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Best advice from Mom

This isn't specific to you but general advice my Mom gave me when I was starting my first job (summer job right out of high school).

Practice "confident humility."

Be confident in your abilities - especially the ability to learn new things.
Be humble about your knoweldge - you do not know everything, and you certainly know little about the specifics of your new work environment. Be eager to learn, rather than eager to impress them with all you know.

Still good advice even 40+ years later.

Best of luck in your new endeavor.

F Tessa Bartels, CPC, CEMC
 
Hi Tessa

I like it (mom's advice).that is 100% true. BE CONFIDENT

most of the times I know my answers.But I am not confident.So, I always hear from everyone (my instructor,co-workers,manager etc.,)
 
This is what I have learned over the years.

If someone's willing to teach you something, be willing to learn. You don't know everything, you never will know everything, accept that and enjoy it! I love to learn.

Good luck in your new position!
 
Good Luck! I have been an outpatient coder for sometime now and it has been a great learning experience, I love coding for all the different departments and specialties that our hospital have. Outpatient coding is more difficult then physician coding, I have done both and there is one thing that I miss, physician coding I was more in sync with the physicians and we communicated well, out patient coding I rarely can ever get the docs to call me back, Good Luck I hope everything works out for you!
 
Thank you all for the advice. I really look forward to getting on these forums and networking with fellow coders. Confidence is usually my biggest problem. I know I do not know everything about coding (who does?), but I seem to not assert myself with what I do know. Thanks again for everything. I am excited about what the coding future holds for me.
 
Congrats on the job! :D

My first 'real' coding job is as an outpatient coder. I love it. What type of facility are you at? How big is it? I'd love to keep in touch with you and we can offer each other advice!
 
Congrats! My advice is..if you are asked to do something, say "Yes". Don't get too worked up about "It's not my job" or "I don't know how". You can always find someone to help you with the parts you don't know by saying "I've enver doen that before, but I'd like to learn", but if you say "It's not my job" you will never learn new skills. If you decide to ever leave this employer, then you have a variety of skills with which to market yourself, and if you stay with the same employer, then when they are looking around for someone to fill a position, there you are!!
 
Facility Staffing

I too am new to the facility side of coding and I totally agree confident with a splash of humility goes a long way......and along the way learn to laugh at yourself, it beats the frustration.

So I have some questions for facility coders and managers.

How many of you code for the facility from the staff and provider notes versus the charge tickets? If you can tell me which method you use and how many FTEs you have assigned to it I could get my homework done for my manager. I have personally contacted 3 separate facilities and have 3 very different answers. So now I am curious to see if there are more of the same or more - different answers to be discovered.

Thank You!

Nancy Reading RN, BS, CPC, CPC I
Coding and Compliance Educator
Health Information
University of Utah Hospital and Clinics
 
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