All is not gloom and doom at work. There are admittedly glorious moments which makes me believe that I have made the right choice of leaving my otherwise brain draining work for a more challenging one.
In fact, because of the many medical jargons I encounter daily, and the medical knowledge that comes with learning what all those jargons mean, I feel I can improve on my other blog, Practical Biology, by posting quite a lot of articles about how biological issues, particularly medical related ones can be easily understood by the common individual and how it can be applied to daily living.
I do not propose to know extensively about the topics, but I do know enough knowledge to convey it. And the best way to ensure that knowledge does not atrophy in your brain is to use it. Perhaps I can even include in my blog some helpful tips for the amateur medical transcriptionist like myself.
How many times have I felt frustrated searching for medical terms I heard sounded like this and that but actually were spelled this and that? And wouldn’t I be immensely greatful if I find out that this term is associated with this term so that the next time I encounter the words, or their sound-alikes, I would know what they mean? I don’t know if you can relate really but just to give you an example, today, I found out that a usual dictation for the results of a rectal exam is normal sphincter tone. Now I do not yet know what that means but the way I found out was by searching in Google for “rectal exam synchter tone”. I kept hearing something like synchter tone when in fact it was sphincter tone. Of course, a necessary skill in medical transcriptionist which is more important than listening skills are proof-reading skills which would involve a lot of common sense. If the word doesn’t exist – you can’t find it anywhere, not in the dictionary, whether medical or not, or Google – then most probably it doesn’t especially if the sentence doesn’t make sense.
Also, in the 2 to 3 weeks that I have been transcribing files, which we call dead files because they have been transcribed before, I have learned a lot about a wide range of diseases and the cures for them, even the drugs most commonly prescribed for their treatment. Example, a history of hypertension or some cardiovascular disease usually has Coumadin or Lasix as part of the prescribed medications. Also, do you know that there is such a procedure as urinary diversion? When a patient undergoes a radical cystectomy (removal of urinary bladder because perhaps it is infested with cancerous tumors), then of course, the urine produced by the kidneys would need some place where they can be stored until micturition (urination). Unless of course the patient sits in the toilet all day long or has some sort of external pouch to catch his frequent outflow of urine — eww! What a discomforting prospect! And so there is the process of urinary diversion which can be done in several ways. I won’t elaborate. This must already be too much epistaxis (nosebleed) for some.
But I must admit I am enjoying myself. I enjoy encountering these terms again and using them in sentences and even in daily expressions. I guess I live for the knowledge of it all. Isn’t it evident by my blog title, Cerebral Insights?
Because of this being a medical transcriptionist becomes really exciting and rewarding. I get to learn a lot about new things and even if now, I don’t exactly know where to apply them, I’m sure I’ll be able to use the knowledge in the future.
All is not gloom and doom at work. There are admittedly glorious moments which makes me believe that I have made the right choice of leaving my otherwise brain draining work for a more challenging one.
In fact, because of the many medical jargons I encounter daily, and the medical knowledge that comes with learning what all those jargons mean, I feel I can improve on my other blog, Practical Biology, by posting quite a lot of articles about how biological issues, particularly medical related ones can be easily understood by the common individual and how it can be applied to daily living.
I do not propose to know extensively about the topics, but I do know enough knowledge to convey it. And the best way to ensure that knowledge does not atrophy in your brain is to use it. Perhaps I can even include in my blog some helpful tips for the amateur medical transcriptionist like myself.
How many times have I felt frustrated searching for medical terms I heard sounded like this and that but actually were spelled this and that? And wouldn’t I be immensely greatful if I find out that this term is associated with this term so that the next time I encounter the words, or their sound-alikes, I would know what they mean? I don’t know if you can relate really but just to give you an example, today, I found out that a usual dictation for the results of a rectal exam is normal sphincter tone. Now I do not yet know what that means but the way I found out was by searching in Google for “rectal exam synchter tone”. I kept hearing something like synchter tone when in fact it was sphincter tone. Of course, a necessary skill in medical transcriptionist which is more important than listening skills are proof-reading skills which would involve a lot of common sense. If the word doesn’t exist – you can’t find it anywhere, not in the dictionary, whether medical or not, or Google – then most probably it doesn’t especially if the sentence doesn’t make sense.
Also, in the 2 to 3 weeks that I have been transcribing files, which we call dead files because they have been transcribed before, I have learned a lot about a wide range of diseases and the cures for them, even the drugs most commonly prescribed for their treatment. Example, a history of hypertension or some cardiovascular disease usually has Coumadin or Lasix as part of the prescribed medications. Also, do you know that there is such a procedure as urinary diversion? When a patient undergoes a radical cystectomy (removal of urinary bladder because perhaps it is infested with cancerous tumors), then of course, the urine produced by the kidneys would need some place where they can be stored until micturition (urination). Unless of course the patient sits in the toilet all day long or has some sort of external pouch to catch his frequent outflow of urine — eww! What a discomforting prospect! And so there is the process of urinary diversion which can be done in several ways. I won’t elaborate. This must already be too much epistaxis (nosebleed) for some.
But I must admit I am enjoying myself. I enjoy encountering these terms again and using them in sentences and even in daily expressions. I guess I live for the knowledge of it all. Isn’t it evident by my blog title, Cerebral Insights?
Because of this being a medical transcriptionist becomes really exciting and rewarding. I get to learn a lot about new things and even if now, I don’t exactly know where to apply them, I’m sure I’ll be able to use the knowledge in the future.
