Productive Transcriptionist

Many believe it’s easier to do general transcription than medical transcription.  The challenge with medical transcription is simply due to the terms that are jargon to most people, especially to those who are not inclined with medical terminologies.

For some, medical transcription and general transcription are both difficult since both types need 99% accuracy. Most people probably think that being a transcriptionist is an easy job. Many think you only need to become a fast typist. This is not true for most of the time because being a transcriptionist is comparable to other normal jobs or office work. It is as hard as other jobs, or probably much harder, since the transcribed words should be 99% accurate or should have no errors at all. In terms of the content, general transcription is probably easier to transcribe for non-medical professionals who do not have any work experience or background as a medical transcriptionist.

General transcriptionists transcribe almost everything including, but not limited to, interviews, conferences, monologues, speeches, and the like. In general transcription, the words to be transcribed are more familiar compared to those in medical transcription. In medical transcription, most of the words to be transcribed are heavy medical terminologies which are much more difficult to understand unless the transcriptionist has medical background or medical transcriptionist training. This is also one of the reasons why medical transcription is harder compared to general transcription. As a medical transcriptionist, you cannot or probably are not allowed to produce transcriptions unless you are a certified medical transcriptionist. Most companies provide training to medical transcriptionists since it is not an easy job, and not anyone can do it without any medical background or medical transcription experience.

With Medical Expertise Versus Non-Medical Professionals

medical transcriptionist

The transcription industry is in the peak of its growth, whether it be medical or general. One can engage in those fields at the same time, but we always have one thing we called as specialty. As for someone who has knowledge in medical terminology, being a medical transcriptionist is a preference. But still medical transcription requires expertise even if you are medically inclined. You have to be a language specialist, meaning you have to familiar or well versed with different kinds of accents.  You need to have a lot of patience to try research on things. You have to be keen and look for some inconsistencies.

But with the question of which is easier to transcribe between medical or legal, of course a medical professional will choose medical transcription. This is basically because in medical transcription, aside from having a medical background, you will have specific reference materials to use when you need to look for the correct spelling of medical terminologies or look for words which are not familiar with. Sometimes, you are also provided with a list of physicians and patients mentioned in the dictation and you do not need to look for it for the longest time researching the Internet. In general transcription, you do not have the luxury of these things, though some also provides references but very rarely.

In summary, whichever job you choose, the challenge is always there, so just love the thing you are doing either as a medical transcriptionist of general transcriptionist.