Consciousness Raising Exercise #35

Abraham Lincoln once noted that:

"It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

Doctors and law enforcement officials quickly learn that a patient's indignant protestations of innocence don't hold much water when compared to the results of a toxicology screen. A patient's occupation or standing in the community means nothing when confronted with a blood alcohol level that surpasses the legal limits.

While lab technicians routinely process and analyze blood, urine, and stool samples, medical transcriptionists continually process and analyze what comes out of a dictating physician's mouth. Having processed plenty of it, they're not about to be fooled or intimidated by the fact that the person who is dictating is a doctor.

Being forced to transcribe dictation by a doctor with bad language skills is like being forced to have an intimate conversation with someone who has bad breath. No matter how much you may crave someone's attention -- or need that person's business -- it can become an excruciating experience.

The relationship between a dictating physician and a medical transcriptionist is one of surprising intimacy. It is painfully difficult to tell a physician that his poor dictation skills are the cause of the substandard reports he keeps receiving from medical transcriptionists.

But sometimes this must be done.

In 150 words or less, explain:

1. how you would like someone to tell you that you have bad breath; and
2. how you would like a medical transcriptionist to inform you that you need to improve your dictation skills.