How can I get clinical experience? Questions about being a scribe

[biblioteca]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello,

I am a biochem major. I am looking for ways to get clinical experience. I suppose I've had clinical experience where I have worked as a dental assistant for four years but this was years ago. Would that be able to count as clinical experience or has it been to long to even put that in my application?
I do work full time and go to school full time - it is definitely tough but I won't have a lot of time to volunteer or find clinical experience unless it is on weekends or late at night. I work at the hospital but I don't think it counts as clinical experience, it is only office work where I deal with insurances and claims with no patient contact.

I have thought about being a scribe but I am not sure how their hours would work for me. I got a phone call from scribeamerica, they wanted to schedule an interview but I had to decline since it was during my work hours and they would not allow any other time. For those who have worked as a scribe how flexible are they once you get hired? Are they all eight hour shifts or can they be four hour shifts and once your shift is over can you leave?

Basically, I would love to get clinical experience while working and going to school. Is this even possible? where could I look that would let me do that on weekends or even late night after 8PM?

I hope I've posted this in the correct section. I am rarely online to browse or do too many searches. Please redirect my post if needed.

 

[pamac]

Grades will be your friend. I cringe these days when I read advice given to good students to take time off to get "clinical" experience. Every school has different thresholds as to what they want their candidates to have to apply, just do research on as many programs as you can to get a handle on what each one wants. Then only apply to schools that you are most likely to succeed at getting into. The kind of healthcare experience you can obtain in 6 months of full time effort is of such quality that it won't be worth it to twist into knots to obtain. Schools that really care about HCE want real HCE. So don't go overboard. The best thing you can do is GRADES, GRADES, GRADES. Just ask yourself if you are better served working as a CNA wiping butts for 6 months, or just applying to the multitude of schools that would be fine with what you already have. Hint: the schools that would care about you going through 6 months of token experience just to check a box really don't care about your healthcare experience because at 6 months as a CNA you basically don't have any. Those programs are worth applying to if you already have some time under your belt, but resources are finite. You would be better served retaking a course you did poor in and getting an A-. But remember.... Every PA program will treat you different. There are some that might be ok with your HCE as a dental assistant. Most of those that care will probably not count it, but that's where you have to do your research. When you fill out the CASPA application, you go ahead and list what you have, and each school you apply to will consider it the way they want to. It's up to you to pick the right schools to apply to so you aren't wasting time and money. It's a much more diverse landscape for an applicant than other professional schools, and takes some time to master the process of evaluating where to apply based on what you have. But one thing that all schools respect are grades. And grades are the struggling point for most applicants. But get the grades first, then worry about the other aspects, because those aspects are a factor that can be obtained at much less effort.