FTCC/Career Step program

[AnneMD]

P.S. My daughter's birthday is in '04, too... September 2nd. This is a fun age!

[jehjir]

what is the site address to check out Career Steps?

Thanks

[logansmommy2004]

Angela - The main Career Step website is www.careerstep.com but we are taking the course through Fayetteville Technical Community College at http://www.ftccmedonline.com. HTH!

Anne - That is really great! We both seem to have the same goals in mind. I can't wait to do the MT course as well. I don't know if I want to go through CS as well because of the cost or MTEC because I've heard great things about them.

Yes this is a fun age. My ds turned 5 last month and now he thinks he is a grown up lol. Cute story: Yesterday he got mad about a toy and said he didn't want to be part of our family. So he went and packed a little bag of clothes, got his pillow and blanket and then spent 20 minutes going up and down the sidewalk debating what to do next. (I had my eye on him the whole time.)Finally he came in and said, "I'm staying!" LOL Definitely a fun age!

Did you notice our Joined date is almost exactly the same as well? (I was a member of the old board before that as well.) Crazy!

[Mddrthr2]

Hi all,

I'm a little slow in getting started with the orientation. How is everyone doing so far? I missed a couple of questions but still did okay.

[Mddrthr2]

I just looked at the expiration date for this course. Does this really expire in July 2010? I thought it was much sooner.

Helen

[Mddrthr2]

I was disappointed to find out that the only books that we would be getting would be only dictionaries, etc. I was hoping that we could get a course book so I wouldn't have to sit at the computer.

I don't really want to print out pages every time I want to sit someplace else and study.

[logansmommy2004]

How is everyone doing so far? I'm moving along slowly but surely. My books are due to arrivesome time today.

I followed a link to a Medical Billing/Coding Community forum and I must say I have become very discouraged after reading some of the posts over there. The impression I got from them was that there is 0 chance of finding any billing/coding jobs to do from home even with experience. Unless, of course, if you start your own business and find your own clients but most likely you'll end up working in-house.

Talk about depressing! My ultimate goal is to continue working from home and it just doesn't look like that's going to be possible. Maybe I should have stuck with MT but even that isn't a guarantee.

Sorry for venting! I am really enjoying the course but where is it going to get me in the end I'm wondering.

[AnneMD]

Hey Jennifer,
I'm moving slowing through, too. I'm on the grammar section on Med Term Block 1 right now. I'm not finding it difficult, but I'm suddenly feeling overwhelmed with how much there is to go through on top of having to finish my transcriptions for MTEC!

As for feeling depressed about what you read on the billing/coding forum... try not to let it get you down. There are plenty of MT forums where people complain that they can't get a job... but plenty of new grads DO get jobs. They are busy working! The thing about a lot of forums is that people who are having problems or wanting to complain seem to gravitate towards them.

Now, that said, it may be difficult to land your first job in coding working from home. I do think some people are able to do it... but I know it is hard. But from things I've read, it seems like coding is going to become more of an at-home position... especially as facilities move more and more to EHR. It used to be that you HAD to be on-site to code, because you needed to actually have the patient's medical file in your hand in order to do that job. But those hard copy files are going to be a thing of the past... the records will be online... and many facilities would rather employees work from home, anyway. It is a cost-savings for them, too!

Maybe you should consider doing both the coding and the MT courses... that is what I did. My hope is to do MT from home first with the plan of eventually moving into a coding job from home. I may be dreaming... but I'm following my dream! LOL!

[Mddrthr2]

You guys are really moving along. I'm still on the hardware section, not because it's hard, I'm strugging to find extra time in my day. I'm sure I'll get something done over the weekend and catch up.

I got my box of books on Monday. I didn't open then since there was no "hard copy course book".

[logansmommy2004]

AnneMD - Thank you so much for your post! It's so easy to read those forums and get discouraged. I just have to remember for every 100 that fail there are those few that succeed. I all ready had plans to do the MT course as well so looks like we are dreaming the same dream lol. Thank you again for being so encouraging!

Mddrthr2 - I have extra time on my hands because I lost my job a few weeks ago but I must say I've been neglecting my housework lol. I just got my box of books a few minutes ago so I'm off to open them.