When choosing your new career, you need to ask yourself: How can I get the training that will give me the opportunity to make the most money in the medical transcription field?
It starts like this:
Not only does MT School of Canada teach you medical transcription, but we’ve also included MUCH value-added content as well. Our job is to not just get you employed – our job is to help you THRIVE within the industry, be able to maximize your income by working smarter, not harder, and have ample opportunities for career advancement throughout your lifetime. How can we accomplish all this?
It’s our philosophy on learning:
First, we make sure you are highly skilled in technology, computers, and software:
1. Know your computer inside and out. This means the operating system (Windows, including files, folders, and documents), the internet and how to smart search for what you need (including great links from medical universities and other specialty institutions), your email program (including how to attach documents, how to upload and download documents, how to save and password protect documents, and how to use encryption software and transcribing software.)
2. Then, learn your word processing program inside and out. We teach Microsoft Word because of its popularity within the industry. Start with beginning MT Word, or if you already know it, skip ahead to intermediate, and advanced MS Word.
3. After that, you’ll learn how to use MS Word the way experienced transcriptionists use MS Word. Learn how to create shortcuts on your keyboard, shortcuts on your toolbar, macros, auto expanders, etc.
4. Learn how to use your Medical Spellchecker to find the correct spellings for the highest quality caliber of report, saving you time and money from not having to look it up.
5. Learn how to type fast AND accurate at the same time. Be the fastest and most accurate typist you can be by working with our typing tutorial software, recommended if your speed is 55 or below. You’ll want to be able to quickly type all types of dictation, including numbers and symbols, while learning to be extremely accurate at the same time. (Don’t worry — we give you a medical spellchecker which helps you to catch any misspellings.) However, striving for excellence in your career will always be your goal.
Many of our students start out fast, but not alway
s accurate. That’s because they’ve never really thought about combining the two – they always assumed that’s “just the way I type.” However, for us to help you maximize your income, we’re going to ask you to practice both speed and accuracy. How can I do this, you may ask? Easy. Focus on accuracy. The speed will come with a dedicated focus on accuracy, and by the time you finish this program, you’ll be accurate as well as producing well above the recommended production rate for employment.
Next, make sure your medical knowledge is PRACTICAL and that you’re not simply learning something for the sake of learning it.
Learning is certainly fun, but does this mean you need to know absolutely everything medical? No, you’re not a med student. Does this mean you go quickly through the medical portion? It depends. If you have a medical background already, you can go through the material directly to the final exam for each module. If you pass it, you can skip it. If you don’t have a medical background, don’t worry. By being methodical, systematical and practical about how we teach anatomy and physiology, we’re able to go much more IN-DEPTH than other programs do, because you’ll go practical WHERE IT COUNTS. Read below to see what we mean:
1. Learn lots of different types of medical terminology including suffixes, prefixes, and root words.
You will work with these so much that you’ll be able to tell what a medical word means without having ever seen it before, just by dissecting the root word, suffix and/or prefix of that term. Not only is this a tremendous timesaver to you (by not having to look every medical term up in a dictionary), you’ll also gain confidence by knowing that you’re transcribing the correct word every time and in the correct context.
2. You’ll get an in-depth study of human anatomy and physiology (A&P).
This A&P is not like you’d learn in a medical school. For example, instead of asking you to learn the exact location of all 206 bones in the human body, with our program, you’ll be required to know in general where the bone is. (Is it in the head or in the arm?) This is so you don’t confuse something like peroneal (in the leg) with perineal (in a more delicate area.)
If you’re going to medical school, of course, you’ll need to learn it all, but if you’re going to transcribe medical reports and want to be as efficient as possible, we suggest you don’t use your time learning things that you’ll never see again, for example, all the layers of the skin (which you’ll most likely never transcribe). We suggest spending your time instead learning terms that will be dictated, their meanings, their uses, and in their correct context, and then practice transcribing those terms in the contexts in which they’re used.
3. You’ll learn surgical terms, anatomic positions, and surgical equipment names.
The MT School of Canada online software is designed to ensure you use your time wisely. It’s not necessary to learn things such as “monofilament suture material is more resistant to harboring microorganisms than multifilament suture material and is easier to pass through tissue.” It’s interesting, absolutely, but it’s not necessary for your productivity as an MT since there’s probably a zero chance that you’ll ever suture up a wound. What IS necessary is that you know that these are 2 different types of suture material, they are generic in nature (meaning they are not capitalized), and there are no hyphens in their spellings. You’ll come to see this is just part of the difference in the MT School of Canada training. Now THAT is something that is practical for YOU and gets our graduates jobs (and it must be working – we have a 100% job placement rate for our graduates!)
4. You’ll learn laboratory data test names with normal and abnormal values.
This is so you recognize the correct lab test and know in your mind what the normal value is. There is no need for a transcriptionist to have to memorize facts such as which lab test is tested under a microscope and which are tested with chemicals. It doesn’t matter! What matters is you get the lab test and its results transcribed quickly and accurately.
I can’t tell you how many times when you’re transcribing fast that 15 sounds like 50. By knowing the general values of normal lab tests, you’ll know right away which is correct. In fact, the more you work with our material, the more you’ll know and the faster you will become since you won’t have to spend critical production time thinking about or researching it. And, of course, time not spent researching it is time spent on producing more lines that go toward your production and towards your paycheck.
5. You’ll learn the names, spellings, and descriptions of hundreds of diseases.
Each specialty has its own common names of diseases, symptoms, and syndromes. By reading about case reports of people with these conditions, watching our video tutorials, and looking at photos, you’ll recognize the name the next time you hear it on the job. Even if you don’t spell it 100% correctly from memory, you can let your medical spellchecker do the work for you. (We show you how this is done with 100% confidence.)
See how being practical is working for you here? And by being practical with what we need to learn, we can go so much farther in-depth than normal training would take you, all of which works to not only increase your knowledge but also to increase your productivity on the job and your value to an employer.
6. You’ll learn to recognize the names of hundreds of drugs and their uses.
Like diseases, each specialty has its own commonly used drugs. By knowing these, you’ll be able to tell the difference immediately from drugs like Zantac and Xanax (which almost sound the same) and automatically increase your productivity. It’s never a good idea to guess at terms, and one must never compromise speed for accuracy, so you need to always be sure of what you’re transcribing. One of the ways we help you do this is by including in your course, special software which allows you to look up these terms on your computer in seconds, even if you’re not online. It comes with the program, and students love it!
7. You’ll learn the names of hundreds of medical diagnostic tests.
Each specialty has its own normal tests with its own terminology, and you’ll explore these within each module. Sometimes there are drugs involved with invasive diagnostic testing, such as intravenous contrast. By having read about these tests or watched the videos, you’re better able to understand what the doctor is doing and less likely to have to stop mid-way through the report to research it.
We bring it all together with specific practice under expert, certified instructor-supervised guidance.
The MT School of Canada transcription practice begins in with the very first medical module. We start with simple words and sentence clips. You click on a clip and type what it says. Then with another click, you know instantly if it’s correct or not. You’ll begin transcribing very simple terms, phrases, and sentences with the very first medical module. As you progress, your dictated sentences become longer, more complex, and include drug names and other tests.
By the time you start the actual transcription practice, you’ve already been transcribing short sentences filled with medical terminology. Now it’s time for the real practice to begin. For our dictation practice, we use the SUM Transcription series for our dictation practice.
The acronym “SUM” stands for Systems Unit Method because SUM units are grouped by body system or medical specialty. The SUM Program for Medical Transcription Training, developed by Health Professions Institute, is the industry-leading medical transcription training practice used in schools, hospitals, and transcription companies throughout the English-speaking world.
We’ve been asked why would we spend that kind of money instead of producing our own transcription dictation? Here’s why: The SUM dictation uses authentic dictation, not simulated or “fake” script-read reports. Authentic dictation features natural background noises such as telephones ringing, papers rattling, nurses talking—even a dictator yawning or eating. It is spontaneous, peppered with “ums” and “uhs,” false starts, corrections, interruptions, and the run-on sentences characteristic of natural human speech. Script-read dictation does not prepare students for the authentic dictation they will encounter on the job. Students who transcribe this authentic dictation develop the finely tuned auditory discrimination skills necessary for employment success.
The SUM dictation includes a wide variety of voices and dictation styles—male and female, rapid and slow, organized and scattered, regionally and internationally accented, mumbled and clear, formal and informal. The more voices to which a student is exposed, the better prepared the student is for the workplace.
The SUM series is organized by body system and medical specialty. Concepts are sequenced from simple to complex, allowing students to build their knowledge gradually throughout the dictation. The software is self-paced so each student can move at a comfortable rate. Students check their own work against transcript answer keys to provide immediate feedback and assure that mistakes are corrected before they become bad habits, and exams are sent frequently to your instructor for editing with feedback and explanations for improvement.
The SUM dictation gives our students extensive transcription practice with up to 47 hours of dictation—at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels—to provide nearly 800 hours of actual transcription practice. These dictations were chosen from a bank of thousands of reports with vocabulary density as a primary selection criteria. The development of marketable skills and a successful transition to the workplace are dependent upon extensive transcription practice with consistent feedback from qualified instructors. Keep in mind that you’ll be gently evaluated each step of the way. Our certified instructors guide you through any areas of weaknesses with additional practice and study activities. Rounding out the rough edges is what we like to call it!
So, not only do you get a FULL program curriculum with 21 different medical specialties, you also have a certified instructor evaluating you as you go. Guiding you, giving you feedback and suggestions, making recommendations, and making SURE you are able to pass those strict employer tests you’ll need to pass after graduation.
You may be thinking that being PRACTICAL means you won’t be learning much about medical specialties. Remember, the MT School of Canada Advanced MT and Editing program is 1,470 hours of course material, more than any other MT program today. This means not only do we explore the subjects that really matter in great depth, but we also cover a whole lot more material when we focus on what really matters.
THAT, in a nutshell, is why this is an advanced curriculum and why OUR graduates get jobs.
So you see, it all comes together to benefit YOU in your quest of becoming an accurate, expert transcriptionist and a top producer in medical transcription, and it’s why our graduates are making some of the best incomes in the industry.
We’d love for YOU to become one of our graduates one day too! Give us a call and let us show you how we can help YOU achieve YOUR career goals.