Cold emailing/calling private practices for scribe position?

[magagna1]

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Gap year coming up and still trying to find a scribe position. I'm at my wit's end applying to commercial scribe companies in my region. They either are not currently hiring, or simply do not respond to my initial application or follow-ups.

I'm now considering searching for local clinics and private practices in my area and cold emailing or calling them to inquire about possible scribe positions. I would actually prefer to work in a smaller clinic setting than a larger bureaucratic hospital environment as well.

What are your guys' thoughts on this? Would it be too unprofessional? What would be the best way to go about asking for a scribe job without being too intrusive? Any advice and thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[G_Marker]

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[HinduHammer]

Gap year coming up and still trying to find a scribe position. I'm at my wit's end applying to commercial scribe companies in my region. They either are not currently hiring, or simply do not respond to my initial application or follow-ups.

I'm now considering searching for local clinics and private practices in my area and cold emailing or calling them to inquire about possible scribe positions. I would actually prefer to work in a smaller clinic setting than a larger bureaucratic hospital environment as well.

What are your guys' thoughts on this? Would it be too unprofessional? What would be the best way to go about asking for a scribe job without being too intrusive? Any advice and thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm in the same position as you, actually. I've been searching for a job for the past month (even got interviewed for a scribe job at an ER but haven't heard back). I've found a lot of postings by medical practices in my area on Craig's list. Apparently a lot of medical practices looking for people like us post these jobs on Craig's List.

I've applied to a bunch of them, though, and I haven't heard back yet (so maybe it's not the best option)...

In the meantime, I found a really great volunteer job, and a very small part time job teaching at a summer camp. I'd be interested to see if people have any helpful suggestions on where to look.

As for cold calling, I know that doctor's offices are often very busy during the day, so they might not appreciate the phone call. It might be best to try emailing them, if possible? Or bringing in your resume to the office?

Unfortunately, no private practice is going to hire you without any previous scribe experience. The only point to working for the large scribe companies is that they provide training and more importantly "streed cred." Your best bet is to find a physician or group or whatever where they are patient and be a VOLUNTEER scribe. Since you won't be getting paid, they will be more likely to train you and let you get your feet wet.

 

[mysdnhandle]

There's nothing 'unprofessional' about cold emails if you're respectful. If you don't get a response that's their loss. But most places have a hiring process so I'd say your chances are slim. Volunteering, they go up quite a bit.

If you were volunteering I'd say try to get something better than scribing, like shadowing at a free clinic. Rack up those hours and experience, relish in your lack of responsibility and observe at will and lessen your expendability as free labor.

If you can't afford to do that, look into Americorps or a similar one-year experience. Although I think applications for next year were due a long time ago, you might be able to find something that will let you support yourself while volunteering in a clinic.

 

[Polonium-210]

I would follow the above poster's advice about volunteering. Learning to scribe is much more about medical terminology. I would say the most important part of being a scribe is becoming fluent with all the idiosyncrasies of that hospital's chosen EMR. To be able to do that well requires being taught by someone who knows the program. Most physicians that I scribe for can manage our chosen EMR (Cerner) well enough without us scribes, though it significantly hinders their time. However, I have scribed for contract physicians in the ER who had no clue what to with EMR and you have to hold their hands nearly to the point of doing their job as it applies to inputting orders and requesting tests/scans. To become that proficient with an EMR program, you need to have gone through a fair amount of training with that program. Where I work, we do not certify scribes to go solo until they have gone through about 24 hours of online pre-instruction, 16 hours of classroom training, followed by a minimum of five observation shifts. Even then, most scribes are shaky for the first one to two months afterwards. I look at my charts from my first few solo shifts and they are pretty awful. OJT doesn't really work for this job, unfortunately.

Honestly I don't think you will be hired without possessing previous scribe training. You can always look around your local ERs and ask if they have an in-house scribe program for which they do not readily advertise. Otherwise, keep checking for the larger companies to post openings (PhysAssist, ScribeAmerica, MSS, etc). Especially be sure to check if these companies scribe in your region. Even though they may have no postings at the moment, people are always quitting or failing at some point in training which requires more rounds of hiring.