What do medical transcriptionists do?

Question

It seems the only way to get a good pay now is to be in the medical line, i need a career in that line, am not sure if its better to be a medical transcriptionist, a nurse or a radiology technician, please help. Does anyone know any training schools for these in chicago?

Answer 1

Medical transcriptionist transcribes medical records.  In other words, you type the doctors recorded dictation into a medical record for the patient's chart.

For an example when you have an x-ray done, the radiologist interpret the film and the transcriptionist type the interpretation into a hard copy for the patient's medical record.

Nurses are in high demand.  You may want to check out some of your local colleges in your area.  Most colleges offers all the training and education you are inquiring about.

Answer 2

As the other person said, medical transcriptionists type up whatever the doctor dictated, either for a paper chart or into the computer. The main skills here are typing/keyboarding speed and accuracy, knowledge of medical terminology (what the words mean and how to spell them correctly), and the ability to figure out what a mumbling doctor is actually saying.

Laugh, but this last one is HUGELY important, because if you get it wrong, your mistake could lead to a patient getting incorrect treatment and dying from it. For example, if the doc mumbles, "I prescribed 15 milligrams of Drug X" and you hear it as "50" the patient could get the wrong prescription and die from an overdose.

Transcription isn't high paying, but I don't think you need formal training, either. Just one med terminology class. And this is one thing that you can often do as a work-from-home job.

Nursing is in high demand, but you'll need a 2-4 year program for an RN. Community colleges and hospital nursing schools often offer 2-year RN programs. Many colleges and universities offer the 4-year program. Nurses are paid well, but the work can be grueling (also satisfying, as you can do a lot of good), and many nurses think they're not paid well enough for the work they do.

Radiology tech training programs are 2 years at a community college or tech school. Pay is good, and the work is less grueling than nursing.