Hello fellow transcriptionists!

[Sheri]

Hi guys and gals! My name is Sheri. I am a court reporting student and a working medical transcriptionist. I love that a group just for us has been added. Please feel free to contact me at any time for questions or just to chat.

[jayne]

How did you find a job as a transcriptionist while you were a court reporting student? Thanks jayne

[Sheri]

Hi Jayne. Well, I decided to be a medical transcriptionist in 2004. I took an online course from our local community college and finished in a year. Took me two years to get a job. I applied to our local hospital every six months until they called. In the meantime I worked part-time on an intern basis with a national company just honing my skills. But let me say that I'm nowhere good enough to work as a production based MT. I originally got into court reporting school to learn the steno to use in my transcription. But now I'm going for court reporting b/c the money is better. Hope that answered your question. If you have any more, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Paula Martin]

I was just wondering where you went to court reporting school? Do you know of any schools for scoping? I have been a medical transcriptionist for 15 years but as you may know that the pay is not so good and it is hard to contract your own work with so many companys running out us independent transcriptionists. I am ready to make a change but I want to go in the right direction. Could you please give me some advice? Are you finished with court reporting school yet? How long did it take? The costs? Of course, I am not sure what area you are in so it may be different here. I live in OKC, OK. Please let me know any information can pass along to me! Thanks! Paula Martin :)

[Sheri]

Hey Paula. There are some scoping schools out there that you can do online. Best Scoping School is one of them. I would ask for more info from the scopists on this site as I don't know that much about scoping schools. I went to the Court Reporting Institute of Dallas, which has an online course. I live in Louisiana and the closest on-ground school is about an hour drive from me so I decided to do online. I did not make my speed requirements this past quarter so I had to quit and I'm now looking into doing voice writing instead of the machine. You need to check your state's requirments for court reporters to see what kind of reporting they allow, as some states don't accept voice writing. You can look at about 2-3 years of school when training on the machine if you just breeze through it. I had 3 four month quarters for theory before I stated speed. If I decide to pick up the machine again, I am looking at about a 1 to 1-1/2 years to finish. Voice writing will take me about 6 months to a year to finish. I would recommend going to the National Court Reporters Association and the National Verbatim Reporters Association for more information. Also, with your experience you may want to go to some of your local reporter services and see if they need any transcriptionists to get some experience that way and see if you would actually like reporting. That is an option I'm looking at as I got laid off my hospital gig when we got outsourced to a national. I make more money getting paid by the line but I have to work 10 hour days to get it! As far as the costs of school, it will vary. I paid 3105 per quarter at CRID. If I decide to do the voice writing, the most expensive one I've found so far is 5000. I know of a lady on this site who does voice writing and she trained herself. Her name is Debra. She is on my page as a friend, so please go there if you'd like to ask some questions. Again, ask away on this site and do some internet research. I hope I answered your questions. Keep in touch with me and let me know how goes. Add me as a friend!