Rewarding Career in Medical Transcription

Category:

By Jan Snewo

Few "administrative support" positions are as vital to so many people as those for medical transcription. This professional works hand in glove with qualified medical personnel in making sure that important medical documents are recorded and maintained.

Speech recognition technology is still in its infancy, and thus there is no danger of it replacing human providers of transcription services. Still, whether one is engaged in legal transcription or medical, a human being is essential for editing purposes at least, since the most common problem with speech recognition technology is the tendency to not be able to figure out from context a garbled word or term.

On the job training may be all that's necessary for a comfortable, well-paying job in the medical transcription field for those making a lateral career move, say from hospital administration or even from nursing. The key in that situation would be a working knowledge of basic anatomy terms, pharmacology terminology and the like.

Related opportunities may be found in legal transcription services. For example, a person trained in legal transcription may find himself or herself transcribing the notes from a deposition in a medical malpractice lawsuit. He or she may transcribe an audio file describing an autopsy, to be used in a wrongful death lawsuit.

But back to the topic of medical transcription jobs. The skilled medical transcriptionist will evince a variety of abilities. This technician will be able to accurately and quickly transcribe patient information, and do it in a reliable fashion. Medical transcription services expect that their employees will be able to access various health care reference works for clarification and confirmation of terminology.

With adequate training, the transcription services worker will find himself or herself in a variety or work settings. They may be called upon to listen to police interrogations, teleconferences of business leaders, newspaper interviews, legal proceedings of all kinds.

Medical transcription jobs involve dictation describing surgical consultations with world famous doctors, medical exams for army personnel, letters of referral for HMO patients, even autopsy reports for police departments. The variety is endless, and helps to ensure that boredom is not a problem.

While challenging and interesting, those interested in transcription services careers will take every opportunity to first become adequately trained, and then to practice their craft with dedication. The ability to listen and type simultaneously, while smoothly using the playback and pause feature on the transcribing machine, will ensure a level of professionalism that is essential in the demanding field of medical transcription services.

About the Author: