How to improve your typing speed and become a better medical scribe? First, you need to test it to define your starting point. Second, you should set your goals—make them progressive rather than big from the beginning. Then, you have to learn how to type without looking at your keyboard using the home row position. Do you want to learn more? Then keep reading!
How to Increase Typing Speed and Accuracy in 4 Easy Steps
Becoming a medical scribe requires you to have good typing abilities. After all, that’s what your job will be all about. What is a good typing speed for a medical scribe? No less than 40 words per minute. However, some employers might look for candidates who are capable of exceeding it, sometimes even reaching 70 words per minute. How do you achieve such a level? Here are some of our tips.
1. Check Your Typing Speed
How to increase typing speed and accuracy if you don’t know what level you are on? That’s impossible. Therefore, your first step should be to test how fast you are.
Many tests are available on the internet to test both your typing speed and accuracy. Just search for “typing speed test” in Google and get down to work!
2. Set Your Goals
Knowing how many WPM you can type, it’s time to set your goals. Start small—even a 5 WPM increase will be a good goal to begin with. Scale your goals as you progress to keep improving your typing skills!
3. Learn Typing Without Looking at Your Keyboard
As a medical scribe, you might have the possibility to look at your keyboard, so this skill would seem unnecessary. However, it’s important to learn it as it can still help you a lot!
How to learn to type without looking at your keyboard and increase your typing speed and accuracy through it? You need to feel the keys—this requires the following:
- A lot of practice—Start slowly; you don’t have to practice at your maximum typing speed; your goal here is to build muscle memory.
- Use typing tests to practice.
- Consider playing typing games that require you to practice quick typing of particular, unrelated letters rather than words.
- Learn typing from the home row position (more below the list).
- Type in the same position—you should establish your position in front of a computer and stick to it, as it’ll make it easier for you to locate the right keys without looking.
The best way to achieve this is to practice typing without looking along with the home row position technique.
4. Type Starting from the Home Row
So, what is the home row technique, and how can you use it to improve your typing speed?
This method involves starting from the home row, which is in the middle of the keyboard. The principle here is simple—your fingers should always return to the same position so that you always hit the same keys with the same fingers. It’s similar to what tennis players do—they also return to the same position in the middle-back of the court to be able to reach any ball directed at them.
Source: Cy21, Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/QWERTY-home-keys-position.svg
How to practice this? Here are some example exercises:
- Column typing—strike the same keys in one column one after the other.
- Conscious practicing—while typing, put conscious effort into returning to the home row position to build muscle memory.
- Home row position exercises—don’t type; instead, practice putting your fingers in the home row position, lifting them up, and putting them in it once again.
The Takeaway
Knowing how to increase your typing speed on your keyboard, you are ready to practice. Remember, you don’t have to be a pro to become a scribe, but the faster you type, the easier it will be for you to land a job and cope with the assigned tasks.
And, if you’re looking for medical scribe opportunities, see our careers tab!
