Medical Transcriptionists
Transcribe medical reports recorded by physicians and other healthcare practitioners using various electronic devices, covering office visits, emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies, operations, chart reviews, and final summaries. Transcribe dictated reports and translate abbreviations into fully understandable form. Edit as necessary and return reports in either printed or electronic form for review and signature, or correction.
Most important skills
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
- Writing
- Monitoring
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Time Management
Key knowledge
- English Language
- Administrative
- Computers and Electronics
- Medicine and Dentistry
- Customer and Personal Service
- Telecommunications
- Administration and Management
- Mathematics
What the work involves
- Transcribe dictation for a variety of medical reports, such as patient histories, physical examinations, emergency room visits, operations, chart reviews, consultation, or discharge summaries.
- Review and edit transcribed reports or dictated material for spelling, grammar, clarity, consistency, and proper medical terminology.
- Distinguish between homonyms and recognize inconsistencies and mistakes in medical terms, referring to dictionaries, drug references, and other sources on anatomy, physiology, and medicine.
- Return dictated reports in printed or electronic form for physician's review, signature, and corrections and for inclusion in patients' medical records.
- Translate medical jargon and abbreviations into their expanded forms to ensure the accuracy of patient and health care facility records.
- Identify mistakes in reports and check with doctors to obtain the correct information.
- Perform data entry and data retrieval services, providing data for inclusion in medical records and for transmission to physicians.
- Produce medical reports, correspondence, records, patient-care information, statistics, medical research, and administrative material.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Social, Investigative.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Post-Secondary Certificate (38.9% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (32.9%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 1 month, up to and including 3 months (34%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 3: Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Medical Transcriptionists is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Moderate | Lower on contact with others than 51% of occupations compared | — |
| Dealing with the public | High | Higher on dealing with the public than 63% of occupations compared | — |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 76% of occupations compared | 64% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 78% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 70% of occupations compared | 73% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Low | Lower on conflict situations than 75% of occupations compared | — |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Moderate | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 53% of occupations compared | — |
| Consequence of error | Low | Lower on consequence of error than 68% of occupations compared | 39% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: low
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: moderate
- Consequence of error: low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0.94%
- Contact with others about half the time: 14.26%
- Contact with others most of the time: 30.31%
- Constant contact with others: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 2.69%
- Fairly important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Important: 5.98%
- Very important: 16.11%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2021
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0.94%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 5.51%
- Very important: 29.43%
- Extremely important: 64.12%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2021
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 8.21%
- Limited freedom: 31.92%
- Some freedom: 35.58%
- A lot of freedom: 24.29%
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2021
Time pressure
- Never: 20.65%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 0.47%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 5.45%
- Every day: 73.43%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2021
Conflict situations
- Never: 21.59%
- Once a year or more but not every month: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a month or more but not every week: 19.75%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 23.81%
- Every day: 0%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 6.48%
- Once a year or more but not every month: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a month or more but not every week: 4.13%
- Once a week or more but not every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Every day: 0%
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2021
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 38.5%
- Fairly serious: 16.48%
- Serious: 6.04%
- Very serious: 23.34%
- Extremely serious: 15.64%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2021
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O*NET-SOC 31-9094.00 · SOC 31-9094 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8