By Diane H. Wong

f
you’re a medical student or a technical writer with a hard science
background, you may be considering picking up some medical writing
work on the side. Medical writing generally pays better than
comparable writing gigs, and many people find personal fulfillment in
being part of a field that helps save lives. No matter what your
reasons are for entering the field, it’s important to go in with
the right expectations.

Medical
writing comes with its own unique set of conventions. The style rules
vary in different technical writing fields, and medical writing is no
exception. Just because you have a strong background in biological
science or even medicine specifically doesn’t mean you’ll be an
effective medical writer. Before you can begin producing medical
documents, you need to learn how to present your knowledge in a
format that doctors, nurses and other medical personnel have come to
expect.

Tips to Follow

Personally Prepare Yourself

Medical
writing, like any other freelance profession, can be a challenging,
isolating experience. In the beginning especially, you can expect to
spend 80+ hours per week behind your desk typing away without any
direct human interaction. You need to be comfortable with this amount
of alone time to succeed. You also need to be comfortable selling
yourself. Self-marketing is a key element of freelancing. Make sure
you have what it takes to explain to prospective clients why you’re
the man or woman for the job.

Seek Agency Experience

Many
corporate clients like hospitals like to check references and see a
history of success before they hire a medical writer. The most common
phrase you see on job postings in this field is “agency experience
preferred.” Writers with one, two or ideally five years of
experience working at an agency produce better deliverables for their
clients – or so corporate clients believe. If you’re goal is to
become a full-time freelancer, your best bet is to start at an
agency. This experience will be an invaluable selling tool in the
future.

Be Precise and Fast

These
two qualities don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, but in medical
writing they have to. One tiny mistake in a medical document can have
catastrophic repercussions. Most doctors and hospitals expect their
writers to have incredible attention to detail and produce meticulous
documents. They also don’t like to wait around, so the more quality
content you can churn out the better. If your clients don’t like
your turnaround times, they’ll be looking for a new writer before
you even realize that anything’s wrong.

Learn the Structure of Each Class
of Assignments

Medical
documents all follow very specific formats. Case reports, for
example, have a four paragraph structure that you should memorize.
Begin with an introduction that establishes the background of the
paper. Second: state your objective outlining the purpose of the
paper. Then comes the case report describing phenomena and patient
history in great detail. This section should also include test
results, diagnosis and treatment. The last paragraph is the
discussion/conclusion.

Further Your Education

There
are several degree and certificate programs available for aspiring
medical and technical writers. Consider enrolling in a medical
informatics degree program if you want to really learn the ins
and outs of the business in great detail.

Nursing Essay

Not
only if you are doing a nursing degree, but also if you are studying
aged care, disability services course, or any course where there may
be a possibly that you may have to provide first aid and/or care to
another person. It isn’t always easy, as nursing can be quite a
large task for someone. If you are a nurse, or performing in a
nursing role, you are in a position of high responsibility and high
pressure. As a nurse, making a single mistake may make a patient have
health complications, or even result in death. While this may sound a
little morbid, it is a fact of nursing. Also, you will find yourself
in a position of dealing with multiple patients and their families,
making house calls, working harder and having more stress than most
people could handle. It is not a job for anyone, and it takes
dedication and commitment.

Three Types of Nursing Essays

When
studying nursing, you will end up having to do essays about what you
have learned. Nursing is a practical role, however there is quite a
bit of theory to be done. An essay on nursing will be based on the
theory you are learning, the academic role of being a nurse.

There
are three main types of nursing essays, and they are:

• A
  general research paper, which will involve you researching and
  studying a given topic.
  
• A
  practical assignment, which is hands on based, and is designed to
  see how you deal with real-life situations before you are placed in
  the situation.
  
• A
  coursework project, which will see you answering a series of
  questions, designed to test the knowledge of what you have learned.
  

Two Different Assignment Types

There
are two types of nursing assignments, and they are qualitative
nursing and quantitative nursing papers. Both of these require quite
a large amount of work and research to be done, and the student needs
to be committed to doing a quality, well thought out assignment.

About
the author: Diane H. Wong is an English teacher. Moreover, she works
as an editor for DoMyWriting.com.
Besides, she likes elaborating her own strategies of learning
languages.