two you bring to the table that makes what you have to offer unique. Second, be sure that your goals are the same as the employer’s goals, and be specific in how you present that infor-mation as well.

To help you understand these two tips, imagine that you are standing on a street corner waiting for a bus next to a physician. He turns to you and

starts telling you about a position that they are hiring for in their company.

“We’re looking for a recent gradu-ate trained in acute care reports specif-ically operative reports and dishcarge summaries, someone who is willing to work full time from home on produc-tion and maintain a 24-turnaround timeframe .”

Inside, you think, “Oh, I’ve done all those things and that’s the perfect job for me!”

Then you say to the physician, “Well I’m looking for an entry-level MT position where I can use my edu-cation and develop my skills to their full potential.”

It sounds silly, but in a way, this is what many applicants are doing with a generic objective. They are not an-swering the employer directly and, therefore, not selling themselves as best as they can.

“Due to high volume of re-sponses that we’ve re-

ceived, you will not be contacted un-less you qualify for the position.”

This is the difficulty with online applications. While the internet brings convenience and speed to the applica-tion process, it has also allowed more applicants to apply more quickly, mak-ing it easier for an employer to be more selective and harder for you to stand out and get an interview. In many cas-es, all you are able to do is submit a copy of your resume with some basic information. Therefore, it is essential you make your resume count. Today’s topic: the objective statement.

If we break out our handy diction-ary, we find that the definition of the word “objective” is: something that one intends to attain and accomplish; purpose; goal or target. The objective lens on a microscope is the lens that is the closest to what you are examin- Continued on pg. 9

6 JULY/AUGUST 2011 STEPPING UP

Dear Susan...Dear Susan—

I can’t seem to get through this course! I got sick a couple of months after I enrolled and then found out I was having a baby. My 4-year-old wouldn’t let me study. Then the holidays came around, and my family came out to visit. I had the baby, and there’s been so much to prepare for. I volunteer at church, and my husband wants me to go camping with him every weekend. My course is going to expire, but I haven’t been able to complete very much. I really want to finish and be a good MT. Do you have any ideas for me?

Signed,Overscheduled

Dear Overscheduled—

A big factor in being successful here is dedication and setting boundaries. You must set time aside on a regular basis to work on your course, perhaps a few hours every day, perhaps less, but make it regular and make it a priority. Let others know that this time is dedicated to this work so you will not be interrupted.

A lot of times we think we will

get things done in our spare time, or when everything else settles down, only to find that our spare time gets swallowed up and things never settle down. Dedicating specific time for

study creates a habit and sets an important precedent for your future working life, also—you cannot be a successful working MT if you only work when you have nothing else to do!

It’s time to plan how you’re going to spend your time and when, and then stick to your plan. It’s the only way to achieve your goal of becoming a successful MT.

Sincerely,

- Susan Tuckett, CMTCS Student Support Team

Graduate In The SpotlightTerry Head

My mom is going to be 77 this year and has several illnesses that re-quire many doctor visits, and I spent a lot of time researching things that the doctors had told us. This brought me to see that I had an inter-est in medicine, but I wasn’t sure how I fit into that. I discussed this with a good friend who is a graduate of Career Step and working MT, and I started thinking that this was a course I would like to pursue. After many conversations with myself, my friend, and my husband, I began to seriously consider taking courses to prepare for a change. As I continued in my man-agement position, my interest in the medical field and transcription grew, and then… the hammer came down. My office was closed due to the econ-omy, and I was out of a job. Thirty plus years just went down the drain. A large chunk of our income was just gone, along with the family medical benefits.

Wow, could I get a bigger sign than that?! I signed up with Career

Step a week later and haven’t looked back since.

I had originally hoped to finish the course in 6 months, but this was in-tensive training and I needed time to soak up every tiny bit! I got through the objective portion pretty quickly and confidently, and then came actual transcription and a whole new world. There were days when I just wanted to quit, but I kept on plugging away and determination did pay off ! I passed the final with honors on the first try and began sending out resumes. Be-cause I was able to state that I was a Career Step honors graduate on those resumes, I was able to secure a posi-tion within 2 weeks of graduation. For those of you feeling frustrated or who are struggling, please know that you are not alone. I had several mo-ments of feeling like I just couldn’t do it, but here I am today, a working MT!

- Terry Head

Hi, my name is Terry Head, and I am honored to be writing

this for the Graduate Spotlight! My husband and I live in a small rural Arkansas town of about 2000 with our dog Rosie who, by the way, does not know that she is a dog and pretty much rules the roost here.

I began my studies in March of 2010 and passed my final exam with honors in April of 2011. I have just started employment with Nuance Transcription Services, and I am very excited about the future. I am confi-dent that I am well prepared to move forward in this new and challenging career.

When I started the program, I had no experience whatsoever in the medi-cal field. I’d spent the last 30 years in an office management position but had for quite some time been thinking of changing career paths. I was getting older, 52 this year, and it had been a very long time since I’d taken classes. I was very nervous to start over at this stage in my life.

STEPPING UP JULY/AUGUST 2011 7

From Thoughts to ThreadsProductivity!

One of the big worries for students and new graduates is productivity. In the Continuing Education and Professional Networking forum a.k.a the MT Graduates forum, there was a great discussion on productivity and some tips to proofread and

edit as you go along. Enjoy!

Hello. I think I am the slow-est MT out there. I am in des-perate need on how to increase my productivity. I am constantly adding to my text expander and always using it. I think I am spending too much time editing and proofing my reports. I need some suggestions on how the rest of you are editing and proof-ing and keeping your accuracy in the 98-100% range. Please help. I do not want to lose my job for being slow. Thank you.

How long have you been at this? Do you find errors when you are editing and proofing? If so, keep it up . Accuracy is more important than speed . How are you editing and proofing your reports? Are you listening again? Would you feel comfortable just scanning them instead of listening to every word?

If you are finding no errors, I would eliminate a few of those steps. I would never re-listen to the whole report. If you have an area in question, listen to that again, sure, but not the whole thing . There should never be a need to listen to the whole report again . You can do a visual scan of the report for punctuation or even a quick read of the history of present illness and the assessment for verb tenses and other likely errors. If you are making errors, make a note of what type of errors. Check for them while doing the report instead of later.

Slow down. If you are going so fast that you are missing punctuation, words, or just messing up, slow down. If you cannot produce a perfect report at the speed you are editing, then slow down and eliminate that 2nd pass. You will end up with better production in the long run.

Some of this depends on whether you are doing straight or SR transcription. Seemingly all of it depends on cultivating your ability to focus.

1 . Playback speed: Playing the audio as fast as you can is one thing, but often if you back off your maximum speed on a dictator, your 1st pass will be more accurate .

2 . Demographics: Commit to focusing so intently on the demographics (both in the headers AND what is typed in the report) that you are confident that you don’t ever need to replay the names/MRNs/dates .

3 . Number strings: Commit to focusing so intently while the vital signs and lab values are being dictated that you feel confident enough to skip any additional passes . Slow down for this portion if need be, because looking at that list again should be unnecessary .

4 . Headings, lists, short sections: As you go through the first time, make a visual check to ensure that you or the SR engine has indeed placed the correct verbiage . Our SR likes to change them out, seemingly at random; it often puts “PRIMARY COMPLAINT” instead of “CHIEF COMPLAINT” and also seems to have selective hearing when it comes to numerals .

5. Physical exam normals/usuals: Commit to focusing on those parts of the PE that indicate a normal/negative exam. Generally, the dictator will say the same things for such, and you shouldn’t need more than a 1st pass to make sure you have “the usual” accurate .

6 . Another consideration is how much time you spend confirming/verifying versus investigating. Although an expander’s quick-add feature is a real time saver, you might get out a scrap paper and jot down the drug names and new terms and go back after your work shift is over to investigate them more fully and get all the variations into your database when you are off the clock. This would mean working more hours than your shift requires, but you could be using your shift hours to produce lines. You do need to verify the information in your reports, but consider any further investigation to be your investment into your career . You might not get paid today for this investment, but you will be informing your brain and filling your expander to make the future reports that much faster.

That is where I am at these days, working on all of the above. We have to tackle this elephant one bite at a time. Hopefully you find something helpful for your own situation.

In addition to those focus points, I have noticed that my speed is extremely sensitive to my diet and sleep. If I eat plenty of healthy foods, especially rich in proteins and fats, and get suf-ficient sleep, my mind and fingers can “fly” (if that can be said of a newbie), but if I eat to many snacky carbs or sweets, I start to feel icky and just want to crawl into bed. Especially start-ing out, this job really takes su-per concentration and audio plus visual multitasking and not acci-dentally hitting the wrong keys.

I’m in up to my knees trying to get focused on this bunch of

Continued on pg. 8

8 JULY/AUGUST 2011 STEPPING UP

Continued from pg. 7 - Forum Report

Continued from pg. 1 - Education

be the only one raising my hand. Now let me ask, do you consider your time, energy, and finances wasted on your bachelor’s degree in English just be-cause you ended up working for an online healthcare education company? Certainly not, and in fact, I have found ways to use the skills I gained from my degree to help me in my current position. I argue that the same can be said for any additional knowledge

and training you receive. The valuable skills and knowledge you gain in the program, such as typing, transcrib-ing documents from dictation, edit-ing and proofreading, anatomy and pathophysiology, can be used in vari-ous worthwhile capacities.

So where do you stand on the edu-cation-for-education’s-sake argument? Do you feel education is only worth-while if some monetary element is a result? Or do you feel that no mat-

ter what, education is worth it just to have additional skills and knowledge? Well, I must say I stand firmly on the side that knowledge gained is never wasted. Hey, at least you won’t ever look stupid participating in a conver-sation about the healthcare industry, and that’s worth something, right?

- Chelsea PyleCS Skills Assessment Team

ideas, and it does seem that I need to pick one and master that, then while I’m improving on that one, add another focal point. It really is rewarding to reach a new level.

Thank you all for your wonderful information. I used some of it on my shift today and have already increased my line count significantly. All of you are wonderful.

I have always taken the long view of transcription and expander usage. It is going to take time to build speed and efficiency, but it is a nonlinear process. In earthspeak, that means that the more you do in terms of expander entries, the more you text you can generate. I tend to sacrifice short-term productivity and enter shortcuts on the fly.

During periods of heavy development, such as when I discover a new class of editing macros or words to enter, I will take notes as I work and enter them off the clock. The editing macros are problematic in that they may not always work outside of my platform. However, most of them will work in Word, so I can get a start there, then tweak as necessary while working. (This works better at some times than at others. If you work in Word itself, no worries.)

I too have recently struggled with line count after the formulation for

calculating it was changed giving only 1/2 credit for VR lines.

One of the tips that has helped is to set your foot pedal settings to move back 1 to 3 seconds when you take your foot off the pedal. Transcribe or edit your document as you normally would, but do it only one sentence/phrase at a time. After you have en-tered or edited the first sentence, re-move your foot from your foot pedal in order for the sound file to move back to the beginning of a sentence or phrase; a quick re-listen to check for added words or improper gram-mar, etc .

I know it sounds like it would slow you down, but it actually helps . By the time you finish the report it is well proofed and you usually won’t need to re-listen to the entire report or even re-read it. It becomes second nature.

Over editing. How many people make their reports look like literary masterpieces? Do you put in he or she when the doc only said was? Do you change things just because it reads better? We were given VR editing courses and the biggest thing I was guilty of was over editing. I was a master at it! When VR puts in something like medical history, do you change it to past medical history just because you like that heading better (on our accounts the headings are not set in stone)? When you are doing labs and 99% of the time the labs read white count xx, hematocrit xx, hemoglobin xx,

platelets xxx, do you stop and add the ‘was’ in between hematocrit and the number? The doc only gave the verb that one time. What do you do? Do you add it or keep going? Do you change patient to the patient? These are all examples of changes that are not necessary and take time. VR, when it learns doctors well, puts the most common way of doing things. If you make unnecessary changes, this takes more time for VR to learn its job well. If all the employees on an account are doing the same thing, VR gets better faster. This is especially true in repetitive areas such as physical exams.

My other thought, do you read ahead of where you are? Do you edit in front of yourself during a pause? Do you also edit behind during breaks in speech? Some pauses are quite long and these are perfect moments to review what was already written or edit obvious errors ahead of yourself.

These suggestions should be verified with account instructions. Some accounts allow no variation at all. Some do.

-Chelsea PyleCS Skills Assessment Team

STEPPING UP JULY/AUGUST 2011 9

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!

Probably most experienced MTs know this trick, but I

just discovered it REALLY works for me! I was stuck on a drug name in a report, but the doctor clearly dictated the dosage. I tried the phonetic search at www.drugs.com as well as the FDA site, but didn’t find what I was look-ing for. Then I used Google to find it. Here’s how:

• I typed in the dose (for example, 0.4 mg). The first results that came up were the most common drugs, but for this report, they were not what I was looking for.

• I tried another search. After the 0.4 mg I put a space, then -Flomax. Putting the minus sign in front elimi-nates Flomax as results for the search. Most of the sites that came up were for nitroglycerin. Still not what I was looking for.

• For the next search I added -ni-troglycerin to my terms. Still too many choices that didn’t fit.

• As results that were not what I wanted appeared I kept adding them to my search terms, with the minus sign in front to eliminate them for the next search results.

• After about 4 tries, a drug that looked like what I was searching for popped up. A quick look in my drug reference verified that it was the right dosage and it treats what this patient has. Voila!

I was just about to give up when I tried this trick with Google searches. HURRAY! I was so excited! Don’t you love that high you get when you find what you’re looking for and don’t have to leave a blank?

Finders Keepers!

Now imagine the same scenario, except this time you respond with: “Well, I’ve recently graduated with honors from the Career Step medi-cal transcription training program. Within that training we typed over 800 reports including operative re-ports and discharge summaries on an acute care level. In a previous posi-tion I worked on time-sensitive proj-ects, never missing a deadline, and it just so happens that I’m looking for a full-time position.”

Now you’ve piqued the employer’s interest. You’ve focused your response to their needs and now you’ve got the physician thinking, “Wow, you are the perfect candidate!” All you’ve done is change your introduction and the in-formation on which you have chosen to focus.

That being said, most likely, an employer isn’t going to walk up to you while you’re waiting for the bus, but they do post job listings that contain the same information and more detail

about what they are looking for in a candidate. Similarly, you will not re-spond verbally to that job listing in the same way you might in casual con-versation on a street corner; however, if you’re imagining yourself speaking to the employer directly, you’re going to find you have a more targeted re-sume. Your resume is a chance for you to respond to the employer in written form. You might end up with an objec-tive statement like this:

Seeking a full-time MT position where I can utilize my recent training in various report types including clin-ic notes, operative reports, discharge summaries, etc. as well as my experi-ence with confidential and time-sen-sitive information to ensure accurate patient documentation.

A resume is all about presentation. You can take the same information and present it a number of ways, and you should be aware of what your resume conveys to an employer. With each ap-plication, you have a choice to submit a resume with a generic objective, one

that is targeted to a position, or one that is targeted to the specific position and employer you are applying for. An employer will always prefer the third.

As you adjust your objective state-ment on your resume, it’s as if you are adjusting the objective lens for an employer. They’re more easily able to focus on the most pertinent informa-tion and see you as a clear candidate for their open position. Although that requires some effort on your end, it will be well worth it once you get that interview. Best of luck in your appli-cations!

- Jenae WalkerCS Coding Graduate Support

Continued from pg. 5 - Objective

10 JULY/AUGUST 2011 STEPPING UP

Work Smarter not HarderImproving Transcription Skills

If you seek to improve your tran-scription skills, you probably al-

ready know that transcribing practice reports is essential to building those skills. Make sure to get the most out of all the hard work that goes into transcribing each report. If you take time to study your mistakes by com-paring your work to the key, you can apply what you have learned to other reports you will transcribe and have a much better chance of not making those mistakes again.

For example, if you find you typed an incorrect word because the correct word was not familiar to you, you have the opportunity to look up the unfa-miliar term and find out how it fits into the context of the report. The next time you hear that word dictated in the same context, even though the dictator may be mumbling or talking quickly or have a foreign accent, you

will be more likely to hear the correct word due to your prior experience with that word.

Maybe you find you typed an in-correct word but the correct word is familiar to you. You may find it helpful to take a moment to go back to the audio and try to hear how you misheard the word. Listen first for the wrong word. This will help you have perspective on how you heard the wrong word to begin with. Then, re-wind that part of the audio and listen specifically for the correct word. Try to hear the subtle difference between what you originally heard and what you should have heard. This exer-cise will help you learn to listen more carefully.

A few other examples of mistakes that you can learn from are homonym and proofreading errors. For example,

you type “ileum” and the correct word is “ilium” or you type “principle” and the correct word is “principal.” You will want to look up both terms and learn how and in what context each word is correctly used. If you find you made a typo or another proofread-ing error, make sure to be more care-ful when proofreading your reports for that type of error in the future.

When practicing reports, remem-ber to work smarter and learn from your mistakes so you do not repeat them! The more reports you practice, the more you will learn. The more you apply what you are learning from each report to future reports, the few-er mistakes you will make!

-Sue SawyerCS Client Skills Assessment Team

Continued from pg. 2 - Successthe vast resources a metropolis may offer without becoming so distracted by the plethora of information and experiences that they lose sight of their goal.

An online education is quite simi-lar. The Internet presents an abun-dance of valuable information, but it also offers significant distractions. On

the one hand, it allows you access to almost an endless amount of websites with information that you would have had to either purchase in hardcopy or borrow from the library not so many years ago, saving you both valuable time and money. On the other hand, with chat rooms and Twitter and Fa-cebook and the like, the Internet has become a social vortex that can pull you away from your studies every time

you turn your computer on. It is your commitment to your education that must set the balance in such a unique learning environment being provided by one of the leading “ivy league” schools in online education.

- Heather GarrettCS Skills Assessment Team

May/June Med Gab Answers

1. Clear to auscultation2. No known drug allergies3. No rales, wheezes, or rhonchi4. Complains of nausea and weakness5. Follow up in 6 months6. Bowel sounds normal

7. Comprehensive metabolic panel8. Prepped and draped in the usual sterile fashion9. Significant weakness in extremities10. Inflammatory bowel disease

STEPPING UP JULY/AUGUST 2011 11

Speech WWhat if doctors spoke in newspaper headlines? Would speech recognition translate them into deadlines? See if YOU

can figure out what top stories these doctors (or reporters) are trying to convey.

reck

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

This newsletter is produced for electronic viewing and print . The electronic version is available to all current students and graduates at no cost. Print subscriptions are $25 for a one year and $40 for a two year subscription .

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: SteppingUp@careerstep.com

Website: www .careerstep .com

Jill McNitt, Editor-in-ChiefChelsea Pyle, Associate EditorHeather Garrett, Associate EditorAlesa Little, Layout Editor

12 JULY/AUGUST 2011 STEPPING UP

• Commit and do. Of course, this is the hardest part—really following and work-ing your plan. No one will crack a whip over your head or bug you to take action. You have to control your own behavior. It’s a command you speak to yourself: “Commit!” It’s the decision that drives the action that follows the planning and preparation. “Study!” It’s a verb, an ac-tion word. Can you do it? Of course! Here’s how:

1. Fire up the computer and log on to your program. 2. Work a page, submit it. Click Next.3. Repeat from #2.

Just do it.

Many sources say it takes about 21 rep-etitions before something becomes a hab-it. If you make yourself log on, work a

page, submit, click Next, and repeat for your dedicated study time for 21 days, you’ll have vanquished your procrastination demons and be flying toward your goal. Remember, none of your personal time wasters feels as good as accomplishment and suc-cess!

Next up, motivation and rewards, slated for next issue. See you then!

Check this out: http://www.iamthankful.com/science/21-days-to-form-a-habit-you-can-do-it.

-Jill McNittCS Student Support Team

Continued from pg. 4 - Discipline...