Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The "f" sound

A TAT to beat, a no blank status file with 3 blanks, all 3 same word....sounds familiar?? Yeah this is what happened to me yesterday.  The only problem was that I was clearly hearing the blank/word which was a drug name, but what I heard was naphazoline, which is a Adrenergic Agonist Agent, where as dictator was clearly stating that he is adding another antibiotic to clindamycin which the patient was already taking, so this drug was an antibiotic, which naphazoline was clearly not.  Then I remembered that apart from "ph", the letter "f" also produces "f" sound...:)...and there there....I found it....nafcillin..so simple...yeah..some times simple things are hard to decipher....


An MT transcribes what he/she hears, but relying only on hearing can be a dangerous path to follow as it can lead to very dangerous pits, it is always best to search for references from reliable sources, of whatever words one comes across.  If there is any confusion regarding drugs, it is always prudent to check the medication usage,category, and dosage.


One more thing I will like to add regarding cracking blanks is never guess....you may be forced by people higher up to reduce the blanks or produce blankless documents, but what you must remember is "if in spite of your best efforts you are unable to crack a blank, then leave it as it as, but go through the QA version and make sure the next time, this word never escapes you."  This has been the golden rule that I have followed from the first day that I started transcribing, it has held me in good stead over all these years, and I am sure so will be you...

2 comments:

  1. the f sound can also sometimes be an auditory distortion of the s sound. this has helped me a lot.

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  2. yeah...bhai....i agree with that

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