Medical Scribe

[medking]

I know shadowing isnt really considered "clinical experience", but is medical scribing considered clinical experience? And if so, is it considered great clinical experience?

Thanks!

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[Pedsbro]

]I know shadowing isnt really considered "clinical experience"[/b], but is medical scribing considered clinical experience? And if so, is it considered great clinical experience?

Thanks!

Huh? As a great SDN poster (thanks LizzyM) once wrote: If you're close enough to smell patients, it's clinical experience. Being an ER scribe is clinical experience...probably better than shadowing, but shadowing is definitely clinical experience.

 

[175961]

Huh? As a great SDN poster (thanks LizzyM) once wrote: If you're close enough to smell patients, it's clinical experience. Being an ER scribe is clinical experience...probably better than shadowing, but shadowing is definitely clinical experience.

You might want to be careful when taking this advice. Clincial experience has sometimes been defined as direct contact with patients. Some med schools might not consider shadowing as clinical experience, since when shadowing youre usually just a fly on the wall being the doctors "shadow". One school for example, UofU med school, DOES NOT consider shadowing as patient exposure (clinical experience). They define it as hands on involvement in the care of patients, rather than just following a doctor around. For them shadowing and clincial experience are two different pre-reqs they want you to fill when applying. To get that kind of experience they advise you to be involved in things such as taking vital signs, histories, or helping with procedures. Check out the school web pages, they will often tell you what they want and will work and what wont.

 

[Pedsbro]

Ok yeah, we don't pick out exceptions to the rule. In general, most schools will look at shadowing as clinical experience. And if you allow yourself to be just a fly on the wall while you're shadowing, then that's your fault and you need to find a better situation. Interacting with patients at a doc's office or a clinic is pretty easy and doesn't require H/P taking or vitals to be "experience"; being in the OR watching pediatric neurosurgery (like me) is pretty damn good experience too. Find the right shadowing experience and you'll be fine. I'd rather do that then be the welcome desk volunteer at a hospital or stuck putting together charts as an ER volunteer...what's better experience? If shadowing is all you got, it's fine. If you can do more, great. Have a good day

 

[SoyMilk]

taking vital signs, histories, .

Thus being a scribe is clinical experience.

 

[LadyWolverine]

To get that kind of experience they advise you to be involved in things such as taking vital signs, histories, or helping with procedures.

Wow. I didn't realize that being a medical student was a prerequisite for applying to medical school.

In the litigious environment that we live in these days, who is going to let a volunteer take vitals and help with procedures? Sheesh. Why isn't shadowing good enough? You don't know enough yet not to screw something up.

 

[medking]

any other thoughts/ideas/opinions as to whether being a medical scribe is good clinical experience?

 

[Katatonic]

I didn't realize that being a medical student was a prerequisite for applying to medical school.

Haha, you perfectly summed up the way I've been feeling lately! And yes, a medical scribe would be clinical experience since you are interacting with patients.

 

[PowerButton]

Yes it is. As a scribe, I follow doctors into patient rooms, take histories and physicals, solicit review of systems answers by myself, and occasionally give them blankets/water/food when asked. No medical care - but I guess you could call it "clinical experience".

 

[LadyWolverine]

Yes it is. As a scribe, I follow doctors into patient rooms, take histories and physicals, solicit review of systems answers by myself, and occasionally give them blankets/water/food when asked. No medical care - but I guess you could call it "clinical experience".

Wait a minute...what? This is certainly considered to be part of medical care. How on earth do you elicit a thorough, pointed/directed H&P without formal medical training? I went through 2 years of "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" in medical school and am still going to be 99.99% clueless when I start my first rotation on Monday. I would be terrified of missing something important. How do you even know what the heck you are looking at on physical exam?

 

[medking]

Wait a minute...what? This is certainly considered to be part of medical care. How on earth do you elicit a thorough, pointed/directed H&P without formal medical training? I went through 2 years of "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" in medical school and am still going to be 99.99% clueless when I start my first rotation on Monday. I would be terrified of missing something important. How do you even know what the heck you are looking at on physical exam?

The physician is the one conducting the H&P, and the scribe writes everything down on the medical charts for the physician.

That's what the person probably meant.

 

[PowerButton]

The physician is the one conducting the H&P, and the scribe writes everything down on the medical charts for the physician.

That's what the person probably meant.

Yes. Clarification: the physician asks the questions for the history, gives me the physical exam, and I write it down. For ROS questions I generally do them on my own. By medical care, I mean putting an IV in, procedures obviously, giving meds, etc. Strictly speaking, my job is "clerical". It's a great experience though, you get to see the medical decision making and a lot of cool cases.

 

[cbrons]

You might want to be careful when taking this advice. Clincial experience has sometimes been defined as direct contact with patients. Some med schools might not consider shadowing as clinical experience, since when shadowing youre usually just a fly on the wall being the doctors "shadow". One school for example, UofU med school, DOES NOT consider shadowing as patient exposure (clinical experience). They define it as hands on involvement in the care of patients, rather than just following a doctor around. For them shadowing and clincial experience are two different pre-reqs they want you to fill when applying. To get that kind of experience they advise you to be involved in things such as taking vital signs, histories, or helping with procedures. Check out the school web pages, they will often tell you what they want and will work and what wont.

are you sure they weren't talking about what they expect you to do after you graduate medical school?

 

[cbrons]

Does anybody have a good site/resource that outlines what a successful physician scribe program looks like? I know the E-R director and the business director of our small (rural) county hospital and want to pursuade them to start a program up for our university town pre-med students.

 

[LadyWolverine]

Yes. Clarification: the physician asks the questions for the history, gives me the physical exam, and I write it down. For ROS questions I generally do them on my own. By medical care, I mean putting an IV in, procedures obviously, giving meds, etc. Strictly speaking, my job is "clerical". It's a great experience though, you get to see the medical decision making and a lot of cool cases.

Aha. I see. Your original wording made it sound like "I take histories and physicals and solicit answers by myself." Hence my confusion. That does sound like a more worthwhile "clinical experience" than volunteering to push patients around all day.

 

[PowerButton]

Aha. I see. Your original wording made it sound like "I take histories and physicals and solicit answers by myself." Hence my confusion. That does sound like a more worthwhile "clinical experience" than volunteering to push patients around all day.

😀 I would not know what a damn thing I'd be doing if I were to push on a patient's abdomen or touch a stethoscope to any part of a patient's body. That's why I want to go to med school!

 

[175961]

Ok yeah, we don't pick out exceptions to the rule. In general, most schools will look at shadowing as clinical experience. And if you allow yourself to be just a fly on the wall while you're shadowing, then that's your fault and you need to find a better situation. Interacting with patients at a doc's office or a clinic is pretty easy and doesn't require H/P taking or vitals to be "experience"; being in the OR watching pediatric neurosurgery (like me) is pretty damn good experience too. Find the right shadowing experience and you'll be fine. I'd rather do that then be the welcome desk volunteer at a hospital or stuck putting together charts as an ER volunteer...what's better experience? If shadowing is all you got, it's fine. If you can do more, great. Have a good day

Some of your flaws have been pointed out in bold. first, "In general"...wouldnt you hate to have a school tell you that you didnt do what they wanted because you figured "in general" they would accept whatever it was?? Second, doctors wont always want an annoying pre-med student who wants to get in on all the action. From my experience with different doctors I've seen that some do and some dont. Theres nothing wrong with being a fly on the wall when it comes to shadowing. All you are trying to do is see what a doctor does day in and day out, nothing more and nothing less but if you get more then thats great. So there isnt necessarily a need to "find a better situation" (as you put it) when shadowing. This is also why some schools require you to get clinical experience....so they know you wont faint at the sight of blood. Lastly, when did I ever say that clinical experience was being stuck behind a desk or putting charts together?? Have a nice day....btw, I wasnt trying to criticize you or your advice...so learn to roll with the punches a little better when someone doesnt agree with you 100%

Wow. I didn't realize that being a medical student was a prerequisite for applying to medical school.

In the litigious environment that we live in these days, who is going to let a volunteer take vitals and help with procedures? Sheesh. Why isn't shadowing good enough? You don't know enough yet not to screw something up.

Nothing I mentioned requires being a medical student. When I volunteered at a clinic for the underserved they were understaffed and required lots of extra hands. What did that mean for me? If someone came in with a split face I got to put on gloves and help clean the wound and hand the doctor anything he needed. I wasnt there stiching it back together putting myself or the doctor at risk in this "litigious environment". If the doc decided that a patient needed a nebulizer treatment I would get the machine all ready to go and get the patient started on it. This clinic also had those fancy, shmancy electronc vital taking machines....so I could do that with ease when checking a patient into an examination room. So, once again, nothing I ever did there required me to be a med student and it was a heck of a lot more than "shadowing"

 

[thesecretgarden]

Does anybody have a good site/resource that outlines what a successful physician scribe program looks like? I know the E-R director and the business director of our small (rural) county hospital and want to pursuade them to start a program up for our university town pre-med students.

I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but you can try this website: www.physicianscribes.com There is a tab called "Start a Program" that may help you. Good luck!

 

[Camy99]

Yes. Clarification: the physician asks the questions for the history, gives me the physical exam, and I write it down. For ROS questions I generally do them on my own. By medical care, I mean putting an IV in, procedures obviously, giving meds, etc. Strictly speaking, my job is "clerical". It's a great experience though, you get to see the medical decision making and a lot of cool cases.

I've had bad experiences with actual, trained nurses. I would not let a premed anywhere near my fragile veins. XD Unless you mean just fixing the antibiotics in the bag, not the needle. "Oops, did I just puncture your muscle? My bad.... I'm just trying to get some clinical experience." *shudders*

 

[DktrButt]

I know shadowing isnt really considered "clinical experience", but is medical scribing considered clinical experience? And if so, is it considered great clinical experience?

Thanks!

In my journy as a Pre-Med, I have always visualized clinical experiences to be exactly what they sound like...experiences in the clinical setting. I don't know if anyone else would agree but as a first gen college student, my clinical experiences have gotten increasingly more involved over the years.

When I first started out, my time volunteering in hospitals was exposing me to the clinical setting - maybe not throwing me right into the fire..but for me, it was a great clinical experience at the time. That experience gave me confidence to interact with patients. I needed that experience to build on. I would consider my time shadowing physicians as another piece of clinical exposure THAT I NEEDED. As a result of these clinical experiences, I became comfortable forming relationships with physicians (which was hard and intimidating for me in my early years). I have now evolved my clinical experience aspect of my application into Scribing in the ED. I work closely with many providers and am learning things that some 2nd and 3rd year medical students are learning and practicing.

I really believe that your experiences cannot be placed into singular categories. As long as you can make personal connections with your experiences and go beyond just making a list to fit specific categories, you'll be okay. Don't overthink things.

Huh? As a great SDN poster (thanks LizzyM) once wrote: If you're close enough to smell patients, it's clinical experience. Being an ER scribe is clinical experience...probably better than shadowing, but shadowing is definitely clinical experience.

This is awesome. Agree 100%

 

[Boolean]

In my journy as a Pre-Med, I have always visualized clinical experiences to be exactly what they sound like...experiences in the clinical setting. I don't know if anyone else would agree but as a first gen college student, my clinical experiences have gotten increasingly more involved over the years.

When I first started out, my time volunteering in hospitals was exposing me to the clinical setting - maybe not throwing me right into the fire..but for me, it was a great clinical experience at the time. That experience gave me confidence to interact with patients. I needed that experience to build on. I would consider my time shadowing physicians as another piece of clinical exposure THAT I NEEDED. As a result of these clinical experiences, I became comfortable forming relationships with physicians (which was hard and intimidating for me in my early years). I have now evolved my clinical experience aspect of my application into Scribing in the ED. I work closely with many providers and am learning things that some 2nd and 3rd year medical students are learning and practicing.

I really believe that your experiences cannot be placed into singular categories. As long as you can make personal connections with your experiences and go beyond just making a list to fit specific categories, you'll be okay. Don't overthink things.



This is awesome. Agree 100%

This post is from 3 years ago.