“Working at Home as a Medical Transcriptionist: Is This The Perfect Anecdote?”

Everyone at one point or another has wished for a job that pays well, provides good benefits, along with good health insurance that can be done at home.  How simple it would be to walk into your office and it be just in the next room.  Traffic to and from work would no longer be an issue.  Some of the wear and tear on your car would be lessened, along with great savings in gas expenses.

Medical transcription is a job working behind the scenes, assisting physicians to produce quality and efficient documents on each individual patient that has been examined.  The physician dictates the results of laboratory tests, history and physical exams, discharge notes, and the diagnoses.  These reports are considered legal documents that could be used in court if necessary and confidentiality is a serious part of the job.

Certain qualifications must be met in order to work in the Medical Transcription field.  First, one must complete a 9 to 12 month course that is available at most community colleges and some technical schools.  The subjects that are taught include medical terminology, clerical skills, learning the transcription system and how it works, typing dictated reports by physicians, learning to operate all the equipment. Also, there will be 3 months of clinical training either in a hospital setting, doctor’s office, or some type of medical clinic appointed to each student by the instructor.  Here, extensive hands on experience is obtained by getting the opportunity to type real medical reports under the supervision of other transcriptionists and/or a supervisor.

After the course and training have been completed, the instructor can sometimes place a student into a full time position. Sometimes the student may get hired at the same place they did their clinical training if they had performed a good job.  For those that wish to work at home, it is a requirement that the student work in an office, clinic, or hospital setting for as long as the supervisor thinks is necessary, or until he or she thinks that you are ready to work at home alone. It is very helpful to obtain a good deal of experience and knowledge before attempting to work at home alone.

Working at home can be especially grand for those that have small children, as well as school age children.  This allows mom to be at home more as she is needed in more places than one.  Transcription jobs usually hire first, second and third shifts in a hospital setting. Second and third shifts can be somewhat tricky.  When working second shift, the kids get home from school about the time it is time to go to work and work is over when the kids are already in bed.  This is not a very good shift for mothers with children, but sometimes it can’t be helped. The children still have to be fed and have a roof over their head.  Also, problems can arise such as, “who will watch the kids?” or “who will help them with their homework?”