Frustrated and Starting AAC

I finished BAC yesterday. Thank goodness I did. That cold hit really hard. Concentrating today is so hard as to be almost impossible. Went to the store and bought out the cold medicine aisle. Hopefully, keeping the symptoms under control will allow me to at least work on reports through my cold.

I haven't started AAC (Advanced Acute Care). I thought that if I started it before I got the cold under control, I would make more of a hash of it than I normally do.

I think I got lazy through the course. Having the comparison available at the click of the "submit" button just made it too easy to not do the research necessary to go through the reports. I'm not sure if I'm learning or just repeating the comparison information and calling it good. It's very uncomfortable to me knowing that I have a lazy learning habit. How can I really learn if I can't hear the word though?

Okay, here's an example. Dr. Mushmouth dictates several medications. They're only slightly mangled. I can research and get Google to give me the med. Go to a drug site, look up the med, and voila! I've got a medication, how it's spelled, and correct dosage information. Repeat the process on each of the medications listed and I've got a coherent and correct list that I can proudly include in the report.

Then, Dr. MushmouthspeedtalkerESL moves in. Clarity stinks, there's no information in what he just dictated that I can work with. A list of normal, everyday medications turns into a list of flags with the occasionally correct dosage attached. I know I'm supposed to take the dosage and complaint or diagnosis and research what I think I hear. Then, cross reference that with the meds until I come up with the correct one. Trouble is, half the time the correct one turns out to be so far wrong that I want to hit something. The rest of the time the information that would help me research well is so well and truly mangled that the whole report is nothing but mishears, flags, and sentences that make absolutely no sense.

With reports like this, is it any wonder that I would rather hit the button and just move it along. Each file takes time to get through, each report has it's challenges. Do we really need so many of the mushmouth dictators with no information inside the file to actually research to a correct answer? I know these reports teach us something. I know that we have to learn that these dictations are out there. But how do you research for something that's just not there? 

I think these reports are the most frustrating and time-wasting exercises in futility. I think that if there was a more equal representation of these reports and reports that we need to just research for accuracy's sake, I would be through this course by now. Probably, through the course with a much higher level of confidence in my skills.

I trust the process. I know it works. There are too many people out there who've graduated, gotten good jobs, and still love the career to not believe that it will work for me as well. That doesn't mean I'm not entirely frustrated with my researching or lack thereof. I still can't hear too many things in these dictations to get a grasp on where to research for a correct answer.

I'm sure that in time, I will get a handle on researching the impossible. At that point, I'll feel like I've got the world in my hands! Until then... Just keep soldiering on!