Making Progress

After 2 days and multiple "suggestions" that maybe "that" shouldn't go there because "this" will happen, the house looks gorgeous and Christmas-like. I commented to mom that it wasn't "how I would have done it", but I like it. It's bright and festive and feels like Christmas. All I can say is LOVELY!

One of the places that I sent an application for General Transcription wanted some testing done. The first part was grammar stuff and spelling. You know, the kinds of things that trip everybody up. There were misspellings and sound-alikes and awkward phrasings. After that was reviewed I was given a link to download a dictation file and transcribe it. I sent that back last night/early this morning. I'm not really getting my hopes up, but I feel like I did well with it. It would be nice to see where it will go. Of course, this being Christmas week, I might not hear back from anyone for a while. That's all right.

I have also been going through a lot of the sites for transcription jobs like Elance and MTJobs. I'm not sure if I'm ready to try bidding on a transcription job, but they are definitely out there. There's also a lot of competition for them. There are numerous sites for job seekers giving advice, tips, to-do's, and not-to-do's. A search under "transcription jobs", "transcription at home", "general transcription" on google or bing gives a lot of options. Sometimes opening one of them brings small blogs or articles to you getting more in-depth on the subject your researching.

WARNING: Make sure your virus and spyware is operating efficiently. These searches tend to bring a lot of "undesirables" with them. Not viruses necessarily, but a lot of spyware. My Norton 360 is catching them nicely, but it's getting a workout.

During the last few days of household upheaval, it's been kind of difficult to get time to work on reports steadily, but I have done a few. I've even gotten decent scores on them first time through. I love it when that happens. I had one that was over 9 minutes. I thought, "Oh, no!" But, it really turned into no big deal. The dictation was clear and no major difficulties cropped up in it.

I don't look at the progress bar on the audio anymore. It's easy to let it distract me into thinking, "When is this going to end?" and popping my eyes off the report to check on it. I decided that I don't need to know. Concentrating on the audio and getting the report done correctly is more important than how long it takes. This is especially important on dictations where the audio is, shall we say, less than stellar.

I'm going to come back later and write up some information on organizing, health issues, and motivation.
Watch this space!

On to BAC

Does BAC mean Basic Acute Care? Sometimes I think it means Balance And Calm.

BAC is challenging and I will not say it isn't. I've had reports that make me feel like I got hit with the Stupid Stick. Fortunately, that feeling is much less prevalent than in Clinic Notes. Do I get perfect reports? Nope. Do I know everything I need? Not even close. Do I feel more confident? Yes.

The confidence is because I've learned Balance. The dictations are not easier. I don't think there is such a thing. The Balance comes because I KNOW that I'm learning. Before, it was like I felt I had to be perfect. That I was supposed to know how to make the reports perfect just because I'd been through the Objective portion of the Career Step course and that should make everything clear and understandable.

It's one thing to think that you're learning. It's quite another to internalize it and make it part of your philosophy. The detailed and difficult progression through the bookwork gives a sense that you know everything you need to know in order to do transcription well. You passed the midterm exam and got a great grade didn't you? So how come Clinic Notes kicked you in the head? Are you really dumb and just didn't know it? NO! Not even close.

It took all of Clinic Notes and about 1/4 of  Basic Accute Care to really KNOW that I'm still learning. Duh! Right? Not really. It just took that long to give myself permission to not be perfect. That I needed that long to get it irritates me, but it's not the end of the world. Research and continual learning is part and parcel of the career that I signed up for. Even graduates and working MTs are still learning their craft. Sometimes I'm just a little denser than I'd like to admit.

BAC is where I've been learning to really dig into researching for answers. It's where my Shorthand expander is becoming more and more my friend. BAC is where I'm finding that I don't NEED to look up as many medications or medical words or procedures. Wow! I really am learning something! My speed is still laughable, but that's okay with me. Speed won't really pick up unless I've got regular doctors and templates for them set up.

With the Balance that comes from KNOWING that I'm learning comes the Calm that everything is progressing exactly as it should. Whoa! Where did that come from? Calm? I haven't been calm in years! Giving myself permission to learn made all the difference. The pressure is off! Yay! I can keep learning, expecting to have glaring mistakes, expecting to have to look something up multiple times before it sticks in my almost 40-year-old brain. (Hey! Don't laugh! It takes longer to put things in there and make them stay than it used to!)

I hope you find the Balance and Calm in your life and learning. There's that old saying that as long as you're learning you're alive. Well, it's true! Give yourself permission to go back to your gradeschool or high school self. The pressure comes off. Your brain becomes much more accepting of new information, and believe it or not, you may find yourself enjoying the process more than you thought!