Medical transcription is a growing industry and a popular work at home option. But it's decidedly not for everyone.
The job itself sounds simple. The doctor dictates what happened during the patient visit, procedure or whatever else he or she needs entered into the medical record. The transcriptionist listens and types it up.
Simple right? Don't you wish it were true!
If it were that simple there wouldn't be such a need for high quality medical transcription training. Companies would be able to take people in and train them on the job.
The demand for skilled medical transcriptionists is due to the demands of the job. You really have to know what you're doing. These are medical records you're dealing with. Mistakes can deeply impact the patient's life. It's not suited to everyone.
For basic transcription you simply need the ability to take what you hear and type it out as fast as possible. I always called this hooking my fingers to my ears, which is an interesting mental picture and an impossible typing position... at least if any accuracy is required and you take that literally.
But there's so much more to the job.
You need to understand the terminology. That's why medical transcription courses spend so much time on terminology. It's so that you're ready to deal not only with the terminology you know well and hear from the doctors every day. It's so that when they throw a new term at you, you know how to find out what it means and how to spell it.
If you can't figure out from the context what the word means, you can't be sure of spelling it correctly. A lot of very different medical terms sound very similar. If you can't figure out which is appropriate in the context of the dictation you're typing up you have a good chance of getting it wrong.
That's why a great vocabulary even before you start training is a must. It gives you a head start on what you're going to be adding while you train.
You also ought to have some interest in medical issues. You're going to be hearing about them all day, after all. If even the thought grosses you out, please consider a different career.
You'll also need to respect patient privacy. There are laws that will impact you about patient privacy when you are a medical transcriptionist. The short version is "don't reveal anything to anyone" about particular patients. You wouldn't want your medical records gossiped about, would you?
You'll also need a good ear for dealing with accents. Worse, you have to deal with doctors who don't care to dictate clearly. Yes, that can be worse than even heavy accents at times. You'll still be expected to type up accurate reports.
And then there are the vagaries of working at home. Sometimes work will be plentiful, to the point that your employers will beg you to take on overtime. Other times you'll be scrambling to get enough reports typed to earn the money you need. And everything in between. If you can't deal with the fact that sometimes things aren't as simple as being paid by the hour, you will not be happy working at home as a medical transcriptionist.
Author Resource:
Stephanie Foster suggests you look at her site to decide if you are ready to train as a medical transcriptionist . Visit http://www.medicaltranscriptionbasics.com/first-mt-job.htm to learn what it takes to land your first medical transcription job.
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