I wanted to do something different and since i have kids, something to do at home. I have been an rn for 20 years and have worked in cancer nursing (oncology) to running a physician practice....Now I work in the ER. I'm not getting any younger. 12 hour shifts, holidays, no lunches, heavy lifting..I HURT when i get home. A group of us looked into different things..medical billing, etc.. and 2 of my friends took an RN coder course that i also ended up taking. It was expensive and 1 week long but we have a certification that was good enought to be recognized by our hospital to let us do the er coding. I now am working for a company that does remote (from home) er coding..and they onlly hire RNs to code. They really were pushing to have us get a more of a main stream certification, so I studied for a couple of weeks and took the test. I do code from home 2-3 hours when i dont work. I could make more working extra shifts inthe ER but I can't do laundry when i am at the hospital. I honestly can say that if I was not a nurse with lots of first hand experience, i don't think i could have passed the test. I try to imagine being newly out of a coding program and taking this test. It was hard. A lot of the scenarios and even the terminology was hard..for me. Hats off to you who have done it without a heavy medical background. As far as being a Rn and getting into coding, it really is becoming a niche market for us. I am taking to an insurance company right now too. They like that we can read between the lines just based on our nursing experience. go figure. It is a nice break from working in the hospital. Good luck to everyone!!