EDUCATIONAL
Contact: Carol Bryant
Phone: 570-540-3341
Email: CarolBWriter@yahoo.com
Educational Newsletter
Stepping Out and Stepping Up: Getting Certified
By Carol Bryant, CMT
Fall, 2009
“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted” – David Bly
For many of you reading this, the time has come to reap the rewards of your previously planted successes. Time to graduate, time to seek employment, or time to continue your education. Wherever you are in your career path, progress brought you here and forward motion will take you to the next level.
A career in medical transcription is one that carries great responsibility. Ultimately, it is you who translates what doctors are dictating, filling in the timeline of a patient’s progress, and ensuring the correctness of each spoken word in a well-organized and formatted medical report. With all of that responsibility, shouldn’t that be enough to display your commitment to the profession? You can kick back and enjoy a profitable and rewarding career as a medical transcriptionist, your studying days a blur of the past. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? The truth is, a career in medical transcription is a daily journey in learning something new: new terminology, new medications, names of equipment, HIPAA rules and regulations, and much more.
If you’d like to keep pace with these changes, one of the tools in your arsenal of preparedness is to become certified.
CMT stands for certified medical transcriptionist. The CMT credential is awarded upon successful completion and passing of the AHDI certification exam given to medical transcriptionists. The program assumes the student has the skill set Level 2 medical transcriptionist. A minimum of two years of on-the-job experience is strongly recommended by AHDI. In addition to showing a level of dedication and competence in the medical transcription profession, CMTs typically earn a higher salary than their non-credentialed counterparts.
RMT stands for registered medical transcriptionist. The RMT credential is awarded upon successful completion and passing of the AHDI certification exam geared to medical transcription education program graduates, students nearing graduation, or MTs with less than two years’ acute care experience. In addition to showing a level of dedication and competence in the medical transcription profession, the RMT credential assures employers that you are qualified to perform medical transcription duties. The RMT is suitable for candidates who do not yet qualify for the CMT (certified medical transcriptionist) exam but wish to make a commitment to their profession by adding this credential to their name.
Once you’ve successfully passed the examination and receive those three highly coveted letters (RMT or CMT), you are required to maintain a specified number of continuing education credits for a 3-year cycle. In doing so, you maintain your certification, but you also stay current with medical changes, newly added medications to the market, networking opportunities, as well as technological and career advancement opportunities.
Now is the time to celebrate your successes, both the monumental and the smaller scale. It is upon your present successes that future rewards shall grow. Aim high and reach for more. Certification is the next step in ensuring your career as a medical transcriptionist continues you down the road of success.
Medicolegal/Ancillary Information
Page Title: Test Day Preparation and Expectations
By Carol Bryant, Writer, Product Development
2009
Medicolegal/Ancillary Information
Page Title: Test Day Preparation and Expectations
A wise teacher once told me that when the day of a big test arrives, one piece of advice generally rings true: If you don’t know it by now, you aren’t going to learn it today. I never forgot that line because in most cases, she was right. The fact that you’ve come this far in your studies means you are a dedicated individual who has a game plan in place. You want to be ready to tackle the information on the CMT exam or you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
In addition to the helpful test information provided to you in the Orientation module in the form of the Candidate Guide, it might be helpful for you to walk a mile (or a few steps at the very least) in the shoes of a student who has been there and done that. If you take a size 8-1/2, just slip yourself right in. All others, barefoot works just fine.
We’re all adults, so no doubt someone, somewhere in your life has told you this: Get a good night’s sleep before exam day. Cramming that extra bit of information in and/or staying up to the wee hours of the morning will only add to your jitters and in most cases, won’t help when you sit for the test.
Be sure you know how to get to the test center. If you’ve got a GPS unit, use it. If you’re relying on Mapquest or Yahoo Maps to get you there, have the directions printed. If your sister’s cousin’s aunt on your half brother’s side of the family can tell you how to get there, be sure to ask her way ahead of time. The last thing you need is to be driving around an unfamiliar area looking for a test center on test day. Oh, and be sure you’ve got a ride or that the gas tank has gas in it. (trust me, I’ve heard stories).
Don’t plan on taking any notes, personal items, cell phones, MP3 players, etc., into the exam room with you. Most centers that I am aware of provide a locker or place for personal belongings to be safely stored. Err on the safe side and don’t take them in with you or call ahead to ask. I was provided a pencil and a blank piece of paper on which to scribble, draw, make paper airplanes from, etc. At the end of the session, I was asked to turn my scrap pape r in, at which time it was promptly shredded. Short of being frisked, don’t try and sneak anything in; it won’t work.
Indeed there are two sections on the exam: objective and practicum. You’ve just completed the first part of your studies. The objective portion also will benefit you in your practicum because some of the questions may be related. For example, if you can’t recall how to spell “metronidazole” on part A of the exam, but one of your proofreading questions in the practicum portion references this medication, you are in luck. Just be sure the proofreading portion has it spelled correctly, too. Remember, no spell checkers or word expanders.
You will have an opportunity to ‘flag’ any questions you answer for which you are not 100% certain. You can also ‘flag’ questions and come back to them at any time. However, you must return to those questions before you will be allowed to proceed to the second portion of the exam. One of the greatest pieces of advice I have used and wish to share involves the process of elimination. Read the question and immediately eliminate answers you KNOW are incorrect. You’ll not only narrow down your choices, but most of the time the correct answer will then pop right out at you.
Corporate Newsletter
What Lies Beneath
By Carol Bryant, CMT
May-June, 2009
Carol Bryant
Writer/Blogger & SocialMedia/PR Guru
Professional Writer and Editor
