Career Advice on How to Become a Medical TranscriptionistGeneral Career Information |
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Do exciting trips around the world, full of fun and adventure sound like fun to you? If so, you should look elsewhere when starting up your job search or career planning. Unfortunately, the job of medical transcriptionist isn’t quite that exciting.
In fact, this is one job that is pretty dull, but dull can be good. While the medical transcriptionist may not be in the “thick of it,” this is a career that doesn’t require a lot of cleaning up blood or giving enemas. Oh yes, some of the jobs in the medical field require giving enemas and lots of them. And here you thought your last job really sucked.
The medical transcriptionist, not surprisingly, takes dictated recordings from physicians and transcribes them into a variety of medical reports. The computer has really changed this career in the last few years and today most medical transcriptionists are able to enter their transcriptions directly into a computer.
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Career Facts: |
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Medical transcriptionists can find that they are working on a wide array of medical topics, ranging from diagnostic reports, medical histories, physical exam reports or even the highly sought after autopsy report. The fact is, nothing gets the blood pumping of a medical transcriptionist quite like a good autopsy report, just ask one!
Of course, this all means that the medical transcriptionists need to be able to understand a pretty significant amount of medical jargon, otherwise they would be sort of lost and not worth. Seasoned medical transcriptionists can even spot errors in reports. |
Career Opportunities and Job Outlook-Good: |
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The career of medical transcriptionist is expected to have a decent rate of growth. Between now and 2016, the rate of growth is expected to be in the realm of fourteen percent. In 2006, there were approximately 98,000 medical transcriptionists in the United States, and this number will increase to 112,000 by 2016.
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A Day in The Life: |
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Most medical transcriptionists work in a hospital, doctor’s office or clinic. They may have to spend many hours sitting and typing, which could lead to some of the physical problems that other computer-oriented workers sometimes face, but the trade-off is, no enemas! And that is a pretty good trade-off in almost any book. Most days are thus enema free and full of transcription. In a word, it could be worse, much, much worse.
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Average Salary: |
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While one does get to avoid some of the more unpleasant aspects of the medical industry, the job of medical transcriptionist will not make anyone rich beyond their dream, not unless they are “great with the ponies” or the stock market. Medical transcriptionists earn about $14 per hour.
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$24k - $28k |
Career Training and Qualifications: |
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An Associate’s Degree or a one-year training program is usually enough to land a job in the field. In terms of advancement, the position does have some opportunities, as it is not unheard of for medical transcriptionists to move onto other supervisory positions. Some even move on to owning their own medical transcription businesses or consulting firms.
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