You can enroll in a Medical Transcription Training program at your local Community College and cobble together a group of classes that resembles a bona fide medical transcription training curriculum. Unfortunately, while most community colleges are adept at providing seat-time focused options and do a decent job of teaching you medical terminology and even human anatomy, they generally lack several elements that are vital to the medical transcription training process:
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1. Most community college programs “borrow” as much program curriculum as possible from other departments. In other words you may be sitting through a human anatomy class that is designed for a nursing program. And while this is not the worst thing in the world, you will not be focusing on the aspects of anatomy that are most needed for medical transcription. You will end up studying a lot of stuff that is far less relevant to an MT career and you will generally not pay enough attention to the things that are important for a transcriptionist to know, such as spelling and context.
You may also sit through a traditional English grammar class to fill a requirement when if you had spent the same amount of time in a grammar class that was designed for medical transcription training you would be so much further ahead. In other words, an MT grammar class will expose you to grammar terms in the context of medical language. All the examples of grammar rules, punctuation, and sentence structure will be taught with medical language so that you are advancing your medical terminology, medical spelling, and medical language skills at the same time you are learning or reviewing the basic rules of grammar.
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2. Most community college medical transcription training programs lack a comprehensive practicum. If you are to succeed in your medical transcription training quest, it is imperative that you spend at least 50% of your time in a training program on real physician dictated practice transcription. I cannot overemphasize this. This is the most common reason for failure in a training program. Compare it to a learning foreign language experience. You can learn to conjugate a hundred verbs, but until you go speak with the natives, you will never become fluent. Learning to recognize a medical term you see in a book is insufficient. You must have the practice to go along with it. Likewise, learning the notes on a page will not sufficiently prepare you to play a clarinet. You have to go through the actual practice – and the more the better.
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3. Most community college programs will not have the deep placement and employment connections with national medical transcription employers to ensure your smooth transition to your first medical transcription job. This cannot be overemphasized. At the end of the day medical transcription training will only be as good as the introductions you will receive to prospective employers and the credibility they assign to your program. Most community college programs are small and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. It is hard for them to gain traction in the placement market because they simply don’t graduate enough people through their medical transcription training program each year to warrant a lot of attention from large national employers who employ thousands of medical transcriptionists.
I recommend an online medical transcription training program that has a practicum rich curriculum and deep industry relationships with employers. It is an unusual bonus that this program happens to be priced significantly less than the average brick and mortar community college program. This is owing in large measure to the rampant inefficiencies observed in most traditional college settings. Further, the online format more closely approximates the real world work environment that you will experience as a work at home medical transcriptionist once you graduate.
Click here for free information on our recommended medical transcription training program leading to an exciting home based career
