Virtues of an MT

To study medical transcription is to study a new language. That is why it is said that medical transcriptionists are also known as medical linguists. Yet learning the language of medicine is not what makes a full-pledged MT. So what makes an MT? For me, it is the core values which embodies each and every medical transcriptionists and these are:

Patience. There is an unending supply of patience required in every MT. From the first step of learning to be one, to the time allotted to finish the required voicefiles, to the undetermined hours spent to research just a single medical word, and not counting that of the editing and proofreading part, all of these require enormous amount of patience.

Humility. I think the virtue of humility will always be a part of every MT because one is constantly being trained and retrained by every new file they encounter. One never stops learning thus I guess each MT accepts the fact that “the road to a perfect file is still far beyond the horizon.”

Openness. Every voicefile done is expected to have a mistake or a blank or a grammatical error may have been overlooked, thus an MT may be criticized and corrected. All these are normal settings, a part of an MT’s day to day struggles. An MT is always open to change, open to criticism, and open to be corrected for the better.

Commitment. When an MT starts a new file, there begins the commitment. A commitment to finish it and to present is as perfect as it should be.

Learning to become an MT is one thing but becoming an MT is another.

Written by: Jeanette Lee-Nicolas MD