which accent do you find the hardest to transcribe?
Posted By: USAMT on 2006-06-30
In Reply to:
I do okay with Oriental, Greek, Indian, most European accents. However for some reason when it comes to Spanish docs, forget it !  It just sounds like gibberish to me.
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Poll - what do you think the hardest accent is? I vote Hispanic. nm
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Hardest lessons to find out after BK
I thought health insurance was too expensive when I changed from employee to IC. I had emergency surgery and afterwards lost everything when I could not pay the bills.
First, sit down with every debt you owe and categorize everything - credit cards/loan companies/nonsignature debt/mortgage/car/medical/taxes, etc. Each type of debt has a different relief route typically. These are things to expect: Whether you enter a credit counseling program or BK, credit score will be damaged for years - how bad is relative to what you attempt to obtain credit for in the future. With BK in particular, depending on what state you live in, most major insurance companies will not sell you a home owner's policy until BK is discharged in 7+ years. You may also have increased car insurance rates. Depending on your personal circumstance, you need to check with your insurance companies. For instance, Nationwide will not sell the homeowner policy until after discharge. You need to ask whether your state uses credit for car/home insurance rating. Earlier posts are correct - student loans, Federal and State taxes are exempt from BK laws - if these are part of your debt from past years, you need to talk to both your state and the Fed about your options which might include an offer in compromise. If your student loans are just coming due, you need to talk to the company about options. If you have older student loans, most can be deferred with added interest and penalties. Some employers are now running credit checks in the application process - yes they can and will use that information in the hiring process.
The "new" BK laws mean that your debt will be reviewed and if you can pay back a portion, you will be required to do so - but this is major legal mumbojumbo, so my ultimate advice - do your homework and find the best BK or debt relief attorney and pay a consult fee before you make any drastic moves. They may try to 'sell' you a BK filing (obviously, that's how they make their money) but you need to pick their bones for all the info they can give you relevant to your state.
Lastly, 35k of debt with 35k of income is doable but you would have to knock your school time down to nominal or put it on hold altogether for a while to avoid BK and not assume any further debt. Whatever happens, do not let your medical insurance slide or any other policy which safeguards long-term- it may seem worth it up front but I can tell you it is the single worst decision you can electively make. Best of luck to you.
No accent up heeyah. You Southnahs got the accent. :)
Nevah got how them Southnahs can't say go pahk the cah.
If you ah comin' tah Maine, you best be bringing an umbrullah. Been rainin' like ah son of ah gun and ain't no signs ah stoppin'. Even them birds have taken tah hidin'', 'cept them there ducks out in tha front yaahd.
Least we ain't gotta shovel it.
And remembah, if you don't like the weathah in Maine, wait a minute, it'll change.
Enjoy your vacation and welcome back. :)
Hardest for me are the NE (i.e., RI, NJ and the like)
Shoot, I used to date a guy from NJ and almost fell over laughing when he asked me out of "cwaffee" LOL.
I'm a Texan too :-)
One of the hardest, IMO
Been doing oncology now for 17 years. One of the hardest parts is the drug regimens.. and they are ever changing, such as the protocols and study drugs. The next hardest for me is understanding the chromosome analyses. I've got some really good websites I could share with you if you would like. Best thing is to have good references and websites.Good luck in your decision and just post here if you need websites.
Yes it is one of the hardest things to do.
:(
I think this is sometimes the hardest part
of the job, that it is at home. I did it out of house and I enjoyed it more there, maybe I was a little less productive but I am a social person. I had to adapt and it has been hard. I am forcing myself out more but there are weeks when we are on cut off when I don't leave for 3 days, feel like Howard Hughes sometimes. hahahah.
The hardest is whatever you aren't
used to. Discharge summaries have a lot of drug names, but the good thing is that it is the last report dictated (ideally), and with with many systems you can see the earlier reports for drug names and other terms.
I would say some of the most slurred dictation happens during the physical exam section of the H&P, but if you can see the dictator's previous reports are viewable, you can make normals. Lots of times they say the same thing every time, so that's an opportunity to use a normal and save yourself keystrokes.
So these are some reasons there are no pat answers.
The same way you do any accent. Do
the best you can and go through the entire report, leaving blanks as necessary. Then go back and listen to the report again. I'm sure you'll get some blanks. Also listen for what you think the blank might be. Don't guess, but have your mind set that you know that if they are dictating CBC that your choices are limited in what the options are so listen for those.
This always works for me. I still may have a blank left, but I usually get most of them filled in by doing the above.
accent
I would have to agree with the Asian accent being the most difficult.
not an accent, but
many times it's the "English-speaking" docs who are even worse to try to understand!
Not really an accent but (SM)
My very least favorites are the ones who 'swallow' a few syllables at the beginning and/or end of their sentences. It makes it nearly impossible to decipher what they might be saying and just really an annoying habit on the dictator's part.
I'll take an ESL over a 'gulper' any time.
first night of each week will be hardest
The first night of the week you work is always the hardest, especially if you have slept a normal night. Try to get a nap that first night before you start your 3 days. I always kept caffiene pills (like No-Doze) handy. I didn't take them often but once in a while they would come in handy just to get me through the night. Also, take a shower before you start as if you are starting a regular day. If you get enough sleep during the day after your shifts, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. My problem was I neve was able to get very much sleep, which is why I had to rely on the caffiene pills at times. For some odd reason when you work third shift you don't seem to need as much sleep either. Good Luck.
Think oncology is one of the hardest specialities.
vv
Agree...Hispanic is the hardest!
I've done everything from Indian to Asian and never had a problem with those...but Hispanic accents always throw me for a loop. For instance, I have one MD now that pronounces "violation" as vee-o-lit-on. Took me forever to figure out what she was saying not to mention her grammar was horrendous!
ooh, I know him....got a So African accent?
I don't think it's the accent that is the problem...SM
I think it's the way Indians interchange Vs and Ws. For example, I have heard Indian docs say, "The patient has had chills and Womiting." Many Asians replace Rs where Ls should be. For example, "The patient had a biRateral beRow the knee amputation instead of biLateral beLow.
Some people may consider that just part of the accent. Even so, years ago, one of my favorite dictators was an Indian. He tried very hard to articulate and not mumble. Once you trained yourself that W was a V and "wise-wersa" he was a breeze. I had to toss that in there because he always said it.
For me, it's not any particular accent, it's the speed of
the dictator's talking. Accent or no, when they blast through their report like their pants are on fire, what they get in return for their sloppy dictating habits is a 'swiss cheeze' report full of holes.
I just don't get it sometimes - if teh reports are medicolegal documents, and are important enough to dictate and put in the patient's medical record, I think theyre important enough to dictate more carefully.
My other pet peeve is letters. Most of the time, I find it difficult distinguishing between F and S, B and P, C and D, etc. I think they should come up with some kind of a code when they're going to be dictating letters, such as, instead of saying 'CPT', they could say, 'code cat-pig-tiger'. Or something to that effect. It would save an untold amount of time backing up, relistening, and ultimately leaving blanks in what could have easily been a complete, accurate medical report.
I think so (Alabama doc with accent!)
I have to admit I'm flipping here a bit. My son took my headphones to school somehow and I'm having to do this without headphones! Thank you so much!
Oncology - by far is the hardest for me. New protocols every day to learn. nm
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Op reports by far are easiest for me - hardest is Oncology. nm
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I love the Asians, because they TRY the hardest, and it usually comes out funny. nm
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Hardest thing was marker keys
But after about a week, I got the hang of them. Actually, that is THE thing that makes IT worthwhile for all the other features. Just choose keys that are easy for you to use.
Also, I used the expansions I had at the time from the old Expander and created a glossary from those, so my familiar expansions were already there. Once I got the hang of the marker keys, then I started utilizing more of the features.
I love my IT!
My hardest was a woman from Spain - very, very fast! NM
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I have noticed the southern accent. I like it. Don't like BO though. LOL. nm
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I wanted to put the accent on the end in coude .. sm
Can anyone tell me how to do that? Thanks.
Vietnamese accent the worst.
There is one Vietnamese doc who not only dictates like greased lightning, he also stutters, stammers, and changes his mind. I think he may have a bit of a lisp also. This is in addition to the problems that Asians have with Rs and Ls. This doc gives me an ocular migraine almost every time.
Spanish and Middle Eastern accents are a piece of cake compared to this guy.
An accent trick that helps me...
After spending way too long trying to figure out an allergy one night that was pronounced as s/l fee-oh-REE-nul and which turned out to be Fiorinal, I started double-checking and realized that East Asian (India, Pakistan, etc.) and Arabic language dictators will often incorrectly accent the 3rd syllable if the word happens to naturally be accented on the 2nd syllable.
So when I have a problem with a word that's accented on the 3rd syllable, I'll re-emphasize it in my head, changing to hitting it hard on the 2nd, and that will often help. Or just playing around with emphasizing different syllables from how they're doing it. Now if I could only find a way to mentally blank out the 'trilling' (arrgh).
I know the lady had a southern accent. nm
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Whisperers. Ugh. I can do any accent thanks to growing up (sm)
with my mom who had a cleft palate AND a very strong Brooklyn accent! But why do they whisper? Like they are embarrassed someone might hear how badly they dictate? And why can't ESL's at least TRY to improve their speech pattern? Like the poster below who had the dictator making everything plural except when it really was plural, then suddenly it is singular. I mean come ON.
Good venting post Wannie.
Hardest: Dental surgery. Easiest: Cardiology, OPs. sm
Most interesting: Psych.
I think it's generally whatever you get the least of that you'll find the hardest. I used to hate OPs, GI procedures, and cardiology, but eventually got used to them and found they are repetitive (aka good money makers!).
In all fairness, it is a known fact that English is the hardest to learn sm
How many Americans say BP was 120 SLASH 80. Slash? How about over?
With ESLs we have no idea what their native language is like unless we speak it. It may be 120 by 80 for them and they are translating.
I don't know about you, but growing up my plan was to be a translator for the UN. To that end, I took Latin, Spanish, French, German and some Russian. I was a straight A student in these, but I have to tell you, it was not easy. All of them have "gender" to every noun which in turn governs the formation of adjectives and pronouns and even such things as "a" or "an" take gender. Sometimes even verbs take gender. English only has remnants of gender (a boat is a she, as an example).
There are also plenty of ESLs who speak more than two languages and English is only one of them. That adds to the confusion for them because gender isn't consistent. One language may have a male moon and a female sun, while the other is the opposite. In German, the verb needs to be the second word in the sentence and comes before adverb. The above languages frown on more than two adjectives for a noun, whereas English doesn't care. In English you can string together many adjectives if you want to, but this would be considered linguistically incorrect in other languages. Verbs have declensions and by and large, the cases stay the same across the board. English just think of eat, eaten and ate as an example of an exception and we have many such exceptions.
I catch myself saying that English is spoken just as it is spelled...well sometimes, but laugh isn't spelled laff.
Oh and you gotta love UK doctors...eeestroh gen spelled oestrogen comes to my mind.
ESLs can be incredibly frustrating. I know this, I have recently worked on an account with 80+% ESLs, most of whom were rather poor as they go. The fact remains, you have to either find yourself a job where there are no ESLs, which is becoming increasingly difficult, or learn to live with them. Some of my very favorite dictators of all time have been ESLs, partly because I struggled with them and when it just "popped" in my head they were easier than most Americans, and oh so redundant, they made me a lot of money with normals.
I will say that I believe that more money should be paid to MTs when the account is very heavily ESLs because they take a lot more time.
coude (small c) (with an accent over the e - my computer does not do it.
source: The Surgical Word Book by Claudia Tessier, third edition.
Poll: hardest and easiest work types. I enjoy...
orthopedics and psychiatry. Do not like cardiology, oncology.
Mine was an American with no accent, but I just realize I seem to react (SM)
to these horrible dictations the same way I do to jumping into an ice cold pond. I hold my breath and try to type as fast as I can, then go back and see if I can clean it up. Just hope they aren't too long so I don't turn blue while I am typing.
Try to think with an accent as you replay. Really helps! And to say it out loud, too! Play your
s
Had to share. Indian with heavy accent and stutter;)
this should be interesting!!!
I just left after 16 years of marriage. Hardest decision I've ever made, but something that I ha
My husband doesn't want to work. Never has and probably never will and it took me 16 years to figure out that nothing was ever going to change. He has been in and out of college over the years with a number of different majors and when he is on the verge of actually finishing something, he up and quits, because I believe he doesn't want to actually go out and get a job. He loves the going to school part, the studying, etc., but the actual finishing and putting his education to work, that's too overwhelming.
For years I made excuses for him, supported him, and actually believed that as he got older he would mature and finally find his way. He's 42 now and runs off every day with one of his unemployed friends to play frisbee golf or go hiking or water skiing or fishing while I'm sitting at home at my desk typing until my nose bleeds!
I was one of those women afraid of being by myself. I recently had a major depressive snap where I cried nonstop for three weeks. I found a great doctor who became a great friend and she helped me find the right medicine to get my head clear and then she helped me realize that I don't have to be afraid of anything. I was already supporting myself and my kids without anyone elses' help. What was so frightening about leaving my husband behind?
So quietly I made my plans to leave. I let my husband know that I was going to move back home to the area where all my family still lives when school let out this summer. He didn't believe me because I had said it all before. So I just made sure he knew I was thinking about it again. Then May came along and miracously a job opened up at the hospital in the small community I wanted to move back to. This hospital never has openings because they virtually have no employee turnover whatsoever. Everyone's been there at least 5 or more years. I took it as a sign and made my move. Within two days of submitting my resume, I had an interview set up. Without even waiting to see if I had the job, I packed up my kids and our stuff and told my husband "I'm going. I love you, but if you want to be with me you need to get a job and actually be my partner not one of my kids." And I left.
I got the job, thankfully. I've been here a month and I know without a doubt that it was the best thing I've done in a long time for me and my kids. My teenage son had built up a lot of resentment towards his father and their was a lot of anger and tension between the two of them before we moved. Now, my son is happier than I've seen him in years. He's more social, made a lot of friends, and even has a girlfriend now. My daughter misses her dad, but she has always been remarkably wise for her young age and is very open about saying how calm everything is up here.
So there's my story. I would never encourage anyone to divorce or leave their husband, and I haven't actually taken the step to file for divorce yet myself. But sometimes separation is liberating and therapeutic. It has been for me. I can't remember the last time I felt so peaceful.
Not to change the subject.. but in Medical Phrase Index, debride doesn't have an accent mark. nm
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go to chat room on web site and find out. i'm working but if you find out, let me know.
creepy dude.
I find most of my abbreviations here. Scroll all the way down until you find the abbreviation box.
http://www.mtchat.com/frame.php?frame=message
transcribe it
there is no reason not to. You are a "professional" which presumes the information will remain confidential no matter who it is. I happen to live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else and half the town is related. Nothing would ever get typed if that was a consideration.
I tried to transcribe one of those
*mask* things once (and ONLY once). What a crock! It's like trying to transcribe an auctioneer. I always wondered how the accuracy couldn't suffer with this method. (I guess I was right, considering the government is now using it.) They make less money because there isn't much skill involved in doing it that way. Legitimate court reporters go to school for quite some time and have to learn what's basically another form of shorthand. (It's been years, and I might be wrong, but I believe, for example, the letters PB=N (or something like that. LOL).
I was around when the court reporters in my area went from straight dictation to *the computer.* In fact, I did editing/scoping work for one court reporter who bought the new system, way back when the technology first became available. (She also bought my computer for me to do her work and anything else I wanted to do on it, and part of her *offer* was that after two years, I would own the computer outright!) It's a whole different world than transcribing. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. It's easier for the court reporter, who can pull his or her notes right up on the screen when something doesn't make sense and see where the *typo* was and figure out what it actually should have been. So in order to be an Editor for a court reporter today, you basically not only have to know how to read their notes, but knowing how to read their TYPOS is the important thing. This particular court reporter had the wisdom to know when her notes weren't that good, and rather than give me a very sloppy transcript to edit, she'd dictate it instead. She was a great person, and I miss her a lot.
Scoping/editing for a court reporter is a great field to get into if that's your cup of tea. If you're a typist, it's real difficult to get the "rhythm" that you can get when transcribing, and that's what I don't like about it. (Very same thing with VR in medical transcription today.) However, after doing this kind of work for 20 years, I might wake up tomorrow with carpal tunnel and might be forced to pursue it.
One thing about court reporters, from my own personal experience in my area: They are the most generous, easy-going, NICEST people I've ever encountered, considering the enormous amount of stress they're always exposed to. Back in the 1980s, I remember reading stats on suicide rates, and court reporters and DENTISTS were right at the top of the list!!
Do you transcribe too? How much are you
required to transcribe per day/pay period? What are your responsibilities.
Sorry for all the questions, but I think one of the biggest problems in this industry is lack of consistency. If the positions were the same, we could compare apples to apples, in terms of hiring and applying :)
How many of you transcribe while
using your telephone line as in you're 'on the phone' the whole time you work? How does that work out for you both with your phone usage but also with unlimited LD. Could you recommend any unlimited LD plans that are good? Our local one isn't that great as far as a high price, so I'm looking around. Thanks for any help!
I transcribe ...
IMEs, Consults, Re-exams, Followups, Treatment notes,etc.
I am located in Texas, but I work directly for a doctor in Florida and then I transcribe for a small MTSO out of New York also doing chiropractic.
Why don't you just transcribe it?
Get creative - and type ... the patient...peeing, peeing, peeing, more peeing... is a 38-year-old
sorry i could not resist
transcribe from CD
Is there a way to transcribe a church audio lecture from CD? It is a .cda file. I have "associated" the .cda with Start/Stop and ExpressScribe, but I still have no control with my foot pedal. any suggestions?
Thanks, Debbie
This is how I do it. I transcribe
a minimum of 2000 lines per day x5 days a week for 8 hours a day, making 9 cpl which equals out to $180 per day. That comes out to $900 per week or $46,800 per year. That is just at 2000 lines per day. This is w/o shift differential and line differential added in. We get a bonus for going over a certain number of lines per pay period and we get a shift differential for working 2nd and 3rd shifts, which then works out to over 10 cpl. Transcribing 2000 lines per day works out to 250 lines per hour. W/o using an expander, I probably type about 100 words per minute and with my Expander it is a lot more. My pay stub shows how many lines per hour I average each paycheck. This week it was over 300 lph. I use my expander to its fullest. I have macros for everything and anything you can think of. I do radiology, oncology, and ER transcription - lots of phrases said over and over. I do not cherrypick. I cannot see what report or doctor I am going to get, the chart just pops up and I type it. Some days are all good docs, lots of days they are horrible but in this profession you take the good with the bad.
Everybody's work habit is different. Focus on what you can do instead of what person A or person B can do. When I first started I set goals for myself. I wanted to be typing 1000 lines by so and so date in 8 hours. When I reached that goal I made the goal higher by 100, 250 and then 500 lines. To me, it's all in the attitude you have for work. I look forward to work each day because every day there is something new to be learned.
This sits over my desk: Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." - John Wooden
Does anyone use Transcribe+
that you can use Dragon naturally with? Starting the new platform and just wondering? TIA
You know ... just transcribe (nm)
what you hear!
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