What's the Job Like?
In a medical transcription job, you listen to recordings dictated by physicians and other professionals in the healthcare industry. Then you transcribe them into medical reports or correspondence.A set of tools is key to your work. You listen on a headset, type your document on a computer, and use a foot pedal to start and pause the recording you're listening to.
Once you've transcribed the tape, you edit the document as necessary for grammar and clarity. You might be working on discharge summaries, history and physical examination reports, operative reports, consultation reports, autopsy reports, diagnostic imaging studies, progress notes, referral letters or other documents.
When you're done, the drafts you've prepared go back to the healthcare professionals who dictated them. The documents get corrected, reviewed and signed. Then they're put in the patients' permanent files.
How Do You Train?
According to the American Association for Medical Transcription, training for a medical transcriptionist includes the study of medical language, with its Greek and Latin suffixes, prefixes, and roots.Also included is coursework on biological science, and anatomy and physiology of all body systems and various disease processes. Other courses cover:
- Medical science, just like at medical school.
- Medical and surgical procedures.
- Laboratory values, correlating laboratory test results with a patient's diagnosis and treatment.
- Pharmacology.
- Use of medical reference materials and research techniques.
