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I scribed for well over a year and was "fired" within the first month of having the job. There was absolutely no reason for my termination and my chief scribe tried to expedite the process by getting me to sign termination paperwork which I refused to do. In fact, I got in touch with HR and explained the entire situation and they ended up reversing his decision entirely. He tried numerous other times to get me fired by giving me bad reviews etc. but I befriended one of the docs and explained the situation to him and the kid couldn't touch me. He ended up quitting 6 months later. Moral of the story is that chief scribes can be fickle creatures with their own agendas (and inferiority complexes) but their word isn't law. Sometimes you have to get the right people involved and make it clear that you aren't their little play thing and they will leave you alone.
Wishing you the best of luck
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If it's scribeamerica, you have to sign an agreement not to work for any competitors for a length of time after working for them. Though I'd be surprised if they enforce it.I actually disagree. You may be better off leaving the scribing company and moving into a private practice arrangement where you can get paid without the middle man. Consider this encounter with the scribe company as free 6 months of training.
If it's scribeamerica, you have to sign an agreement not to work for any competitors for a length of time after working for them. Though I'd be surprised if they enforce it.
It sucks but welcome to the real world. Not everyone is going to like your personality or think you fit with the group. This problem isn't going to go away once you get into residency. The surgeon I work for told me that in residency, if someone higher up just doesn't like you, they can find any little way to get you fired. Maybe you didn't do anything wrong, but maybe you actually just didn't fit. Whether that's fair or not, pick yourself up and move on to some place you do.
I'm not an expert so others may strongly disagree, but I would still talk about the experiences and not mention you were fired. As far as I know, you're not required to disclose the circumstances of your stopping an activity. Med schools may call to verify date/hours (highly unlikely they bother though unless something looks off). They almost definitely won't try to figure out whether or not you were fired. I wouldn't use a letter of recommendation from them.
I would still put it in your application. Six months of scribing is a lot of clinical experience, and you don't have to say that you were fired. I don't have much else to add other than that I'm very sorry this happened. Good luck!
Keep it in your app. But be ready to discuss it during interviews. Interviewers love talking about scribing, so I'm sure it'll come up.
Agree with above. But if it were me I'd be going nuts over why they had fired me. Is the head scribe a jerk? Did you totally creep out a patient? Just seems strange after having been in the position for so long... Sounds like you handled it well but I'm sorry nonetheless.
Don't sweat it, you probably didn't fit in with the clique that they had. I used to work in an ED (not a scribe though), and I've noticed that the chief scribe would isolate the scribes they didn't like, then get them terminated. You should still mention it and talk about the experience positively.
Damn, sorry to hear about that! My chief scribe is a mean person, as well. I couldn't imagine being fired without any real explanation. I agree with above posters though, keep it in your PS.
I scribed for well over a year and was "fired" within the first month of having the job. There was absolutely no reason for my termination and my chief scribe tried to expedite the process by getting me to sign termination paperwork which I refused to do. In fact, I got in touch with HR and explained the entire situation and they ended up reversing his decision entirely. He tried numerous other times to get me fired by giving me bad reviews etc. but I befriended one of the docs and explained the situation to him and the kid couldn't touch me. He ended up quitting 6 months later. Moral of the story is that chief scribes can be fickle creatures with their own agendas (and inferiority complexes) but their word isn't law. Sometimes you have to get the right people involved and make it clear that you aren't their little play thing and they will leave you alone.
Wishing you the best of luck
Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
Why would you not put it on your app? I'm not sure why that thought process is running through your mind.
The director explicitly told you you can reference your hours if necessary.
I actually disagree. You may be better off leaving the scribing company and moving into a private practice arrangement where you can get paid without the middle man. Consider this encounter with the scribe company as free 6 months of training.
6 months is more than enough clinical exposure to put in your application. Maybe you can start shadowing other specialties. That way, when your interviewing, you can mention that you stopped scribing in order to gain more exposure to the different specialties within the medical field. BTW, your chief scribe sounds like a jerk.
^^ agree with above, now that you have experience, look for another scribe job outside of your company
Also, of course you should list your hours- the fact that someone thought you "didn't fit" does not take away the meaning and value of your time there. Keep it in your statement, try to find a new scribe job, and if you're asked on an interview, say "The environment wasn't a good fit for me" (Turn it around)
Don't take it personally. I walked out on my last training day. Scribing is an exploitative minimum wage job where you get minimum contact with patients and maximum contact with ego-inflated peer premeds. There are tons of other jobs out there:
EMT
Sleep technician
ER Tech (much higher pay, need EMT license)
Hospice worker
Aids volunteer
dialysis tech
CNA
home health care provider
Anyways, I would definitely write the essay and include the hours and the things you learned. You did it for the experience, not just to get into med school, right?
I'd also write about the situation in an adversity essay, and explain how hurt you feel and try to translate the experience to what you would do differently if something like this came up in residency.
Hey friend, sorry to hear this happened to you. These things happen all the time, unfortunately. I know for a fact that you will look at this differently in 5 years than now. Unfortunately, that is not much help to you presently.
I would absolutely keep this on your personal statement and meaningful experiences. So what that you were fired? I bet you learned a lot clinically (witnessed MDM), emotionally (how some physicians are empathetic), and the various roles of MD/PA/Nurses/techs. The bottom line is you did learn a lot from this job.
In the officer community, I know a lot of people who were relieved of command (I.e. "fired"). That didn't stop them from listing their military experience in their resume. You served your job with honor - no charges were filed against you.
Worst comes to worst. Lets say they do know you were fired. How are you going to explain it? Do you think nobody has ever been fired from a job that is in medical school? You obviously bounced back. You are applying to medical school and your decision didn't wane.
I have worked as an ED scribe for some time, and will be quitting soon. The level of unprofessionalism from CS is unacceptable. I know how fickle they are and how they play favorites. Best of luck.
Edit: format
If it's scribeamerica, you have to sign an agreement not to work for any competitors for a length of time after working for them. Though I'd be surprised if they enforce it.
The other big one says that too. I threatened litigation. They backed off.
It sucks but welcome to the real world. Not everyone is going to like your personality or think you fit with the group. This problem isn't going to go away once you get into residency. The surgeon I work for told me that in residency, if someone higher up just doesn't like you, they can find any little way to get you fired. Maybe you didn't do anything wrong, but maybe you actually just didn't fit. Whether that's fair or not, pick yourself up and move on to some place you do.
I imagine resident attrition would be much higher if this were a widespread thing since people find the smallest reasons to dislike each other all the time.
I quit before they fired me. My situation was also stupid. Basically I didn't fit in and was isolated and was yelled at for not including things that the physician told me not to include in the chart. This all happened in fall 2014. Now I'm about to finish my 1st year of medical school. Also don't let this experience get you down. I thought that I was going to fail out of medical school because I failed as a scribe. Absolutely not the case. Scribing is a tough job and it's not for everyone (that doesn't mean you will make a bad doctor, trust me). While I had a bad experience with they scribe job I'm happy I did it for the short time I did it because I did learn some clinical stuff. By the way the other girl who scribed with me and did fit in hasn't been accepted to medical school (though I think she would make a great doctor) because she doesn't have the test marks.
Definitely mention it on your application but as others said don't mention what happened. Truthfully you'll probably never be asked why you stopped. The schools see it as a positive experience and want to know what you learned, so tell them about all of those things. Plus, 6 months is a long time to have a job. It's not like you were fired right away, you lasted 6 months. If on the off chance you are asked why you stopped have an excuse ready.
I doubt the schools will contact the company. While you are required to provide a person of reference for your experiences I truly doubt the schools contact them. They have a huge stack of applications to go through. In addition they have to prepare people for interviews whilst doing a ton of other bs jobs around the office. They don't have time to contact the scribe company you worked for. Remember that the people who work in the admin offices have boring office jobs. They are spending the day doing silly office things and using their spare time to go on facebook. Yes maybe they might do random checks but I think the odds are in your favor that you won't be scrutinized and probably never asked about why you stopped.
I also got fired from my scribe job. But I only worked there a month or two.
Currently holding 3 acceptances. On the WL for 2 others. It will be fine 😀
Serious question: Are DO's commonly able to go into specialties like Ophthalmology?I also got fired from my scribe job. But I only worked there a month or two.
Currently holding 3 acceptances. On the WL for 2 others. It will be fine 😀
Lol it's a gag I sort of have with myself. I was interested in going opthamology but since only getting into DO, I basically set that dream free but put that opthamology in my signature to sew how many people are like "you're an idiot for thinking you can". I no longer have any intention of doing optho.Serious question: Are DO's commonly able to go into specialties like Ophthalmology?
From what I've heard, you could be the greatest scribe of all time and it wouldn't matter if you couldn't talk about it. You could also be the worst scribe of all time and get in solely based on that if you talk about it well enough.I know somebody who did scribing for a week, put it on their app, discussed it at their interviews, and quit right after getting the acceptance. Pure Win.
From what I've heard, you could be the greatest scribe of all time and it wouldn't matter if you couldn't talk about it. You could also be the worst scribe of all time and get in solely based on that if you talk about it well enough.
Yo you're a med student?If you got the interview everything is pretty much irrelevant. I went on plenty of interviews on which we talked about weather, sports, and a few questions on grades and other stuff. Nothing about my app directly tho.
Yo you're a med student?
watDepends who's asking. Sup bruh
wat
I mean you said you went to a couple of interviews so I'm assuming you are currently a med student
Hello all,
Hi probond007, thanks so much for your response! It gave me hope. I just hope this cycle works out and I can move on from all of this. You're right, the odds of them contacting the place are pretty low, but I normally have the worst luck in the world and those kind of things happen to me. I'll brainstorm an honest but vague explanation that's short and to the point so if it does come up, I won't ramble like an idiot.
You'll be fine. Truthfully what these schools care about are stats (particularly the MCAT). Why? Because when you're in medical school you have to take board exams. The success of the school's students on the board exams not only is important for accreditation but it also is an indicator of how good the schools are. Now in medical school what's important to me is passing as well as USMLE 1.
Now some interview advice. You may need to tell a white lie. Truthfully it would have been logical for me to leave my job as a scribe. Why? Because I was making mininmum wage and had to drive 45 minutes to do so. After leaving the scribe job and getting into medical school I picked up a temp job putting tv's into boxes for 2 weeks. I made way more doing that than I did as a scribe. Obviously being a scribe is more about the experience but you could easily say that you left it because you had loans to pay off and needed to pay those off. Also when I was a scribe people were not even getting 40 hours a week. My hospital was incredibly ovestaffed in terms of scribes. Again you could easily make that excuse. And truthfully after 6 months that's perfectly logical (assuming though that you got a higher paying job afterwards).
Now when I had medical school interviews one thing that surprised me was the lack of knowledge that interviewers had of me. They had my file but studied it very little. At one interview the interviewer confused details about my file and asked me things about myself that were flat out incorrect. I feel like most schools like to go for the closed file approach for interviews. I think that schools want the interviewer to go unbiased. If you're asked about your clinical experience don't say I was a scribe for 6 months but rather "I have 6 months of scribing experience". Then they'll ask you what you've seen and the conversation will go on from there. It's that simple. In that situation not only are you telling the truth but you're not making yourself look bad 🙂
Hi Probond007, thanks for your response! Your advice is helpful and greatly appreciated! I do in fact work part time someone else and am making a lot more than the scribe job, so maybe I can say the hours and pay is better there, so it made sense to leave...Do you know if interviews in California are closed file?