Medical Transcription: How This Opportunity Will Change My Life and Why It Is Right For Me

By Jennifer Detlefson

 

 

A very wise person once said that the only constant thing is change. Now, I can't be sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that that person was a military spouse. The old adage is true for everyone, of course – but there are few other groups of people who experience the consequences of “change” so drastically, frequently, and – here's the best part – voluntarily. I grew up in a military family, so I can't claim that I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I married my husband. Long training cycles away from home followed by even longer deployments, last minute changes in plan, and frequent relocations were all to be expected. But military life is not the only form of change in this world – our lifestyles and our economy, too, have changed. Back when I was packing up my books and Barbies every three years, my mother was free to stay at home, providing us with enough stability to keep our family from coming apart at the seams. But in this day and age, one income per family is rarely enough to keep up with the bills, let alone the Joneses. So trapped between wanting to be home to care for her family, and needing to bring in supplemental income to provide a comfortable financial cushion, what is a military spouse to do?

            Medical transcription is an excellent fit for any military spouse. In fact, this career even shares the same attributes as the ideal military partner –  adaptable, portable, and on-line-capable. However, there are other benefits of this field that make transcription an especially great fit for me.

You see, not only am I looking for adaptability, portability,  and the ability to stay at home – I am also looking for a challenge. Finding and pushing my limits has been  a way of life for me, from competing in public speaking forums in high school, to extreme sports such as adventure racing and skydiving, to my two ultimate challenges so far – becoming a Navy Diver, and then setting aside that career to stay at home and raise a family. Medical transcription will be a career that offers so much more than just a paycheck – the satisfaction of helping create quality medical documentation, and the very challenging task of staying current with the latest advances in medical technology and treatments, will both be  great sources of personal fulfillment.

            But let us back up for a moment, and take a closer look at the aspects of medical transcription that make it so great. We've said that medical transcription is both portable and adaptable – but why is this the case? Medical transcription is the creation of complete, polished documents detailing medical history that comprise a patient's medical record. To save time, doctors take verbal notes of procedures and office visits, and send them to a transcriptionist to be made into electronically written copy. In this day and age, a transcriptionist can just as easily be down the hall from the doctor's office as she can be three states away.  Once you've been trained properly as a transcriptionist, your skills are just as valid in a busy metropolitan area as they are in a rural setting – and they're always in demand. Wherever my family is headed in the future, I will be able to take my career with me with no interruption  while searching for a new employer in a new town – as if I needed any more stress on top of receiving the moving trucks and setting up yet another household! And, down the road, should I choose to work in an office or take on a more supervisory role in quality control, I will have the freedom to do so. Family is very important to me, and living across the country from my relatives makes short visits financially taxing. As a transcriber, I will be able to pack up my computer and books and take work with me on an extended trip to see the family, lessening the isolation that so often comes with life as a military spouse.

            These, are all great reasons to be excited about medical transcription, but frankly, portability and a paycheck are not all that I need to feel fulfilled in my life. As I have said, I like to push my limits and challenge myself – and I think that the task of being a good mother is one of the greatest challenges life has to offer. I know a thing or two about pushing limits, too – in high school and for my first year of college, I was the sedentary, somewhat bookish type. When I was inspired by our national tragedy to sign up for military service in early 2002, my father, himself a Navy man, warned me that I had chosen a path that I might not be cut out for. Having an interest in SCUBA diving, I had decided I would like to be a Navy Diver. I didn't know until after I signed the contract that Navy Deep Sea Diving school would require me to run, swim, do countless push-ups and pull-ups, and endure the hardest physical training program available to women in the military. But, setting my mind to it, I exceeded even my own expectations, and graduated at the top of my class. I met my husband, also a Navy man, a few years later when we were both stationed in  Bahrain, an island country in the middle east. We married six months after rotating back into the United States, and a year and a half later, our first child was born. At this time, my enlistment contract was up, and I was faced with a choice. I could continue on in my Naval Career, and in all probability be very successful. This would mean having very little time to spend with my daughter, and seeing my husband only on the rarest of occasions. Or, I could end my enlistment, and decide to stay home and care for my military family. It was a painful decision for me to make, because I craved the personal satisfaction of my exciting, meaningful career – and I also knew that I would be miserable being away from my family for long periods of time. Then, a co-worker mentioned that his wife had faced a similar predicament, being a nurse before she became a stay-at-home mom. She had found work as a medical transcriptionist, something that I had never even heard of. As soon as I got home that afternoon, I typed “medical transcription” into my search bar, and began to see that I could have the best of both worlds. A career where I could make a difference by creating quality medical documents. A career that would stimulate my mind with advances in medical technology and the detective work of diagnosis. A career that would allow me to stay at home to see my daughter's first steps, first words. A career that would travel with my family whether we're in San Diego or Stuttgart, Germany – all the while allowing me to be the best, most supportive military wife and mother that I can be.

            I look forward to this new chapter in my life, and all of the exciting challenges that it will bring. I want to give myself the best preparation to excel in this field, so I have chosen TRS Institute for my training. I can't wait to start the course, and create a community of learning with my fellow students. And most of all, I can't wait to brag to anyone who will listen that I have the best of both worlds – the pride of being a military wife and mother, and the personal satisfaction of a career as a medical transcriptionist.