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#100350 - 06/14/08 08:38 PM
Just transcribed my first clinic note as a student
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Sharonann
New Member
Registered: 05/24/08
Posts: 2
Loc: Southern Illinois
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Wow! I just transcribed my first clinic note and was it ever an eye-opening experience. I've been all day trying to set up the pedal, went to Staples to find ear phones (that don't work), and just made more errors in one short note than I ever did in my other life. I actually thought this course would be easy because of my 34 years of RN experience. I found building medical words much more difficult than I expected. When it comes to grammar and punctuation; I need to return to grade school. I even had the audacity to think I could spell. Needless to say, I have been humbled beyond my wildest expectations. I have developed a new-found respect for Sheila, our transcriptionist at work. I will be sure to tell her of my experience on Monday. This is also the first time I have ever left a message on a forum. I can only hope that I am doing this correctly. I'm actually so excited that I had to share this with someone. I would love to read of your experiences.
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#100361 - 06/15/08 12:19 AM
Re: Just transcribed my first clinic note as a stu
[Re: Sharonann]
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14tonks
Member
Registered: 10/25/01
Posts: 5931
Loc: Only 3rd world country in US
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Wow! I just transcribed my first clinic note and was it ever an eye-opening experience....just made more errors in one short note than I ever did in my other life. I actually thought this course would be easy because of my 34 years of RN experience.
You are far from the first nurse to make that mistake. 
Good luck with your studies! At least you have been honest enough to face up to the fact that you don't know what you don't know, which is an excellent beginning. Your nursing knowledge base will eventually be of some help to you once you get the basic transcription skill set down; it's just not too applicable to helping you develop those specific skills.
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#100362 - 06/15/08 12:19 AM
Re: Just transcribed my first clinic note as a student
[Re: Sharonann]
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moaab
Member
Registered: 02/02/08
Posts: 302
Loc: Chicagoland
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It is a humbling experience, isn't it? I'm a student as well, and I spent 4 hours today transcribing 8 dictations! I whipped through the first four and was thinking that I finally was getting the hang of it, then dictator number five came along. It was humble pie all over again. All I kept thinking was, "What if I were in my job and had to transcribe this dictator without being able to look at the answer key to check my work afterwards? Ugh!" As a rule I don't curse, but my computer heard a lot of blue words on number five. I really started doubting myself, but then number six came along and it was okay again.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that by being humbled from time to time keeps us (me) from getting a little too over-confident, and to continue to pay better attention to what we are doing. Plus, it helps us to be thankful for the dictators who are easy to understand and know how to enunciate.
Best wishes, Sharonann. It WILL get easier.
_________________________
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.........Abraham Lincoln's mother
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#100367 - 06/15/08 01:05 AM
Re: Just transcribed my first clinic note as a student
[Re: moaab]
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Redpen
Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 914
Loc: Virtual Oklahoma!
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Just keep at it! It will become easier! Eventually. 
The first time I transcribed anything, I thought it was the most difficult thing I'd ever done. I had a background in medicine, too, which really helped in terms of understanding what I was hearing, but getting the "connection" going between my ears, brain, feet, and fingers was unspeakably difficult.
The initial impression of MT is that it's just typing what you hear. In actual fact, it's far more complicated than that. What you hear is not what you type, because much dictation can't be written as it is spoken. It either requires special formatting, or inclusion of unspoken stuff, or rearranging, or just plain needs to be expanded because it was dictated in a kind of verbal shorthand.
Being a nurse doesn't help much in terms of getting a leg up in either MT or coding, as it happens. Even physicians have trouble with MT--they can't understand anything outside their own specialty. Some of them can't understand what they, themselves, dictated.
(MTs do have an advantage for coding, though! Having transcribed is a huge benefit for that.)
_________________________
Redpen
(The Andrews School)
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#100374 - 06/15/08 09:06 AM
Re: Just transcribed my first clinic note as a student
[Re: Sharonann]
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Sharonann
New Member
Registered: 05/24/08
Posts: 2
Loc: Southern Illinois
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Thank you to all who replied. I'm really looking forward to having the opportunity to work out of my home and taking care of my soon-to-be grandchild. Your encouragement really helps to keep me on track.
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#100376 - 06/15/08 12:56 PM
Re: Just transcribed my first clinic note as a stu
[Re: Sharonann]
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Linda Andrews CMT
Moderator-Andrews School
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 4950
Loc: Oklahoma City, OK US
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Deleted at Linda's request ~~annie
Edited by Annie (06/16/08 09:49 AM)
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#100380 - 06/15/08 01:33 PM
Re: Just transcribed my first clinic note as a student
[Re: Linda Andrews CMT]
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doxiemom
New Member
Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 4
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Sharonann,
Like you I have experience in the medical field. I am a registered x-ray technologist. The terminology was easy, but I had trouble on the use of punctuation and grammar. I graduated valedictorian in high school and always did well on my college courses. I guess if you don't use things for so long, you eventually forget them. Anyway, after proofreading all of my assignments and reviewing the punctuation rules, I am doing well. Good luck to you and hang in there!
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#100413 - 06/16/08 09:56 AM
Re: Just transcribed my first clinic note as a student
[Re: Sharonann]
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DaisyDuke
Junior Member
Registered: 06/11/08
Posts: 43
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Many health care professionals, MTs aside, thought for years that MT was an easy profession that didn't require much education and anyone with a high school education could pretty much do it if they so chose. Of course, health care professionals such as RNs, LPNs, x-ray techs, etc. could easily muster up the skills do a job such as MT because "they know even more than MTs being that they are patient care providers." Even the new CEOs that head these big nationals very recently thought that if someone could be a hair dresser, they certainly could be an MT with no problem. LOL! Not to put a damper on your hopes of becoming adept in the field of MT, but I've seen many a RN think that it would be an easy paycheck only to find that it was nearly impossible for them. The two professions are really apples and oranges and what applies to one does not to the other. On the other hand, if an MT chose to change professions and become an RN, she would be leagues ahead of the other students in hew knowledge of medical terminology, pharmaceutical knowledge, treatment and diagnosis and the umteen medical specialites and their lingo. I speak from experience as I went back to school to get my BS and being an MT made the going a lot easier.
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Moderator: Annie
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