Hearing Back from Scribe Jobs
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I got a response about a month later for mine. The clinic I worked at served a very diverse population and I could tell by the others I interviewed with that they were looking for people who spoke either Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Vietnamese etc. I would not worry too much if you don't get the position though. Scribe jobs are harder to come by these days because a lot of people think they have to have it as an experience. I think your time would be better spent learning a language (e.g., Spanish) and getting some shadowing experience in primary care, and then perhaps applying for a scribe position if you're planning on taking a gap year and you're looking for something to occupy your time and make money.
Scribing is definitely nice for learning to write notes and interacting with providers. The one issue that I had was that sometimes you can get very caught up in writing down what the patient and provider say that you're not actually making any insightful observations on how the provider is interacting with the patients or the differences between the specialties that you're observing. So it is definitely important to do shadowing (around 50hrs is the consensus) in addition to the scribing if that's what you end up doing in your gap years. It's also important to have non-clinical volunteering too, serving the underserved.
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I scribed for a large company right after graduating from school for several years. I think it took them a while (3 weeks to 1 month) to get back to me after the interview, but this was a time when the interviews were done in-house with the chief scribe, scribe trainer, and sometimes an MD/DO.
After working for around six months, you start to focus on the other things going on. Most doctors are open to teaching you and showing you things. You get to see how other departments play in with yours. Lots of great experiences for very little pay. The corporation even avoided paying OT when shifts spanned over two days... Just remember to make an effort and want to learn. Being passive about things never helps.
After working for around six months, you start to focus on the other things going on. Most doctors are open to teaching you and showing you things. You get to see how other departments play in with yours. Lots of great experiences for very little pay. The corporation even avoided paying OT when shifts spanned over two days... Just remember to make an effort and want to learn. Being passive about things never helps.
Depending on the area you're from, sometimes a local hospital will have a shadowing program where you just apply. I found two hospitals in my area doing this just by doing a google search "medical job shadowing (insert state here)" . You could also ask providers/volunteer coordinators at the hospital you're volunteering at to shadow. If you're comfortable, you could ask your family member/parent's doctor. Is your undergrad school affiliated with a med school? I've noticed physicians working at a school affiliated hospital tend to be more open to this. Asking a pre-health advisor for possible connections might help too.
I believe I heard back about 2 weeks after my interview. Honestly if it doesn't work out at one company you could always apply to another
It took me 1 month, and another 3 months of classroom training before starting on floor shifts
Definitely check with your premed adviser. I am a scribe program coordinator for a private practice and I usually contact the colleges around my area for any pre-meds looking for a scribing job. It's easier for private practice if you're available full-time though.
How so? If they refuse to pay you and you worked more than 40 hours in a week, they may have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. If so, you could potentially sue them after your acceptance. There is a 2 year statute of limitations (3 years if willful). There may also be equitable tolling doctrines too.
They were pretty good about not scheduling us more than 40 hours a week. What they did do was whenever I worked overnight (longer than 8 hours) I would not get the OT rate because of how they classify their days. Left two years ago, don't have any real records of this happening besides my W2s. Didn't keep copies of paystubs or schedules as it was all online.
