What your background brings to medical writing
A previous career can supply scientific knowledge, writing habits, audience awareness or practical skills that transfer to medical writing. The strengths and gaps differ between backgrounds, and practical experience can change how formal training is applied.
Skills and learning gaps across backgrounds
Journalism can bring experience with deadlines, style guides and interpersonal communication, while bench science can bring organisation, computer skills, statistics, graphics and familiarity with scientific or therapeutic areas. One former teacher credits teaching with helping her reach an audience. A former labour and delivery nurse found that clinical work prepared her to change course quickly and become fully immersed in a task.
One scientifically trained writer reported having had no writing classes, while a former teacher envied her colleague's science background. One writer from medicine found the science relatively easy but needed substantial learning to adapt writing to different audiences. Another clinician, from physical therapy, took writing courses and undertook extensive grammar self-study.
Academic publication experience also does not remove every learning need: one writer with two bachelor's degrees, a master's and a doctorate, and extensive publication experience, found much more to learn from experienced medical writers and writing courses, while regulatory processes, jargon and documents were new to her.
Networking and continued education are recommended across transitions from journalism, science and medicine.
Practical experience and theoretical training
One medical writer and translator with 15 years of clinical research and regulatory experience considers a combination of field experience and training probably the best preparation. In her view, theoretical training cannot equal experience unless it includes a sufficiently effective final hands-on stage. Experience provides a broader view of the work and its intricacies, helping a writer put training into practice.
Knowing the subject thoroughly can also help a writer identify potential problems and propose solutions proactively, an approach she finds clients appreciate. She acknowledges that writers and translators with long professional experience may develop this approach even without having begun in hands-on clinical research.