subject: How Difficult Are Learn At Home Medical Transcription Classes? [print this page] Learning anything new takes a lot of workLearning anything new takes a lot of work. That's particularly true when you're learning an entire new career.
If your grammar and vocabulary are good, you probably won't have too much trouble adding in what's expected of a medical transcriptionist. There's a lot of terminology to learn as well as a book of style to follow. It's a lot of work, but far from impossible for those with good language skills already.
The most challenging skill to pick up, whether you attend classes at a community college, vocational school or online, is transcribing. It will take a lot of practice. Doctor dictation is highly varied and not always clearly spoken. A good class anywhere will include many hours of practice dictation that you must transcribe in order to graduate.
But does learning online make medical transcription harder to learn? Does it add any difficulties you should expect?
Learning online is very different from learning in a classroom. It's less structured and more self paced. You will be using some skills online you wouldn't be dealing with in a classroom.
As to online learning being more difficult, that depends on your learning style. For some it will be significantly more difficult. Others will find it easier.
Much of the difference comes from how well you cope without a teacher right there with you. Online courses should always have a way for you to contact a teacher, but the teacher is not right there in the room with you. If you're checking out an online medical transcription class, make sure you will have chat, forum, email and/or phone access to a teacher at all times. You will want help available when you need it.
The big skill you need to learn from home is dedication. At home classes are often self paced. If you don't push yourself to keep working on your classes, you're going to work too slowly and not finish by the deadline.
That dedication is something you'll need whenever you start working as a transcriptionist at home. You're often self scheduled then as well, although you often have to provide the schedule in advance. If you slack off and don't produce much, you will suffer the consequences of not earning much, as home based medical transcriptionists are typically paid on production rather than hourly or salary.
Expect your classes to be a bit difficult at the very least, possibly very difficult, depending on your aptitude for the subject. If medical transcription were easy, it wouldn't take so much training to get the job in the first place.
