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I am in the same situation here, except I have roughly 2200 hours of scribing, so I don't necessarily need the hours for my app. I'm continuing to go in for four reasons: a) this job keeps me from going insane staying home, b) I need the income, and c) the providers are pretty consistently advocating for us to stay and seem very appreciative of our work, and d) we've gone dictation-only, so my exposure risk is relatively low compared with direct-patient-contact staff.

My advice would be: if you feel unsafe or irresponsible going in and you can keep the job without penalty, stay home. No one knows how this is going to play out with respect to admissions, but I can't imagine adcom members reading a pause from a clinical experience negatively during this time.
 
I also work as an ER scribe, but for around 1 year now; however, I completely understand your predicament.

I have also opted to stay for the following reasons:
a) I was already planning on leaving by May 1st 2020, might as well continue. This makes my situation very different from yours.
b) We had 4 scribes leave suddenly already, leaving us severely understaffed. I felt wrong leaving due to this. I genuinely feel we can help the docs out, especially now when they have to spend so much time with their sick patients (but I def agree we are non-essential).
c) Like what the person above said, charts are only being dictated to us now, so the risk is low
d) We are pushing for TeleScribing at my site- The perfect solution.

I hate being a risk to my family; however, I feel low-risk. A few weeks ago I was notified that I was in a room with a patient that later tested positive for COVID. I freaked out, got tested, and I turned out negative. If I tested negative when I was in a COVID patient room, I feel I definitely am low-risk now that we don't even go into rooms anymore. I did have to talk to my ED director to mandate we stop going into rooms though. So if this isn't the situation at your site, I would recommend reaching out to your ED director asap!

It's really hard to say how this would affect your application process since this is a novel situation. However, I feel there would be more leniency with the current times. I think socially distancing yourself for the sake of others is even more admirable than keeping your job. If you feel your roommates are the at-risk population, and you don't feel safe going in (not being given a face mask, being required to enter patient rooms), I think its completely understandable to quit. The lives of your loved ones are definitely the priority, and I feel the admissions panel will 100% understand that. If you feel your site is adequately staffed with scribes already and theres no penalty, even more so reason to leave.

I strongly debated leaving as well, especially since my dad and sister have asthma and my mom works with patients, but after my initial scare, testing negative, and the move to dictation, I genuinely feel safe enough. I still get scared at times, ngl. If you chose to stay, I do feel you can learn a lot, you can get a great letter of rec from your ED director, and you can kind of say you were on the front lines and talk about your experience during interviews. Also, at least at my site, patient volume picked up last week, so I imagine it will keep going up- your help could be useful! If you chose to stay, try to keep appropriate distance from your providers and wear your mask at all times!!

I think admission will understand whatever choice you make. I hope this helped a little bit lol. But good luck with your decision!
 
cranbjuice13 said:
I also work as an ER scribe, but for around 1 year now; however, I completely understand your predicament.

I have also opted to stay for the following reasons:
a) I was already planning on leaving by May 1st 2020, might as well continue. This makes my situation very different from yours.
b) We had 4 scribes leave suddenly already, leaving us severely understaffed. I felt wrong leaving due to this. I genuinely feel we can help the docs out, especially now when they have to spend so much time with their sick patients (but I def agree we are non-essential).
c) Like what the person above said, charts are only being dictated to us now, so the risk is low
d) We are pushing for TeleScribing at my site- The perfect solution.

I hate being a risk to my family; however, I feel low-risk. A few weeks ago I was notified that I was in a room with a patient that later tested positive for COVID. I freaked out, got tested, and I turned out negative. If I tested negative when I was in a COVID patient room, I feel I definitely am low-risk now that we don't even go into rooms anymore. I did have to talk to my ED director to mandate we stop going into rooms though. So if this isn't the situation at your site, I would recommend reaching out to your ED director asap!

It's really hard to say how this would affect your application process since this is a novel situation. However, I feel there would be more leniency with the current times. I think socially distancing yourself for the sake of others is even more admirable than keeping your job. If you feel your roommates are the at-risk population, and you don't feel safe going in (not being given a face mask, being required to enter patient rooms), I think its completely understandable to quit. The lives of your loved ones are definitely the priority, and I feel the admissions panel will 100% understand that. If you feel your site is adequately staffed with scribes already and theres no penalty, even more so reason to leave.

I strongly debated leaving as well, especially since my dad and sister have asthma and my mom works with patients, but after my initial scare, testing negative, and the move to dictation, I genuinely feel safe enough. I still get scared at times, ngl. If you chose to stay, I do feel you can learn a lot, you can get a great letter of rec from your ED director, and you can kind of say you were on the front lines and talk about your experience during interviews. Also, at least at my site, patient volume picked up last week, so I imagine it will keep going up- your help could be useful! If you chose to stay, try to keep appropriate distance from your providers and wear your mask at all times!!

I think admission will understand whatever choice you make. I hope this helped a little bit lol. But good luck with your decision!
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I think if you’re concerned enough that you’re writing this, stay home. To echo those above, I’m in a similar boat and have stayed because 1) I need income. 2) We’re short-staffed and I’m also a trainer. 3) My leave date is June 1 anyways after being here for 3 years.
ScribeAmerica pays minimum wage, rarely do people qualify for health insurance through them even being full time, and they don’t offer paid 2 week sick leave if/when we get sick. At our site, we are somewhat able to avoid exposure in the actual hospital, but we also have a shift in the tent in our parking lot so it’s inevitable there. Overall it seems stupid for me to stay, but I feel guilty jumping our sinking ship. It sounds like your situation is much different so I’d say stay home. If you can find a telescribe job, you have enough hours and experience to start there. I wouldn’t focus on how this looks to admissions. These times are unprecedented and no one is going to praise/hate on you for making the personal choice to quit or take a leave of absence.
 
blueberry4104 said:
I am an ER scribe, and we have been given the opportunity to opt-out of shifts without penalty if we don't feel comfortable/safe with the risk of COVID-19. Does this look less impressive to med schools when compared to a scribe who does decide to continue working regardless of risk?

As a scribe, I view myself as non-essential during a time like this, at least at my hospital. I know that scribes can make things more efficient/easier for docs who are dealing with a high volume of patients, don't get me wrong. And if doctors were struggling at my hospital, of course I would want to help if they really did need it. BUT we happen to have a lot of scribes in our program, and our number of available shifts have also been cut in half because of how much the patient volume has decreased since COVID-19. So, since I'm not essential to the operation right now, I feel like I would just be exposing myself, my roommates, and even the patients to unnecessary risk by going in... thoughts anyone?

*I am also new to the job and have only worked 150 hours or so.
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Your safety is more important than anything else. Even your medical career
 
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