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.