Consistency

When we learn to do transcription, one of the key things we need to learn is the various abbreviations and acronyms for things. Sometimes, they have more than one possible expansion (like CVA can mean both cerebrovascular accident and costovertebral angle) and in certain parts of a report (i.e. the diagnoses), you generally need to expand those. You also get the lovely Latin abbreviations in medications (sadly changing because someone decided if everyone can't write them by hand clearly, no one should be allowed to type them, either--heaven forbid someone might confuse q. h.s. for. . . I can't even imagine what!) as well as the obscure shorthand for instructions on a patient's chart, like NPO (nil per os or nothing by mouth). It all makes for a pretty easy language to learn in the end and you can see how it helps streamline things--and even save on overworked fingers and transcription costs for when you have to type out all those long words like esophagogastroduodenoscopy over and over.

So. . . it seemed only fair to assume that since I already know so many of these, I'd be that much ahead of the game, right? Several chapters into my Anatomy & Physiology course, I've seen enough to make me question that. I assumed there would be consistency, that all of us medical people were speaking the same language, but apparently not. Or maybe I'm once again suffering from the Crappy School MT education I whined about last time. . . Well, except that I'm now encountering clinical abbreviations I've never had to transcribe. Curiouser and curiouser with every chapter.

How many MTs recognize BRP as bathroom privileges? NR as no response? Never saw ung before to specify ointment, and never once encountered EAHF (eczema, asthma, and hay fever) as an acronym. Obviously, there are many bits of shorthand an MT never sees--wouldn't need to see because we're not usually documenting every trivial activity in a patient's day (although some residents make us think we are). In general, although some of these seem silly to me, I'm finding it fascinating to be that much closer to the hands-on patient care side of things.

Afraid I can't even muster a good rant this week. I always said I wished I could be a professional student, and I'm just enjoying the heck out of my course and savoring every bit of it. It's kind of a dangerous trek to those of us who easily fall prey to following bunny trails because every chapter, we're fed dozens of URLs to supplementary websites for more information and practice. I made a bookmarks folder for my CTR stuff and it's already stuffed with more links than my Apple folder (clue: That's a lot of URLs!) After dreading that first test (not sure why because I've never seized up on one before), I've found that they're not as hard or detailed as I expected. Not sure if that means I'm trying to absorb too much or if they bring out the big guns for the final. It is a HUGE amount of information to absorb in only 15 weeks, though. I think what really makes my colon clench is the thought that I've got many more courses to complete and how much I need to be able to recall once I reach the end. Trying not to dwell on the what-ifs, lest I dredge up that old dream from high school, where I'm suddenly plopped in the middle of finals week and can't even remember my schedule.

Next time (apparently): Yes, I have issues!