Many people want to become medical transcriptionists. Finding out the training requirements can be a bit daunting, however. Do you really have to go to school for so many months just to type up what the doctor says? Can’t you become a medical transcriptionist without all that formal training?
To put is simply, no. It’s not a good idea and it’s close to impossible. You will very, very rarely find a position that will train you completely from scratch in medical transcription. It’s much simpler for employers to hire experienced workers and new graduates from training programs than it is to spend the many months it takes to train someone who has no idea how to do the job at all.
Medical transcription is a tough job, and it is not just typing what you hear the doctor dictate. There are formatting rules. There’s confusing terminology. There are mistakes made by doctors that a transcriptionist can request clarification about to help keep errors out of the patient’s medical records. It’s a highly demanding career.
Good quality training will teach you these things and more. You have to learn about anatomy, physiology, disease processes, drugs and much more. You have to learn how to format the different types of reports. You have to learn what to do when a doctor makes a mistake in his or her dictation so that the report can be corrected.
You may also want to get training that will help you to advance your career as electronic medical records become more common. The work done by a medical transcriptionist keeps changing, and the better trained you are for the career and the changes coming now, the better off you will be in the long run.
Formal training can be a smarter move for your career in medical transcription as well.
First and foremost, it will cut down on how long it takes you to find work. You aren’t going to find many, if any at all, positions that will even consider you as a medical transcriptionist without training. Think about how much money you could be earning monthly once you start working. If you spend less time training and job hunting than you would spend in job hunting without the training, isn’t that a good deal?
Given that it’s extremely close to impossible to get a transcription job without training, I would expect this to be the better option.
Second, many medical transcriptionists are paid on production rather than hourly. This is especially true among home based medical transcriptionists. The better trained you are, the more you will earn as you work because you’ll better understand what you need to type. The terminology the doctor is so quickly throwing at you in his or her dictation will be familiar if you’re well trained.
It may not be easy to find a way to pay for training, but if you’re serious about this career, it’s what you have to do. Check with the schools you’re considering, and you may be able to get a payment plan that will allow you to pay for the training you need for this challenging career.