Does being an ER scribe count as a shadowing experience?

[exacto]

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I was looking into PA route in case my cycle this year for MD/DO doesn't work out, but I don't have any PA shadowing experiences. Then I thought maybe my work as an ER scribe will count...I work as an ER scribe and work with both MD's and PA's, being a scribe I'm basically tied to the providers hip at all times, so in theory its just like shadowing.

Ya'll think it will work?

 

[Ismet]

Do you need to list separate PA shadowing? For instance, for a med school application you would describe your scribing experience and it would be clear that you followed the doctor or PA around the entire time, effectively getting the same (more) clinical experience as you would just shadowing, so it's really unnecessary to explicitly label it "shadowing." You have experience working with PAs, seeing what they do, and helping them with their work. I'm not familiar with the PA application process but my 2 cents says that would probably suffice just based on principle.

 

[exacto]

Do you need to list separate PA shadowing? For instance, for a med school application you would describe your scribing experience and it would be clear that you followed the doctor or PA around the entire time, effectively getting the same (more) clinical experience as you would just shadowing, so it's really unnecessary to explicitly label it "shadowing." You have experience working with PAs, seeing what they do, and helping them with their work. I'm not familiar with the PA application process but my 2 cents says that would probably suffice just based on principle.

I'm not familiar either, and the PA forum here is rather lackluster.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Might get better answers here:

http://www.physicianassistantforum.com

 

[Catalystik]

I was looking into PA route in case my cycle this year for MD/DO doesn't work out, but I don't have any PA shadowing experiences. Then I thought maybe my work as an ER scribe will count...I work as an ER scribe and work with both MD's and PA's, being a scribe I'm basically tied to the providers hip at all times, so in theory its just like shadowing.

Ya'll think it will work?

Yes, but you might consider specifying the per cent time shadowing each type of medical provider. And I suggest that you do use the word "Shadowing" somewhere to be sure that a low-level, office staff screener doesn't miss that you've got that base covered.

 

[nm06003]

I'm in the same dilemma and decided to just do 100 hours of shadowing separately from scribing just in case. I believe scribing would fall more under a job... So it doesn't seem right to use it for more than one area? I could be wrong though.


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[----x----]

Each school does it differently. You need to look at each school's website to see if they list it, otherwise e-mail/all each one.

Some schools will accept scribing as clinical experience, though many will not.
Some schools simply have a minimum number of "healthcare exposure" hours, which scribing will fulfill.
Some schools require shadowing and don't accept scribing in place of it.

As time goes on, more PA schools are understanding how much more valuable scribe experience is as experience prior to training clinicians - rather than just passively shadowing, or even doing work as a CNA or equivalent.

Personally, I think scribing > shadowing for experience - so if there's a minimum you need to shadow I'd do that in addition so you could list scribing separately.

 

[Sardinia]

So many useless answers.

@exacto

(1) http://www.thepalife.com/hce-paschool/
PA requirements for 204 programs.
Hands-on patient care = Scribe related work does not count.

(2) https://doseofpa.blogspot.com/2014/02/health-care-experience-and-pa-school.html
An almost holistic list of all health professional careers that are designated as hands-on or non-hands on patient care.

 

[Sardinia]

@exacto Ignore all the responses to this thread and just do a complete reading of both links I provided.

 

[----x----]

Just a heads up, he listed scribe as not HCE per the first link. I can confirm that at least 2 PA programs I called last year did consider it HCE (as it states in the second link, that it's school dependent).

But those are some decent blog posts to review.

Sorry for the useless answer!