Do I **need** to scribe?

[sleepyDaisy]

This may be kind of a neurotic question, but I'm not sure. It feels like scribing is an unwritten requirement now.

I currently work full time as a Patient Transporter, which I consider to be a quality patient-interaction experience. Prior to this, I was a full time Housekeeper in the same hospital I work at now. With both of these combined, I feel like I have enough clinical experience.

I **do** plan on shadowing in the future and have other volunteer experiences for my application (Crisis Clinic, NODA Program at Hospital - "No One Dies Alone", Animal Shelter).

Do I need to find a way to fit scribing into my already busy schedule, or can I go without it and still be successful?

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[alm414]

1.) You need clinical experience, and
2.) you need to show you know what being a doctor is like.

Scribing is nice because it lets you kill two birds with one stone, but it's not necessary. Your patient transporter role is good for clinical experience, but doesn't let you follow a doctor around to learn what their day-to-day is like. That's fine, because you can supplement that with shadowing to get a picture of what being a doctor is like. And to be fair, depending on where/who you're scribing with, scribes can get very little interaction with patients, so it may not even be as good of clinical experience as patient transporter depending on how much interaction with the patients you get. What you're doing is fine, just make sure you get a chance to shadow some primary care and some specialties you are interested in.

 

[drstranger]

I applied to a bunch of jobs when applying one of them was scribing, the other was admitting pts for a hospital. I might have learned a little more scribing, but I still learned a ton about the other side of medicine working in admitting. I learned about Scheduling, EMR ins and outs, insurance that a lot of students had no idea about, and interacted with patients, family, and physicians. All while getting paid 2x as much as scribing. I think you have enough hours, find a job that you enjoy or pay more.

As an SDN Adcoms say "just being able to smell the patient is clinical experience".

 

[Catalystik]

This may be kind of a neurotic question, but I'm not sure. It feels like scribing is an unwritten requirement now.

I currently work full time as a Patient Transporter, which I consider to be a quality patient-interaction experience. Prior to this, I was a full time Housekeeper in the same hospital I work at now. With both of these combined, I feel like I have enough clinical experience.

I **do** plan on shadowing in the future and have other volunteer experiences for my application (Crisis Clinic, NODA Program at Hospital - "No One Dies Alone", Animal Shelter).

Do I need to find a way to fit scribing into my already busy schedule, or can I go without it and still be successful?

No and Yes.

 

[sarcasmrules]

You don't need to scribe. Scribing is often described here as "glorified shadowing" because it's very passive in terms of patient interactions. While clinical experience is described as being able to smell the patient, the best kind of clinical experience is one where you have active interactions with patients.

Keep in mind, I am generalizing what scribing is in terms of patient interactions. If anyone reads this and gets active patient interactions in their scribing experience, please do not reply to correct me. Generalizations are not absolutes nor do they take exceptions into account.

 

[OchemOficionado]

No.

 

[mmchick]

1.) You need clinical experience, and
2.) you need to show you know what being a doctor is like.

This summarizes it nicely. If you plan on shadowing, forget the scribing. Unfortunately, scribing is great for achieving both of these objectives above^ but imo has always been exploitative labor with minimal (+undercompensatory for the expected level of performance) wage, tough hours, little PTO (if any), and at times, toxic environments (if you scribe for a toxic meathead of a physician). So, if you can avoid it through shadowing, would thoroughly recommend doing so.

 

[yopalcal]

It's definitely not required. However, during an interview a professor asked me specifically why I had not done any scribing. He justified it by saying that med students who have scribing experience are far superior in their clinical reasoning...

 

[drstranger]

It's definitely not required. However, during an interview a professor asked me specifically why I had not done any scribing. He justified it by saying that med students who have scribing experience are far superior in their clinical reasoning...

That's a bad interviewer, to be honest. I know some people who were scribes that have awful clinical skills cause they were a mobile-type writer. I know alot more students who have great clinical reasoning and never scribed.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

The only thing I gained from scribing was a good physician letter of recommendation, which isn't required by most MD schools. Scribing is also one of the best ways to see exactly what a physician does all day so it gave me some fodder for essays. Patient transporter is probably better patient interaction than scribing. Your plan to shadow sounds good. I recommend shadowing primary care and specialties of interest for ~50 hours total. I don't see Housekeeping as clinical experience unless I'm misunderstanding the role. Did you interact with patients or participate directly in their care as a housekeeper?

 

[PikminOC]

I applied to a bunch of jobs when applying one of them was scribing, the other was admitting pts for a hospital. I might have learned a little more scribing, but I still learned a ton about the other side of medicine working in admitting. I learned about Scheduling, EMR ins and outs, insurance that a lot of students had no idea about, and interacted with patients, family, and physicians. All while getting paid 2x as much as scribing. I think you have enough hours, find a job that you enjoy or pay more.

As an SDN Adcoms say "just being able to smell the patient is clinical experience".

That's why I don't do virtual appts. Need to smell patient

 

[LindaAccepted]

This may be kind of a neurotic question, but I'm not sure. It feels like scribing is an unwritten requirement now.

I currently work full time as a Patient Transporter, which I consider to be a quality patient-interaction experience. Prior to this, I was a full time Housekeeper in the same hospital I work at now. With both of these combined, I feel like I have enough clinical experience.

I **do** plan on shadowing in the future and have other volunteer experiences for my application (Crisis Clinic, NODA Program at Hospital - "No One Dies Alone", Animal Shelter).

Do I need to find a way to fit scribing into my already busy schedule, or can I go without it and still be successful?

Scribing is not a requirement in any way shape or form. It is good clinical exposure, but not required. Yes, you can apply without out. Many others have done so and been successful.

 

[LizzyM]

Twenty years ago, many applicants had been EMTs but it wasn't required. About 8 years ago, we started seeing less EMT work and more scribing. Now it is rarer to see an EMT and scribes are a dime a dozen. Just one of those things that has changed with the times.