How I Became a “Scribe”

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I dive into the sea of blogdom with a little trepidation. I have always been a writer, but I have never been published in any way. This is exciting and scary at the same time. First, a little bit about myself. I have been a scribe for over seventeen years now. Honestly, I never thought that my main job would be transcribing other people’s words and ideas. It really started as something I thought I’d do to pay the bills while putting my husband through his last two years of college. It turned out to be much more than that…much more.  But first, let me start at the beginning. Words have always come naturally for me as long as I can remember. I’m not sure exactly when I started talking (you’d have to consult my mom on that), but my grandmother swears up and down I was reading by the age of three. She was so impressed that I could accurately read business signs, although it turned out that the signs I could read came with visual cues such as McDonald’s (the Golden Arches) and Winn Dixie (a big red and white sign with a check in the middle). To this day my grandmother thinks I was a gifted child, and I’m perfectly content in not letting her know my little secret.  Another fortunate situation I encountered was being a case study for my great aunt who was earning her masters of education degree at Western Carolina University. Her thesis project was phonics, evidently pretty new to the education scene in the early seventies. She led me through a very fun and interactive curriculum and monitored my progress. I just remember her watching me play the “games”. However, I came to realize that after playing these “games” I could read some of the words in my very favorite book at the time, The Gingerbread Man. I was four to five years old at the time. Not too long after that I started kindergarten. I was shocked that most of the other kids were struggling somewhat reading their Dick and Jane books. I finished my first one inside of two days! I remember my teachers asking me, “Where did you go to preschool? You are reading at a second-grade level!” My answer to them was, “I didn’t go to preschool.” They were shocked to say the least. When they questioned my mom she told them of my being a case study for my aunt in teaching kids to read by phonics. I remember after that many teachers coming by to hear me read while my teacher said, “phonics sure worked for her!” Imagine my amusement when many years later the Hooked on Phonics program came out with the catch phrase “Hooked on Phonics worked for me!”

In school my favorite classes were English…especially anything to do with writing.  In high school I won  regional and state awards for extemporaneous writing…a competition where you’re given a subject to write about, and an hour to write an essay about the subject.  I was surprised each time I won as I didn’t think what I had written was anything special. 

Once I left high school I was too much in love to think of anything but getting married; however, my parents and others told me that I needed to go to college.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to college (of course, now I wish I had furthered my education more), but I didn’t know what I wanted to do.  People always told me I would make a great nurse, and so that was the direction I started going; however, when it came down to brass tacks nursing wasn’t for me.  I still thought the medical field would be a good thing to get into; so I got an associate’s degree in Administrative Medical Assisting which included courses in medical terminology and transcription.  I sort of gravitated towards transcription.  After school and my wedding which followed quickly on the heels of college (actually Eddie and I married the week before I graduated) we were off to Boone, North Carolina so Eddie could finish his degree in art education at Appalachian State University.  I figured I’d get a job as a medical assistant in a doctor’s office, but no job was to be found.  The only job available that I was qualified for was a medical transcriptionist position at Watauga Medical Center.  I applied, and the only reason I got the job was because the first person picked for the job changed their mind.  I had training but no experience.  Reluctantly, the medical record’s director there…a very sweet lady…decided to give me a chance.  Even though I had training actually transcribing clinically is very different than training.  No amount of training can prepare you for transcribing dictation of doctors who dictated at three o’clock in the morning, while eating, or otherwise indisposed (yes, that means what you think it does).   I worked at Watauga for nearly two years until Eddie had to take a medical withdrawal from college because of a weird intestinal illness that was finally diagnosed as giardia.   We moved back to Brevard and through God’s grace, yet again, a medical transcriptionist position was open at Transylvania Community Hospital.  I worked there for five years, and then decided to try a stint of working at home for a medical transcription company.  That was an experience that deserves its own post, but I learned a great deal through that experience and the experiences that followed….working for a radiology clinic, a neurology practice, and another work-at-home stint for a wonderful transcription company out of West Virginia.

That leads me to what I’m doing now which I will discuss in my next post… 

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