How To Become A Clinical Medical Transcriptionist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clinical medical transcriptionist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a clinical medical transcriptionist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.03 an hour? That's $35,428 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 195,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a clinical medical transcriptionist?

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

Medical Assistant Program Director, Website

To maximize salary for a medical assistant obtaining certification from one of the credentialing organizations such as American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) can make a new hire more competitive. Continuing educations along with developing any specialized skills such as phlebotomy. Demonstrating professionalism initiative and reliability, along with gaining a strong reference from previous employers.

ScoreClinical Medical TranscriptionistUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,428

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.80%

Asian 11.60%

Black or African American 10.20%

Hispanic or Latino 16.94%

Unknown 5.10%

White 55.36%

Gender

female 81.59%

male 18.41%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.7

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clinical medical transcriptionist

Explore clinical medical transcriptionist education requirements

Most common clinical medical transcriptionist degrees

Bachelor's

54.2 %

Associate

18.3 %

Master's

6.7 %

Start to develop specific clinical medical transcriptionist skills

Skills	Percentages
Direct Patient Care	15.71%
Patients	13.60%
Clinical Rotations	10.23%
Vital Signs	9.83%
Disease Prevention	9.68%

Complete relevant clinical medical transcriptionist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clinical medical transcriptionists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a clinical medical transcriptionist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clinical medical transcriptionist resumes.

Research clinical medical transcriptionist duties and responsibilities

Manage patient caseload with emphasis in occupational rehabilitation
Transcribe EKG, PFT, sleep studies, myocardial stress tests and oximetry studies.
Transcribe doctor's medical chart dictations using Dictaphone transcriber and also digital dictation using ExpressScribe.
Collaborate and productively communicate with interdisciplinary teams to advocate for patients and implement culturally competent and family-centered care.

Prepare your clinical medical transcriptionist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your clinical medical transcriptionist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a clinical medical transcriptionist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable clinical medical transcriptionist resume templates

Build a professional clinical medical transcriptionist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your clinical medical transcriptionist resume.