I was wondering if being a scribe is considered clinical experience? Likewise how much emphasis do med schools in general put on clinical experience?
Is scribing considered clinical experience?
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Not sure about scribing count as clinical experience, someone else weigh in here please, but clinical experience in general is very important in applying to medical school. If you've never had patient contact, how do you really know that you want to be a doctor? Like someone else said before in another thread, how do you know you want to buy the car without a test drive?
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Someone told me when I was applying, if you don't smell feces, it ain't clinical experience...
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I'm a scribe, and I can definitely smell patients and all of their bodily secretions. I think that makes it qualify!
Sure, scribes don't get "hands-on" patient experience because you don't touch or even talk to the patients. But you enter every patient room and hear them explain their symptoms and story. You see the doctor examine the patient. You see all of the labs and treatments that are ordered, and you get to understand the patient's entire medical treatment course from beginning to end. It's definitely clinical.
Sure, scribes don't get "hands-on" patient experience because you don't touch or even talk to the patients. But you enter every patient room and hear them explain their symptoms and story. You see the doctor examine the patient. You see all of the labs and treatments that are ordered, and you get to understand the patient's entire medical treatment course from beginning to end. It's definitely clinical.
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To answer the second part of your question, the ADCOMs expect you to check the clinical experience box. If you feel that you can't handle the work schedule of being a scribe, revert to volunteering since it's much less of a commitment, and the money you earn as a scribe is chump change compared to future earnings. Since everyone and their mother does some form of clinical work, it likely won't give you much of a boost.
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I think the correct definition, according to LizzyM, is that "if you can smell patients" it is clinical.
So definitely clinical. As a pre-med, I can't see any other way an experience could be more clinical than a scribe's.
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It definitely counts as clinical experience. You literally get paid to shadow for 8 hours every shift... pretty much a perfect opportunity for pre-meds. I was a scribe for a year before applying last cycle.
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For the past scribes, how have adcoms reacted to your experience? Is it the gold standard clinical experience that people suggest it is? I'm trying to find some way to justify the poverty level pay that they're giving me. 
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For the past scribes, how have adcoms reacted to your experience? Is it the gold standard clinical experience that people suggest it is? I'm trying to find some way to justify the poverty level pay that they're giving me.
God, but isn't that the truth. My company doesn't even pay us an overnight differential. Everyone else in the hospital (including the physicians that work for the same company we do) get at least that. I get that a lot of people want to do it, but at least pay us as much as someone who stocks shelves at Walmart.
/rant
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For the past scribes, how have adcoms reacted to your experience? Is it the gold standard clinical experience that people suggest it is? I'm trying to find some way to justify the poverty level pay that they're giving me.
A very good friend of mine who scribes with my company told me all if her interviews revolved around her scribing experience. They were very interested in what we do, our relationships with doctors and nurses, and honestly you gain a massive knowledge of medical terminology, differential diagnoses, diseases, medical treatments, and they dynamic ER team.
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Huh! I get paid over a dollar more than my state's minimum wage, with a two dollar raise from that after a year. I don't think that's too bad, being as i am a fulltime student and not trying to live off my salary.
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I know traditionally scribes don't touch patients but I have on many occasions. Of course in a limited role like helping to take pt's off the c collar and back board (under the direction and supervision of the ER Doc). The other night I had a patient being triaged who was there for weakness. We were taking him to a room when he collapsed ( I caught him before he hit the floor). Turns out as soon as I caught him a large blood clot fell down his pant leg. GI Bleed. So yep scribing is definitely a clinical experience.
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It's true the pay isn't great but as a chief scribe I make $12 per hour. Not too shabby for a part time gig. Regular scribes get $10.
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Where is that? I make $8.50 :/
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Oh, wow! I have been told very strictly that I would get fired if I touched patients because I'm not trained, which puts the company at risk for lawsuits. I think I would be allowed to catch someone if they were falling, but that's about the extent of it. I'm jealous!
(Sorry OP -- I haven't yet applied)
What about reimbursements for money spent on gas? Or free parking at the hospitals you work? Am I dreaming?
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I get free parking! No gas reimbursements.
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Asking questions and touching is certainly against most companys' policies. With that said, we were asked to fudge the rules all the time. Our docs would often ask if they could let me listen/palpate/get a better look at an interesting exam finding. I don't think any of the other scribes did that, but hey I wanted to learn.
OP: It's definitely great experience. Interviewers loved asking about it. I did get put on the spot a lot to demonstrate my clinical knowledge, but was told I did very well with those questions. If you can really talk passionately about scribbling and how its influenced your medical career, it will absolutely help you. I don't think I would have gotten in without it.
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Did you feel that scribing helped you app?
I think you're looking at medical school admissions requirements the wrong way. Shadowing isn't a prerequisite to getting into medical school, but having a decent amount of exposure to medicine from the perspective of a physician pretty much is, and shadowing is obviously a great way to accomplish this. I had zero hours of "shadowing" when I applied, but a ton of clinical experience through other activities that accomplished the same thing.
Yes, scribing absolutely helped my app. It's a very popular job (for good reason) and so it won't make you stand out from other applicants in any way, but it will provide you with unparalleled experience. In case you don't fully understand what the job actually entails, each shift you're assigned to a physician that you follow around and observe. You watch every physical exam on every patient they see (and they see many patients each shift). Your job is to record the medical records for their patients, but you get long-term shadowing experience at the same time. Two birds with one stone.
The biggest downside is the low pay--but if this is something you can live with temporarily, it is well worth it.
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For the past scribes, how have adcoms reacted to your experience? Is it the gold standard clinical experience that people suggest it is? I'm trying to find some way to justify the poverty level pay that they're giving me.
If you can find another higher paying job that will also offer you clinical experience, take that. Scribing is an amazing opportunity as a pre-med but the pay is difficult to justify, especially in your situation (I remember the thread you started... I was in a similar situation too). I ended up finding a job as a research coordinator after a year which also provided me with a good amount of clinical experience but had the benefit of paying me a livable wage (was phlebotomy certified, got to sit in on a ton of physical exams, worked with lots of physicians, etc.).
Do any scribing companies pay overnight differentials? Mine didn't either. The pay really did suck, but I saw a ton of interesting things while working overnight. There was also more down time on average, so I got to know some of the physicians much better. Actually one of my LORs was from a physician I regularly worked overnight shifts with.
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I get a pay differential for nights. And time and a half for holidays.
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So did you ever live independently on your scribe wage? I have the choice between the scribe job and an RA position in biotech that pays twice the salary. I can't imagine the RA position helping me very much in terms of application though and at least the scribe job will be understanding of me ditching out on work to attend interviews.
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Honestly, take the higher paying job and do shadowing on the side. I did live independently, but I went further into debt every month. Being a scribe was my only employment opportunity at the time... if I had a choice I would have taken whatever paid more. Scribing is great, but it's not worth going into debt over if you can avoid it.
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It is true we aren't trained so technically we shouldn't touch patients, but if my doctor asks me to help I will. We work with some pretty cool doctors.
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Just wanted to echo the above posters - scribing, for me, was a great clinical experience and was a popular topic for my interviews. It gave me a great "preview" of medicine and some good footing from which to discuss various challenges in medicine today, where I see myself in 10 years, and all of that good stuff. You can read about some of my experiences as a scribe on my blog below.
If you are looking to have dedicated "shadowing" experience on your app, though, I would recommend (perhaps this is obvious, but I'll say it anyway) shadowing a doctor outside of whatever specialty you work with as a scribe. This did come up once in my interviews - I spent a lot of time scribing for emergency physicians, shadowed one at a different hospital, and worked a little bit with other doctors at another job (but probably could have sought out more shadowing experience there... ah well. It works out eventually.)
As far as pay, I was paid $10/hr, so it was alright but not great. I did get a night shift/holiday differential though, and plenty of offers to travel to other sites that needed new trainers, etc. If I had traveled, my expenses basically would have been covered. I didn't, since I was busy enough, but hey....not too shabby of a deal.
If you are looking to have dedicated "shadowing" experience on your app, though, I would recommend (perhaps this is obvious, but I'll say it anyway) shadowing a doctor outside of whatever specialty you work with as a scribe. This did come up once in my interviews - I spent a lot of time scribing for emergency physicians, shadowed one at a different hospital, and worked a little bit with other doctors at another job (but probably could have sought out more shadowing experience there... ah well. It works out eventually.)
As far as pay, I was paid $10/hr, so it was alright but not great. I did get a night shift/holiday differential though, and plenty of offers to travel to other sites that needed new trainers, etc. If I had traveled, my expenses basically would have been covered. I didn't, since I was busy enough, but hey....not too shabby of a deal.
