Medical secretarial studies programs prepare people to work in healthcare offices. Students learn medical terms, standards, and laws. They also learn to work with doctors, keep records, and use computers.

If you look at a place of business, the way the space is used often tells you a lot about the activities there. In a medical practice, you'll find that the rooms where the doctors see patients actually take up a relatively small amount of space. The rooms where clerical activities go on take up most of the square footage. Trained workers handle these tasks. Often they are specialists, but in a very small practice a medical secretary may need to do most of the clerical tasks. So the training program has to cover a broad range of topics.

One thing that almost all the tasks have in common is medical terminology. So in a medical secretarial studies program, you study these terms. You learn about the structures of the human body and how they function. You learn about various diseases and disorders that you are likely to encounter. You learn about common medical procedures and the drugs that most often are prescribed. You study the major systems by which health information is coded so that HMOs or patients can be billed and health data can be compiled. Since doctors don't have much time to write and usually keep a vocal record of their sessions with patients, you learn how to transcribe their dictation into medical records for the patients' files.

You also learn what it takes to keep a medical office running smoothly. You study the various business functions, from reception to billing. You become familiar with the computer software packages that are used in each step of the process. It is assumed that you are fairly good at the keyboard and at basic word processing. But you need to learn the formats that are common in medical documents. You learn ways of organizing records. You study the laws that apply to healthcare, especially those that cover the confidentiality of patients' records.

The training program usually takes one or two years of full-time study. A large number of community colleges offer such a program. A two-year program there may result in an associate degree, but one-year programs resulting in a certificate are more common. Many proprietary schools offer such a program. You can also get training in the Job Corps.