Wreck of the New Carissa

          With the onslaught of winter storms and days of socked in rain keeping us house-bound  there is time to reminisce and take stock of what had one accomplished in the prior year and to move forward  to plans for the coming year.   I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.  I have learned over the years I just don’t have the willpower or the memory to stick to them, or even remember what I had resolved!  

          My proudest accomplishment over the years, was to be in the position of teaching the skill of transcribing medical records to three different people.  It was a blessing to be able to help them make the transition from being unemployed, or working in a car wash, to developing a skill that will hold them in good stead; to enable them the ability to find employment no matter what part of the country they might find themselves, and to help them develop a skill that would over the years take them forward throughout their lives right on into retirement.  Transcribing medical records is not an easy task.  It is not for those who just want a job, put in their time, and then go home and veg out.  It is not just “sitting at a computer and twiddling your fingers,”  as many seem to think.   A medical transcriptionist has to have guts and a stick-to-itness to overcome such obstacles as:

          a) Learning a new language, the language of medicine;

          b) understanding thousands of different doctors from all parts of the world, all with different accents and different speech patterns;

          c) learning that every different facility wants their reports typed in a different format and keeping all these instructions separate.

That is just the tip of the iceberg, though this is enough to make even the strongest among us break down and shed a few tears now and then.  The best of us are a little bit odd, just like any other artist, the sane ones just don’t make it to the top!