I'm hoping that some of you who are working MTs will answer a question for current Andrews School students.

If you are a supervisor, manager, or owner of an MTSO, your information would be valuable as well. Thanks so much to any and all!

When you started on a new job, what level of instructions did you receive? How long did it take you to learn the new platform? Did you receive a book of instructions, sample reports, or e-mail guidance? How available was help to you and what form was it in? Were you able to IM someone, e-mail them, call them, or what?

Okay, I'll take a stab at this since it is still fairly fresh in my mind and I am always fretting over the "mechanics" of getting stuff done. Hope I don't ramble on too much!

I work for a large national. First, we (a group of about 5 or 6?) were trained in general stuff like logging in, clocking in, using the platform, and where to find information we might need during a set of conference calls over a couple of days by one of the company's trainers. After that, I had contact with my STM (service team manager, who looks after several different accounts) to learn the account I would be working on. I was also given a specific QA mentor who looked over my work and gave me focused feedback and my QA score. I would be assigned several reports and have to send them directly to her for review. I had a week to get to 98%, but I was let off full review of my work the second full day of working. (Boy was that stressful! I kind of still wanted someone to look over my shoulder to make sure I didn't mess things up terribly--but I didn't; I was just slower than molasses). I had the e-mail and phone number for each of the people who helped train me so that I could contact them.

For help with the account stuff, I had account specs, style guide for the company, provider dictation examples, and a "hints" section for that account. We are also able to access past dictations by the provider, past notes for the patient, and we can go back and see if QA has edited anything while re-listening to the audio on our finished work. We can also save normals to their platform, and we can use normals that others have made as well. I can also submit tickets to QA or ask my STM questions if I have them. We also have an e-mail group set up specific to that account. I have noticed more use of that with my secondary account than my primary, but it is still there, and the other MTs on my account are very gracious and helpful when they take time from their work to answer a question.

For help with platform stuff, I had the platform manual, some videos demonstrating how to do certain functions in the platform, and pages where you could get hints for things like your expander. I use IT, and it is not "supported by tech staff" of the company; they will provide you with Shorthand, but they still had hints from other IT users posted to help. There is also a trainer to help with these things.

When learning my secondary accounts, it was similar. I had a QA mentor who reviewed my work, making sure I was getting the account specs, and who answered my questions. After a day or 2 I was let off full review. Again, account specs, dictation examples, hints about providers and the area are made available. I did find that the extra helpful stuff (like lists of providers in the area, dictation examples, etc.) varied from account to account. Some have lots and are great. Some are pretty sparse and not that helpful.

Just this week my account moved to a new platform, with new keystroke combos to learn, new bells and whistles, changes to the account specs, and so on. We had a couple of conference calls with the company trainer to learn the new platform. We have a new manual and a quick guide to the new keystrokes. We had to send our first several jobs through QA to make sure things were coming out correctly. We are also being given a temporary increase in pay to help with any decreased production while learning the new platform.

Time to quit writing my book and get some lunch! Hope this makes sense and helps your students get a mental picture of what the training process might be. Like I wrote, this was for a large national, so for small to medium MTSOs, it is probably different.

That depends totally on the company. The best thing to do with any employer is to ask at the very beginning how they work, what rules they follow, how they handle questions and problems, how long they will allow you to take to get up to speed, what their minimum productivity requirements are, etc.

Large nationals usually have much greater organization and generally supply account specs, some form of training, rules & regs, access to team leaders, etc. for assistance, usually their own platform/software, and sometimes even your work computer. But along with the greater organization and information comes greater rigidity, which for me is very confining and oppressive, not allowing my creativity as much expression. (I happen to enjoy creating scripts and macros.)

Smaller MTSOs, in my experience, have far less structure and generally require MTs with greater computer savvy, independence, and the ability to function without hand-holding.

I'm currently working for a smaller MTSO as a subcontractor. I find that feedback at a smaller MTSO is generally less, but that's also because I'm at a level where if I don't know, they probably don't know either.

In my current position, I requested lots of examples before starting, and I spent a few days carefully studying the samples and preparing my computer (creating macros and AutoHotkey scripts, setting up a quick FTP login, etc.), so when I started, I hit the ground running. There was a flurry of email exchanges with the MTSO owner as I was getting things set up, with some phone calls, as well.

So it's really a matter of (1) asking questions up front and (2) self-knowledge to determine where you will best flourish. For me, being able to work the way I want to work, with the software and tweaking I prefer and enjoy, taking as much time as I want within TAT, and having a personal relationship with the owner are all important factors.

I work for a large national and my experience has been very similar to Bennet's. My training lasted for a week, but I have had a great deal longer to hit production targets than she had. The first transcription I did was an ESL and I literally could not understand a word. I cried. It was day 5 before I listened to my first dictation. I was thoroughly trained in the platform and given manuals for the platform and for each of my 2 accounts. I spent the first week feeling like my brain would explode at any moment. The supervisors create the account manuals, so just how thorough those are really depends on the supervisor. I had one that even listed all the local elementary schools. As I find names of things in the area of my other account, I just add those to my manual.

The first weeks were HARD. My hands hurt, my shoulders hurt, my brain hurt, and my family was cranky because they never saw me. I was well prepared, but it was so much information to absorb. By about week 3 it got easier. Around week 5 I started to think I could do it for a living.

One thing that I did not understand in school was that it is not accurate to think a job is a job is a job. I had no idea how much variety there is in our industry. I recall asking on the grad board how long it took others to reach 1200 lines. At that time, I had no idea that someone on a clinic notes account with 2 dictators might hit 1200 in a week, but you have someone on a hospital account with 1,000 docs and 12 worktypes and it could take months. I really did not realize there was so much variation. For the first few months of working, I thought I was just the worst grad to ever come out of Andrews, and then someone enlightened me that you have to be sure that you're comparing an apple to an apple.

For the most part, I have had excellent mentoring. At times I felt left alone with no guidance, I expressed this and it immediately changed. I am very fortunate to work for a company that cares about its employees. Happy employees are productive employees and when you find a company that gets that then you really have something good.

Oh, the time to reach production is a whole 'nother story! I think I told mine on the newbie forum. The first week I kept track (probably my second week of working) I was at 60 lph. That was painful. My company did give me leeway as far as reaching my production. Experienced MTs have 12 weeks to reach minimum production of 125 lph. I think I took about 16 weeks to consistently reach that point.

I did have to remind myself that help was there if I needed it, I just had to ask. It is hard for me to actually ask for help. Too often I try to figure it out on my own--that would be some good advice to give new grads too. If you have a question, ask! People don't know what you need unless you let them know. I remind myself of that a lot.

Just a CMT here...not an owner or QA. Trying to think back and remember....but...

1. I received a training manual which included company policies and procedures and also the "company" style that deviated from the BOS. We are to go by (1) Client specs. (2) Company standards. (3) BOS.

2. I went through 2 days of training on the platform and then was turned loose to work on my account. All reports were sent to QA until they release you. I was released by the end of the second day I believe, which shocked me. Our platform is very user friendly and was fairly easy to learn. We have sample reports for each account as well as the specs for each account or each hospital/clinic within that account. There are sections listed under each account with special requests or quirks that each doctor may have, specific physician hints that are listed for phrases they may use at a bazillion miles per hour, terms that the hospital or physicians use that they have pretty much made up themselves (I know you are shocked!! LOL), and just about every helpful hint you can imagine.

3. I was given a mentor to contact with any questions. We also have IM, and I have a few QA people on my contact list as well as my supervisor....and all those other REALLY SMART MTs that I know....because if I don't have the answer or cannot find it for some reason...I know they will have it.

4. For all those questions that I get an answer for, whether it be style or medical content questions, blanks filled it, etc., I have a file/cheat sheet that they are listed on. This document has every item I have ever questioned, blank that was filled in, or strange terms that specific doctors use, hospitals, urgent care facilities, treatment centers and doctors in the area of each hospital, you name it...all of those are listed on it. I have no idea how long that document is...I am afraid to find out...it is an ongoing document, 3-1/2 years in the making, but with a quick search I soon have my answer. I also try to incorporate all those "questions" I have in my brain into my Shorthand files so I don't have to question the style again, or how to spell that certain clinic name or doctor's name.

4. We now have email groups for each account. Every MT that works on the account is on the email group list. You can send an email to all the MTs that work on the account and ask whatever question you may have and you usually get an answer back within a minute of sending it. This is a great help to new MTs and those just starting on the account. You have the option of not being on the list.