Medical Transcription – Practice Makes Perfect

Medical Transcription Practice

The first time I plugged in my transcriber machine and listened to my very first medical dictation,  I thought “Oh, my god, what I have I gotten myself into”.  You see, I had no prior experience in the health field and I just hadn’t heard anything like this before. 

To make matters worst my typing speed was abysmal.  In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret during my first typing class in my medical transcription course I had the worst typing speed out of the whole class…. An embarrassingly low 19 words per minute.

But I stuck it out and by the second month into my course my typing speed was around 40 accurate words per minute and from there on things just snowballed, within 6 months I was typing 80 accurate words per minute and my speed has increased steadily since.

Those foreign dictations didn’t sound so alien anymore and I was actually understanding the medical language and anatomy. 

For someone with zero background in the medical field or medical transcription, this was a huge accomplishment. 

So how did I do it?  With a lot of practice, practice, practice.

Every day I used the incredible Mavis Beacon Typing Software which my teacher recommended for about 10 to 20 minutes. 

I wrote down all the medical terms and different meanings on flashcards.  Writing them down on flashcards not only helped me memorize them but the daily practice worked wonders as well.  I would take the flashcards along with me everywhere I went and when I had a spare 5 minuets, I would just glance through them.  This did wonders for my memory skills.

And of course, I had lots of hands on actual medical transcription practice during my course. 

If you’re thinking of taking a medical transcription course but have been held back because of fear.  I assure you, you probably won’t be worst than I was at the beginning.  If you stick with it and practice you will improve.

I’m not particularly proud of my very slow typing speed back then or my little medical knowledge, but I’ve shared this story with you to encourage you and assure you that you can do this too.

 So, if you think you can do it don’t hold yourself back any longer and go for it.  Oh, and one thing and this I am very proud of, I finished my course with a 99.8% average… the highest in my class J

Grab your Free Medical Transcription Course & Special Introductory Offer at the VLC.  I have the introductory medical terminology DVDs and they're a fantastic introduction into the world of medical transcription.  They're also offering $100 dollars off any medical transcirption course.