My Medical Transcription Education Experience

For several years I considered learning medical transcription. I saw the ads in back of magazines and have always wanted to work from home. When I finally had the time and extra cash, I finally took the plunge and sent away for an at-home course.

This was mistake number one. Not that all at-home courses are bad, not at all. It's just that I chose the wrong one. I realized that I wouldn't be getting enough real world practice with the course I was taking and let it go. I learned a couple years later that this company was one of the worst out there.

Life happened and I had to work harder at my regular job to make ends meet. For a while, I gave up on furthering my education.

Eventually, I was able to go back to school. I had spoken with another medical transcriptionist who thought all the at-home courses were bunk and encouraged me to go to a local community college.

This was mistake number two. I had done enough research of the field to realize that it had gone digital. The community college courses I was taking were practically in the dark ages as far as technology was concerned. The main focus of those courses was to get you working in a hospital not from home as I wished. I decided that was too much a waste of time and stopped taking the courses.

Not all community colleges are 30 years behind the technology trend. Again, I just chose the wrong one.

This time, I didn't wait years to find the right program for me. I had done more research and found that there were three well known schools within the medical transcription field. These schools produced graduates that were able to find work with companies that hired at-home transcriptionists.

You would think that it would be a pretty straight forward proposition to find a school. Maybe I was just picky, but I don't think so. I kept reading about three top on-line schools for medical transcription. After researching them all, I picked the best one for me.

I chose to take the Career Step curriculum through Everett Community College in Washington state. For me, this was the best of both worlds. The Career Step program by itself is not accredited, but community colleges are. Because of this accreditation and my personal situation at the time, I was able to qualify for financial aid.

The Career Step program along with the other top schools is known to have a curriculum which will give you real world practice with medical reports. You also will learn the necessary skills for the job. It isn't always just typing what you hear.

I took the course full-time completely over the internet and completed it in 9 months. Because it is through the college, the courses have to be completed in a set time frame just like any other college courses.

If I had the cash up front, I would have just taken the course directly from Career Step for two reasons. One is that it is less expensive because you essentially cut out the middle man which is the college. Second is that employers know the program is good. In fact, Career Step has affiliations with several medical transcription companies.

The instructors through the college were wonderful and very helpful in giving students realistic expectations of our first job out of school. They even gave tips on resume building. I found my first at-home position a few weeks before graduation.

The other two top schools are Andrews and M-TEC. Links are given below as well as a link to Everett Community College.

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Photo credits: Opening: channah, sxc.hu; Coffee at computer: sxc.hu. Cat in desk: Patrycja Cieszkowska, sxc.hu.