Medical Transcriptionist Job Description
Basic Skills Required
The medical transcriptionist job description is simple - you listen to medical transcription dictation and you type it. What could be easier, right?
Well, keep reading and then decide whether you have the basic skills and abilities it takes to pursue a career in medical transcription? In other words, find out whether it is a profession you should pursue and whether you'd be happy with the choice. Keep reading and see!
What have you heard about medical transcription employment? That anyone can do it? That if you have a few extra hours during the day, you can sit at a computer and "earn a little extra money"? There seem to be some common misconceptions which I would like to take a moment to dispel.
First of all, medical transcription work is not as easy as it looks! Think about these 2 simple examples as if someone were speaking to you and you had to type their words:
- "The patient is sick."
- "The patient has chronic hypertensive cardiomyopathy with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and minimum valvular insufficiency."
I think most experienced transcriptionists will agree that 80% of your work day will be spent typing on a difficulty level of example #2 (and some a LOT harder!).
This is not to discourage you - far from it! You need to have a realistic idea of what your brain is capable of processing and determine now how hard you are willing to work at learning.
One of the basic skills you need in the medical transcription profession is the ability to be comfortable with big words; specifically, medical terms. An interesting exercise you can do is take one of those full-page drug advertisements that you see in magazines, have someone stand behind you and read the ad while you type in a Word document. Easy? Hard? You decide.
Yet another exercise to try is to find an audio or video file online (a lecture or a salesperson with a sales pitch) and try typing as they talk. Can you keep up?
If you're serious about making a living in transcription, especially work from home medical transcription, you need to realize it is
- a real job
- earning real money
- typing medical reports for real patients who are relying on you to perform your part in their health care.
One of the basic skills at the top of the medical transcriptionist job description list is the sense of responsibility toward the patient.
Our purpose here is to dispel the myth that, because you are working from home, it somehow becomes a hobby that you do only when you get the urge! Okay, lecture over! Let's move on....
Keep reading more about the medical transcriptionist job description.
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