Apart from throwing challenges at you and paying you for your hard work, every profession teaches you something in the process. Yes, the medical transcription profession develops certain skills in you. But how?

The profession teaches you to manage time better. With deadlines knocking on your door every few hours, you have to manage time very well. The profession teaches you to squeeze work in tiny slots without compromising on quality. Time management is a skill that will help you in every aspect of your life.

Medical transcription teaches you to be independent. This is one profession that requires you to work without supervision, whether you are at office or home. This requirement makes you work on your own and depend on yourself. This helps you improve your decision making capabilities and become self reliant.

The nature of the medical transcription work is such that it makes you patient. The stringent deadlines, the difficult recordings and the additional rounds of reviews make the medical transcription profession an extremely demanding one. However, all the demands and challenges in the profession make you patient.

The profession equips you to motivate yourself. With time, medical transcription work becomes monotonous. In order to make sure that the quality and productivity does not suffer, you have to keep yourself motivated. This trait will help you never lose focus of your targets in life.

Medical transcription teaches you to be dedicated. All your skills will fail if you are not dedicated to the job. The medical transcription profession teaches you to be dedicated in order to be successful.

We don’t intend to dissuade you from becoming a medical transcriptionist, but there are certain factors that clearly indicate when you are not made for medical transcription. We will look at five such factors.

• Choosing medical transcription because of comfort: In medical transcription, work is equivalent to deadlines. If you cannot handle turnaround times of 24 hours or less, this profession is not for you.
• Not being comfortable meeting the high goals in quality: There are people who are perfectionists when it comes to quality of work but they cannot deliver it in time and then there are those who always meet deadlines but their quality suffers and is not up to the mark. You can’t afford to compromise quality for deadlines or vice-versa. If the profession’s zero tolerance with respect to critical errors scares you, don’t become a medical transcriptionist.
• No interest in continuing learning after the training: You cannot survive for too long in the profession if you are not willing to learn. Obsolete knowledge can cost the medical transcriptionist dearly. If you don’t have the willingness to learn, don’t join the industry.
• Not comfortable being self-dependent: The medical transcriptionist does not work in teams. He/she is required to work on his/her own without any kind of supervision. If you cannot handle crisis situations on your own, you shouldn’t become a medical transcriptionist.
• Unable to motivate yourself: The medical transcription work can become monotonous and boring over a period of time. You are required to keep yourself interested in the job. This profession is not for you if you cannot motivate yourself.

Do you know anyone who was not affected by the recent recession? Economies the world over were adversely affected by the recession. However, the medical transcription industry continued to do well. Why? Because the need for medical records increased during the recession instead of decreasing.

The medical transcription profession emerged absolutely unscathed from the recession, telling the world that it is a sturdy profession. There are some other factors too that make medical transcription a sensible profession in current times.

In a world where academic and professional qualifications matter a lot, medical transcription doesn’t ask for any qualification or experience. What you need is an aptitude. This helps pave way for people with the right aptitude but no specific qualification. The entry into the profession helps boost people’s morale.

In this industry, you get paid according to your proficiency. Given that the profession doesn’t have any prerequisites, it pays reasonably well at the start. And as you gain expertise in the job, your income increases accordingly.

The profession is probably one of the very few that offers you tremendous flexibility. First, you get the flexibility to choose your work timings. Second, you can choose the number of hours you want to work. Third, you can choose to work from home. Fourth, as a freelancing medical transcriptionist, you can say ‘no’ to work.

The medical transcription profession is immensely satisfying in many ways. Apart from providing an easy entry, good pay, and flexibility, medical transcription makes you feel satisfied. The satisfaction comes from the fact that you create records that are important for the smooth functioning of the healthcare and insurance industries.

As soon as you complete the medical transcription training, you have to start looking for medical transcription jobs. A good training institute will offer you some placement assistance but you still need to make that perfect resume. How do you create the resume? Do you put all information in a document and start formatting it? If that is what you do, that’s a bad idea. Let me give you tips that will make your job easy and professional at the same time.

There are resume templates in your word processor. Use one to create your resume. Creating a resume from scratch will not only waste your time and take a lot of effort, but also make your resume look unprofessional.

If you have just completed your training, include the hours of dictation. And if you are an experienced medical transcriptionist, mention the kind of work you have done so far. This will establish your proficiency. Don’t forget to include your transcription skills such as your typing speed, typing accuracy, and transcription accuracy in the resume.

Include details of your achievements in the medical transcription field as well as in other fields. Your achievements tell a lot about your dedication; this makes a good impression on your potential employer.

Include references of your previous employers/clients. Make sure the contact information of the references is correct. Let your references know that they are a part of your resume. Make sure your contact details of those of your references are correct.

Once you have put all the information in the document, review it thoroughly. Make sure there are no spelling or grammar errors. And get your resume reviewed by someone else before you start sending it to medical transcription companies.

The fact that medical transcription doesn’t ask for qualifications or experience makes the entry easy. However, this makes people think that the job is too easy. This is far from the truth. The medical transcription profession doesn’t have any prerequisites because it expects an aptitude from aspirants, not degrees or experience.

The medical transcription profession doesn’t suit everyone because of the kind of challenges it throws at people. For starters, the profession has deadlines knocking on your door everyday. Not everyone is comfortable working with daily deadlines. Add to that the pressure of meeting high standards of quality. The profession expects 98 percent accuracy with respect to major and minor errors and 100 percent accuracy with respect to critical errors. This means that the profession has zero tolerance when it comes to critical errors! Now, that can’t be easy.

The medical transcription work is such that you cannot use the knowledge you gained in the training for too long in the profession. You are required to keep updating your medical knowledge on a regular basis. Now, how many of us really like to learn once we have got a job? You should be willing to and capable of learning while you are working. The profession also expects you to research independently and extensively while creating medical records. Talking of records, I must tell you that medical transcription is not just about transcription; it is about creating accurate and complete medical records.

The medical documents you create are used by the healthcare and insurance industries. In fact, they are critical for the smooth functioning of these industries. Now, you understand why medical transcription is far from being easy.

While most other professions give you a list of academic prerequisites, medical transcription doesn’t ask for your qualifications. And you need no experience of any kind to enter the field of medical transcription. Add to that the flexibility of working from anywhere in the world. Yes, you can be in a remote town in India and yet work for a medical transcription company in the United States.

But there must be something the profession wants. Yes, it wants a certain aptitude from you, an aptitude that is not measured by certificates and degrees. It wants an aptitude and the willingness to work sincerely. Now, if a profession accepts you for your aptitude, for who you are, isn’t that a wonderful morale booster? And this comes even before you start working.

Inside the industry, you will come to realize that your income is directly proportional to your proficiency. Given that the profession doesn’t have academic and experiential prerequisites, it definitely pays well. As you prove your merit and become more proficient in your work, your income increases accordingly. Now, isn’t that great?

Medical transcription offers tremendous flexibility. Which other profession will let you choose your work timings? Even when you are working in an office, you can choose to work as per your convenience. Then there’s the choice of working from home, an absolute delight. And if you choose to become a freelancing transcriptionist, you even get to say ‘no’ to work!

If you are a sincere medical transcriptionist, you will soon build a goodwill for yourself and see how fulfilling it is to be known for your work. In spite of the challenging nature of medical transcription, it can give you a satisfying career.

We have told you a number of times that the medical transcription profession is challenging. And that’s the reason we have insisted on making sure you have the aptitude for the profession. In today’s post, we are going to discuss something else; we are going to talk about how you can cope up with the challenges in medical transcription.

When you get incomprehensible recordings, follow up with the doctor who recorded the information to understand the information. And you have to do this as soon as you face problems understanding information or notice information missing. Any delay will make your job tougher. If you have been receiving bad recordings consistently, you have go to bring it up with the doctors who are sending you the recordings. They may not be aware that they are doing a bad job of recording information. Make them understand the quality of the output is dependent on the quality of the input.

You are required to flag a document when important information is missing in a medical document. It is important that you flag responsibly and appropriately. Improper flagging may cost you your credibility. Never flag because you want to avoid researching. Also, make sure you flag when you cannot find the right information; never guess.

Remember, quality, productivity, and integrity are what build your goodwill. Paying attention to details will help you cope with the challenges in the medical transcription profession.

If there is any tip on handling medical transcription challenges that you would like to share with our readers, do drop in a line.

What are the skills and virtues that make you a good medical transcriptionist? Good hearing skills, computer proficiency, good command over the English language, ability to meet deadlines, ability to meet quality goals, willingness to learn and research, self-motivation are some of the factors that help make you a medical transcriptionist. But these factors are not enough for a long stint in the medical transcription industry.

There is another virtue one needs to add to all these. OK, let me end the suspense. I am talking about consistency. Not impressed? Well, imagine doing a great job for the initial year or two and then you become complacent and start delivering not-so-great work. Do you think your employer will let you stay just because you were a good transcriptionist earlier?

A simple lapse in medical transcription can impact the safety of a patient somewhere. Thus, the medical transcriptionist has to ensure that he/she keeps meeting quality goals and deadlines on a consistent basis.

Being consistent requires you to be disciplined and focused. And it requires you to keep motivating yourself. The medical transcription work is such that you may find it monotonous in the long run. You have to find out ways to prevent the work from becoming boring.

While you need to give utmost importance to your work, don’t let it take over your life. Letting work interfere with your personal life will just make you dislike work soon, affecting your performance. Therefore, take breaks, go on vacations, spend time with family and friends – do all that and more. As far as work is concerned, just spend a certain amount of time on it every day. A work routine will let you enjoy life and deliver good work.

How do you look for a good medical transcription opportunity? All of us have a favorite source for jobs. Many of us raid the newspaper, some go to the good-old Google, some log in to all popular job websites, and others check the yellow pages on a regular basis. Now, what is the ideal way of looking for a medical transcription opportunity? A combination of all of the aforementioned ways.

You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you? Now, isn’t this obvious? It is wise to check out all the job sources. Let me share some simple but important job hunting tips.

• Register with all popular job websites and submit your resume on them. Do mention all your job preferences along with your skills.
• Check the websites of medical transcription companies to find out if they are hiring. If they are, send your resume to them. Make sure you send it to the right people.
• When sending your resume online, make sure it is in the format requested by the company.
• When filling in an online application form, make it a point to follow all the instructions given.
• While looking for jobs through a search engine, use the right keywords. Don’t just write ‘medical transcription opportunities’, be specific and write something like ‘medical transcription opportunities for freshers in Philadelphia’.
• Check the classifieds of your newspaper regularly. Make sure you go through the job supplements of more than one newspaper.
• Go through yellow pages every once in a while.
• Visit the local hospitals and clinic. Inquire if they have any medical transcription assignments for you.

The other day someone asked me, “What’s the big deal with MT?”

I said, “It doesn’t have prerequisites.”

He asked, “Is that a good thing? Anyone can be a transcriptionist then.”

I said, “Yes. And No.”

My acquaintance gave me a puzzled look. In a half an hour long conversation I think I managed to explain to him the deal with medical transcription. Here’s a point-wise break down of the discussion.

• Because medical transcription allows an easy entry, it manages to boost your morale. Your age, education, experience don’t matter. What matters is the aptitude you have.
• Given that the profession doesn’t ask for any academic or professional qualifications, or any experience, medical transcription pays really well. And your income increases as you become proficient in the job.
• The profession offers flexibility like no other. You get to choose your work timings. Medical transcription even allows you to work from home. You can even fix up the number of hours you want to work.
• You develop important soft skills during the course of your job. The profession teaches you to be patient, focused, disciplined and goal oriented. You also learn to work independently and motivate yourself.
• The medical transcription profession makes you feel good. Since you are responsible for creating medical records that are integral to the functioning of the healthcare and the insurance industries, you derive a sense of satisfaction and pride from this.

Now, the next time somebody asks you the big deal about medical transcription, you know what to say.