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

What is a medical transcription and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

If you're a fast typist and can exceed the 75 words per minute speed, then listen up because medical transcription might just be the perfect job for you. Your role as a medical transcriptionist requires you to listen to audio recordings of patient information dictated by medical professionals and transcribe them into written reports. Your duty may be extended to proofreading medical documents to ensure that they are void of inaccuracies or errors. You are also required to translate medical terms in a way that is understood by the non-medical community.

Furthermore, as a legal transcriptionist, you are required to organize, file, and keep track of medical documents. To become a medical transcriptionist, you need to have excellent listening skills because this is the majority of what you will be doing. You need to be organized and efficient in your delivery of work. The comprehension of dictated material requires you to have knowledge of medical terminology. You need to have fast typing skills and be proficient when operating transcribing software. As a prospective medical transcriptionist, you need to have completed high school and undergone training in medical transcription.

ScoreMedical TranscriptionUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,952

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

3.6

Growth rate -7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.15%

Asian 14.46%

Black or African American 6.76%

Hispanic or Latino 8.95%

Unknown 4.68%

White 65.00%

Gender

female 93.88%

male 6.12%

Age - 35

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 - 35

Stress level

3.6

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.1

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a medical transcription

Explore medical transcription education requirements

Most common medical transcription degrees

Associate

37.7 %

Bachelor's

27.7 %

Certificate

10.8 %

Start to develop specific medical transcription skills

Skills	Percentages
Transcription	48.70%
Acute Care	15.69%
Radiology	14.34%
Medical Terminology	5.84%
Dictation	3.17%

Complete relevant medical transcription training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New medical transcriptions 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 medical transcription based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real medical transcription resumes.

Research medical transcription duties and responsibilities

Manage audits using transcribe reports with preoperative and postoperative documentation within the EMR.
Maintain compliance in areas of OSHA, HIPPA, and coding issues.
Maintain high quality standards and participate in QA of employees.
Create, implement and revise monthly QA statistics of employees.

Prepare your medical transcription resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your medical transcription 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 medical transcription resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable medical transcription resume templates

Build a professional medical transcription 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 medical transcription resume.