Med Scribe Interview

[sfgiantsfan]

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I'm going in for the second round of interviewing for a Med Scribe position at a local hospital. This round is in the ER and and I'm not sure what to expect but I bet it'll be somewhat hands-on. Is anyone a scribe who has been through a similar interview? Advice on what to focus on for the next few days to prep myself?

 

[halethsonofhama]

All the scribes I have met have been full of themselves.... so make sure you fine tune your feeling of superiority

 

[SilentSoldier]

The scribe position is not hands on in the sense that you'll be physically touching patients. Its more of a way to get an idea of how the ER works in terms of what the doctors/nurses/PAs/techs do for the patients as well as to get an understanding of the billing procedures in the ER. You also definitely get to see some crazy things (it is an ER, but depending on if that hospital is a trauma center or not you might not get to see some really cool stuff) so you do see how they deal with that kind of stuff.

Honestly, just show them why you're interested in a career as a health professional, that you're good with keeping commitments, and you'll have nothing to worry about.

 

[dbeast]

All the scribes I have met have been full of themselves.... so make sure you fine tune your feeling of superiority

Yeah we are pretty awesome...

OP, it's probably just a regular interview that happens to be in the ED for convenience. At our job, they didn't expect us to know too much medical terminology going in, and we were trained very thoroughly before the let us in with the patients.

 

[Silverman780]

Be sure to fine tune your whine when a EMT/Paramedic hands you a bag of meds because we didn't have time to document them all ourselves.

 

[Gurki]

who's the company you'll be working for?

 

[apumic]

It's going to vary. The company I've scribed w/ does a multi-step interview process. The first step was a phone interview/resume check. If you passed that, they gave you some medical terminology to memorize; then you were invited to a group interview and medical terminology test which you had to pass to continue (you had a limited number of attempts). After passing the test, you went on to the actual scribing -- basically you had several training shifts and then they'd either hire you at the end of those trial training shifts or they wouldn't. If you were hired, you got add'l training.

 

[normtheniner]

We were just called in for a face-to-face meeting, and then hired several weeks later.

After that point we went through ~30 hours of classroom training and ~30 hours of "shadowing" a scribe trainer.

Good luck with your interview. I think the things they're looking for is someone who can work efficiently under stress. Your job is to create an accurate chart that reflects the patient's visit to the ED. At times this can be tough when you have patients that are poor historians.

 

[Torr]

For my interview didnt need any knowledge of terminology. There was a section where they tested my abilities to take oral notes quickly and abbreviate words efficiently but that was back in the day when you hand wrote stuff n didnt have those mobile computers to drag along to patient rooms.

I got questions about what clinical experience I'd had prior and what I liked about it.

Im curious which hospital youre interviewing at. Can you tell me which city exactly? I was first generation at one of the Bay Area hospitals.

 

[sfgiantsfan]

Great feedback folks! It is for a company called Questcare. I am interviewing for a position at Medical City Dallas. I had a phone interview/resume scan. Took a terminology quiz in person. Now I'm being asking to show up at the ER and talk with a physician. It's a bit vague, but I get the impression that all applicants will be there at the same time so I'm wondering what they will have us doing. I'm thinking I should brush up on my speed typing skills and be on my game (alert and quick to react).

 

[osumc2014]

I remember they rejected me bc I got into med school hmm

 

[Torr]

I am interviewing for a position at Medical City Dallas.

Assumed you were in the SF area. But I guess the Giants are awesome enough that you can root for them no matter where you're from 🙂.

Hope the position works out!

 

[Led Zep]

All the scribes I have met have been full of themselves.... so make sure you fine tune your feeling of superiority

Completely agree with this!

I wouldn't worry about the interview too much, the scribe companies I was associated with were expanding too fast and needed all the help they could get, the interview was just a formality.

Kinda bummed that they asked for long term commitments though....

As for the experience I would rate it so-so it's nothing you can't get from shadowing/volunteering in the ER and taking a medical terminology course.

The girl who was heading up the program and training us was a b*tch on wheels though and picked favorites the first day of training and what was even funnier was her complete lack of general knowledge of biology which probably explains her rejection from med school....

In short, it's a good experience but I would just front the time and money for an EMT course and volunteer for an ambulance corp, you'll get better experience and it'll be clinical.

BTW, I politely excused myself from the scribe thing shortly after training, It really was painful to work with people with massive egos (the one said he would only accept an MD acceptance from one of 2 top schools!)

 

[apumic]

Completely agree with this!

I wouldn't worry about the interview too much, the scribe companies I was associated with were expanding too fast and needed all the help they could get, the interview was just a formality.

Kinda bummed that they asked for long term commitments though....

As for the experience I would rate it so-so it's nothing you can't get from shadowing/volunteering in the ER and taking a medical terminology course.

The girl who was heading up the program and training us was a b*tch on wheels though and picked favorites the first day of training and what was even funnier was her complete lack of general knowledge of biology which probably explains her rejection from med school....

In short, it's a good experience but I would just front the time and money for an EMT course and volunteer for an ambulance corp, you'll get better experience and it'll be clinical.

BTW, I politely excused myself from the scribe thing shortly after training, It really was painful to work with people with massive egos (the one said he would only accept an MD acceptance from one of 2 top schools!)

A lot depends on the company, hospital, etc. The scribes I work w/ are all pretty down to earth. Sure, we have 1 or 2 who aren't pleasant to work with and a couple that are lazy as **** (but have somehow managed not to get themselves fired), but the majority are great and well-liked by the other ED staff. A number of us also work as both techs and scribes (or similar), which means you get some add'l camaraderie between different members of the pt care team (and extensions of that team).

 

[Torr]

I actually agree with Led Zep 👍 . If you can get a better clinical experience lined up asap do that instead!

All the scribes I have met have been full of themselves.... so make sure you fine tune your feeling of superiority

Is this really a common stereotype? I think I had one scribe that I worked with who was a lil full of himself but most scribes I knew were really nice.

Unless....was I one of the "full of myself" scribes!? 😏

 

[SilentSoldier]

All the scribes I worked with were pretty cool, there was one of the scribe trainers who was kind of a beezy though, but nothing too crazy.

 

[ryan2100]

I have had a great experience working as a scribe in the ER, most of us are very down to earth and have a good time together both at work and outside of work, no one has big egos and we get along good with the rest of the staff.

On a side note I am willing to bet Led Zep that he was trained by the same girl as me, send me a PM if you want to cofirm

 

[karafox]

Is a MedScribe a better position to have than a student research assistant position?

 

[Torr]

Is a MedScribe a better position to have than a student research assistant position?

Its not so black or white and depends on many things. If you're really lacking in clinical experiences this is a good place to start. You are working alongside doctors and get to see cases but your job is to document and (at least in my experience) interaction with patients is minimal unless you're getting medical history etc. Usually they do pay you but its very little. I think when I did it it was like $10 an hour. Don't know what the average pay is these days though.

Theres a whole spectrum of student research experiences. You might spend the majority of your time making media and washing dishes and as a whole the experience might not mean much to you. On the other hand you might take on a project where you're learning lots of interesting techniques and end up getting mentioned in a publication...

Pick something you think you'll enjoy, learn from, and be able to talk about on applications and interviews.

 

[sfgiantsfan]

Well I had the second "interview". Was definitely not a real interview. They gave all the candidates a tour of the place and a physician spoke with us at length. Totally informational. Asked if we had any questions, etc. It isn't a new company but it IS a new department within their company so I got the impression they dont have a formalized interviewing process yet. Yes, the pay is $10 an hour through both training and after. I will find out by tomorrow whether I got the job. For the record, everyone I interacted with (scribes, scribe trainer, doc, applicants) were down to earth (maybe a little wound up for obvious reasons... applicants were nervous probably... doc is an ER doc at a busy hospital... trainer had to stay professional etc) but I got no indication of anyone being "uptight". 🙂

 

[Torr]

Still $10/hour? Sorry to hear that. I would've stayed on a lot longer if they'd paid better. Either way I'm sure you're more interested in the experience so hope you like it!

My experience was super eye opening but also super awkward. The docs werent all on board with the scribe program and were afraid that any mistakes we made on patient files would come back to haunt them or make them look bad if a case went to court or something. Sounds like in your case things are already up and running 👍.

You've really got to be confident and reassure the docs you know what you're doing. Also, make sure not to make spelling errors!

 

[sfgiantsfan]

Didn't get the job. I'm on a waiting list. Really weird scenario. There were people there who knew people working there. They were, needless to say, hired. Thanks for all the feedback. Hopefully I get a position when more spots open up.

 

[apumic]

Didn't get the job. I'm on a waiting list. Really weird scenario. There were people there who knew people working there. They were, needless to say, hired. Thanks for all the feedback. Hopefully I get a position when more spots open up.

They're often pretty competitive positions and, yeah, like anything, a lot of times it's who you know, not what you know, that matters.

 

[Torr]

Didn't get the job. I'm on a waiting list. Really weird scenario. There were people there who knew people working there. They were, needless to say, hired. Thanks for all the feedback. Hopefully I get a position when more spots open up.

Sorry to hear it but sounds like you're getting lots of cool exposure (shadowing docs etc.) in other places so don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll get it next time.

 

[ShayanMoosa]

I currently work as a scribe. During my interview, they really wanted to make sure that I would have the time to be committed to my job since I would also be involved with classes and other premed things. Even if you are involved in many activities, make it clear that your main priority will be your scribe position.

 

[apumic]

I currently work as a scribe. During my interview, they really wanted to make sure that I would have the time to be committed to my job since I would also be involved with classes and other premed things. Even if you are involved in many activities, make it clear that your main priority will be your scribe position.

Even though it probably won't be. Seriously, though, this is important. While you don't want to lie and say you have all kinds of time on your hands, you do want them to feel confident you'll actually be able to work and are committed enough to the position that you'll be worth training.