Do they both count as clinical experience, so I can choose either or? Should I do both of them? Which one will I get a more meaningful experience doing?
Is medical scribing or physician shadowing better?
- Thread starter nchop28
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They are two totally different things. Shadowing a physician is pretty much required "check-box" item. This one you can legitimately put in your hours, and then stop after shadowing enough types of physicians and getting enough hours. It doesn't have to be an insane amount of hours (under 100 is fine).
Scribing, on the other hand, is entry-level clinical employment. It is a pretty significant commitment from what I hear. It's by no means required for medical school. In fact, despite the small amount of money you earn for it, it's a very bad idea as a pre-med. It ends up being a lot of hours that take away from your grades and MCAT. The time can be better spent studying and instead doing clinical volunteering once weekly. I've seen a few too many pre-meds falter with entry-level clinical jobs. It's not worth it. Even if you are tempted by the money, it's pocket-change compared to future earnings.
tl;dr: You need to shadow physicians. IMHO, do not become a scribe.
Scribing, on the other hand, is entry-level clinical employment. It is a pretty significant commitment from what I hear. It's by no means required for medical school. In fact, despite the small amount of money you earn for it, it's a very bad idea as a pre-med. It ends up being a lot of hours that take away from your grades and MCAT. The time can be better spent studying and instead doing clinical volunteering once weekly. I've seen a few too many pre-meds falter with entry-level clinical jobs. It's not worth it. Even if you are tempted by the money, it's pocket-change compared to future earnings.
tl;dr: You need to shadow physicians. IMHO, do not become a scribe.
Why doesn't scribing check the shadowing box on medical schoo applications?
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In my experience, scribing can be two things. Either you document a doctor as he is practicing, or you are given charts to transcribe electronically and order tests. In either case, your interaction with patients is usually very limited. Now to contrast, in shadowing you are literally the doctor's shadow following and absorbing information about their lifestyles and specialties. I know for me at least, it really opened my eyes and led to my current drive to pursue medicine. Also depending on your relationship you may even be with them during confidential patient interactions and asked to interact. One is not like the other, but as far as clinical work goes, scribing does you pretty well for getting those hours.
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I disagree with this, but I know there are physicians that love scribes and others that don't. The time commitment will vary depending on where you end up working, but it's pretty much like any other full time job. I currently scribe at an internal medicine clinic and honestly wouldn't mind if I did it later on, it's also given me knowledge on other aspects of medicine, the business portion.
This makes no sense, if you're documenting while a provider is practicing, how is your interaction "very limited"? You're in the same room as the patient, doing what the provider would do if you weren't there. It's honestly what you make of it, I guess I'm fortunate enough to scribe for someone who is pretty laid back; I typically go in the room before him if he's busy with something else and just talk to the patient, topics include: what they're here for, any new concerns/complaints, refills, and off-topic conversations to get to know the patient better.
So I should take the job as a scribe? I know three physicians who will let me shadow them all summer, so I can get shadowing experience from that. I have clinical volunteer hours at my local hospice. Will becoming a scribe "check a box" that I can't check with shadowing and volunteering?
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Are you looking for a job ? Do you need to work? Are you still volunteering at a hospice?
Do the shadowing and be sure to include a primary care doc. You only need around 50 hours total of shadowing.
The scribing box you can check I suppose is paid clinical employment.
Your first focus should always be your grades and the MCAT later on.
STOP WORRYING ABOUT BOX CHECKING and build a good and comprehensive application with activities that you are proud of and you can detail your passion about in secondaries and interviews.
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Oh that's a good point. That would still limit you to one specialty, so you would probably want to shadow a couple more specialties on top of it if you end up scribing.
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What you said is true, but to each their own. I know a couple people who were chief scribes, and said their experiences were invaluable to them. At the same time, I've met enough people that didn't do the best job juggling entry-level clinical jobs with their academic duties. Looking back as a resident, I do not feel that I was ever at a disadvantage compared to other students. The medical school curriculum is meant to start you at step 0. So even though you will figure out how to do an H&P early on, medical schools do baby steps in putting it together. It wasn't until later during MS-1 where we had to find a doctor and turn in one patient H&P to our school.
I'm not trying to downplay anyone's experience. I'm trying to show that scribing or any other entry-level clinical job are not required for success in medical school. Given the pressure-cooker pre-med environment, it may not be a good idea for someone to bite off more than they can chew. I'm glad it has worked out for you and that you are learning a lot.
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Scribing EMT are experiences a T20 adcom told me they know premeds do to check the box. That’s all I have to say.
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To me, scribing is glorified shadowing, but you get paid for it. Employment is always good.
Scribing as a pre-med, especially if it's part-time (so that your primary focus is GPA/MCAT) is a great idea. 1) You get paid 2) It's substantial clinical experience (for the box checkers) and you learn a ton 3) It's a lot of pt interaction (for the box-checkers) 4) you're likely to get a LOR from your physician if you're competent. 5) You can have the physician(s) you work for help you get in touch with their doctor friends so that you can shadow (also needed for the app).
For someone like me who has zero family members anywhere in the healthcare industry, my experience as a scribe was the only reason why I could legitimately say I wasn't completely clueless about what doctors do.
Edit: As far as adcoms knowing premeds jsut scribe to check boxes. They also do the following to 'check boxes': take premed requirements, get a 4-year college degree, take the mcat, shadow, write an obnoxious number of essays/personal statements, etc etc.
For someone like me who has zero family members anywhere in the healthcare industry, my experience as a scribe was the only reason why I could legitimately say I wasn't completely clueless about what doctors do.
Edit: As far as adcoms knowing premeds jsut scribe to check boxes. They also do the following to 'check boxes': take premed requirements, get a 4-year college degree, take the mcat, shadow, write an obnoxious number of essays/personal statements, etc etc.
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Scribing is definitely not necessary- if you’d prefer to shadow instead, that won’t harm you in any way. It depends on whether you want/need the employment vs greater flexibility for other activities (volunteering/school/MCAT/etc.).
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40 hours of shadowing is plenty (as long as it mostly primary care).
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Scribing experiences vary widely. Some sites close you off from everyone and literally only expect you to transcribe the attendings dictations whereas in my case in the ER, we followed a single provider for the entirety of the shift documenting everything into the chart in addition to rooming patients, keeping track of lab results etc.
Overall, it may be another box to check but I honestly think scribing is more substantial than simply shadowing. Not only do you get paid but the skills you learn scribing actually pay dividends in the future because you eventually learn to think like a clinician given different presentations and write solid HPIs.
Edit: just wanted to add that I would only do scribing if you have the time or are doing a gap year. I don't recommend it if you're a full time student because the learning curve is quite steep and if you work in an ER, the hours are terrible.
Overall, it may be another box to check but I honestly think scribing is more substantial than simply shadowing. Not only do you get paid but the skills you learn scribing actually pay dividends in the future because you eventually learn to think like a clinician given different presentations and write solid HPIs.
Edit: just wanted to add that I would only do scribing if you have the time or are doing a gap year. I don't recommend it if you're a full time student because the learning curve is quite steep and if you work in an ER, the hours are terrible.
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Also want to add that you certainly don't need to scribe to have a good med school app. Also GPA/MCAT will always be the "quarterback" of your app.
But I feel like whenever adcoms review an application they always look for some form of substantial experience in something related to medicine. For many students this is basic/clinical research, previous work as a CNA/nurse, previous work running a clinic, etc. N=1, but my main clinical experience was scribing for a couple of years and it was good enough to get me in.
But I feel like whenever adcoms review an application they always look for some form of substantial experience in something related to medicine. For many students this is basic/clinical research, previous work as a CNA/nurse, previous work running a clinic, etc. N=1, but my main clinical experience was scribing for a couple of years and it was good enough to get me in.
