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Career Advice on How to Become a Medical Secretary

General Career Information

Medical secretaries are a clever bunch. They have figured out that there is a way of getting close to doctors and batting their eyelashes (yes most are women), without having to empty a bedpan or deliver an enema like nurses. Oh, you are crafty, you medical secretaries!
 
Medical secretaries sit at safe little desk away from all the blood and guts (and yes, enemas) and transcribe dictation. They assist doctors as well as medical scientists, who also can make for decent marriage material and also pay out a respectable alimony. Medical secretaries work with doctors and medical scientists in a variety of other ways as well, such as maintaining medical histories, preparing letters and correspondences and producing reports. In a very real sense, medical secretaries do exactly what one would expect in that they are secretaries for doctors and other medical professionals.
 

Career Facts:

Medical secretaries will often undergo specialized training in their field, but no specific degree is required. Therefore, not too much is involved in career planning. Currently, there are about 450,000 medical secretaries employed in the United States. Sadly, there are not enough doctors to marry all of them. This, of course, leads to many sad nights and angry mistresses.

 

Career Opportunities and Job Outlook-Good:

The job growth rate for medical secretaries is expected to run at about seventeen percent. This should translate to about 68,000 new jobs being created in the field by 2016.
 
Job Outlook is Good
 

A Day in The Life:

“So exactly when are you going to leave your wife?” and “I am sick of sneaking around,” are two of the common questions that a medical secretary is likely to ask at some point during her career. For male medical secretaries, it’s a little different, most of the time. All fun aside, the medical secretary, in some ways, has a job that is much like many secretaries in that she OR he, helps a boss keep all of paperwork in order and helps prepare painfully, incredibly boring, soul crushing reports that must be delivered to superiors or clients. Once again, it may not fun, but it beats giving those enemas, and it allows for constant access to doctors.
 
As a medical secretary, you will likely spend a great deal of time also working with insure companies as they attempt to “help their clients to the best of their ability” and take care of additional responsibilities such as patient billing and updating medical records.
 

Average Salary:

Gold digging isn’t easy. Medical secretaries can expect to earn on average about $27,000 per year. The top ten percent of medical secretaries can average about $42,000 per year. However, if they do successfully “land” a doctor, it is much cheaper than medical school and they don’t have to learn all that “hard stuff.”

$25k - $45k

 

Career Training and Qualifications:

Specialized training is needed, but there are few other qualifications. Being a sharp dresser probably doesn’t hurt depending upon one’s agenda.
 
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