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PhysAssist training workload vs medical school workload

Started by Jordan1671
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Jordan1671

Jordan1671

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Hi guys! This is for the people who have been through the PhysAssist training. I just got done with my PhysAssist 4 day training program where it was pretty intense. How hard did you study/practice for the training and how much does this correlate to medical school workload?
 
Jordan1671 said:
Hi guys! This is for the people who have been through the PhysAssist training. I just got done with my PhysAssist 4 day training program where it was pretty intense. How hard did you study/practice for the training and how much does this correlate to medical school workload?
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What is PhysAssist training?
 
medical scribe - don't look them up without putting the word 'scribe' in the search box because it brings you up to a completely different thing. It's pretty much 4 days of training which covers memorizing abbreviations, terminology, and charting
 
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I work for a different company, but I didn't study at all outside work and did fine. IME, the ones I've trained that go all balls to the wall gunner-like studying are the ones that tend to burn out and subsequently wash out. You won't learn everything you should know in those four days nor should you expect to. If you are diligent during your shifts, you will learn what you need to know over time. Unless the doctor you work with is a jerk-off, in which case I give you my sympathies.
 
05silvergt said:
Wait, are you trying to compare a 4 day training course to medical school?
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Yeah, this. The depth of what we learn as scribes does not come close to approaching what we will learn in med school. This should become apparent after a couple shifts. Which is why OP shouldn't sweat his training too much.
 
Jordan1671 said:
Hi guys! This is for the people who have been through the PhysAssist training. I just got done with my PhysAssist 4 day training program where it was pretty intense. How hard did you study/practice for the training and how much does this correlate to medical school workload?
Click to expand...

I'm not qualified to speak about the intensity Of medical school yet but the physassist training was fairly intense on the first day of memorization. I think we had to memorize ~200 terms that night. The other practical days were kind of easyish though. I feel like medical school would be harder.
 
Jordan1671 said:
Hi guys! This is for the people who have been through the PhysAssist training. I just got done with my PhysAssist 4 day training program where it was pretty intense. How hard did you study/practice for the training and how much does this correlate to medical school workload?
Click to expand...

I was a scribe. You can't compare the workload between the two. It would be like running for a quarter mile, and then trying to use that experience to understand what running a marathon is like.
 
This thread is funny... A predent's comparing a 4-day scribe class with med school... I just started med school and I think that **** is punishment, my friend... ****s you spend 4 months in undergrad to learn, they want you to learn them in 2 weeks--seriously... A nice human being like me should not have to suffer like that...😛
 
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BestDoctorEver said:
This thread is funny... A predent's comparing a 4-day scribe class with med school... I just started med school and I think that **** is punishment, my friend... ****s you spend 4 months in undergrad to learn, they want you to learn them in 2 weeks--seriously... A nice human being like me should not have to suffer like that...😛
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Come on man, you've been in medical school for approximately two days
 
Psai said:
Are you in a DO school or something? I can't think of any schools that start in June, thought most were around August
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Some schools offer a summer pre-matriculation program for people who have been out of school for a while, or are otherwise very worried about doing poorly when they start for real. Don't know if that applies to him though.
 
username456789 said:
Some schools offer a summer pre-matriculation program for people who have been out of school for a while, or are otherwise very worried about doing poorly when they start for real. Don't know if that applies to him though.
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My school just sent us some Khan Academy videos and some quizzes as an optional warmup. Took a quiz and it was a nice reminder that I basically had a memory dump after the MCAT was done.
 
MedWonk said:
My school just sent us some Khan Academy videos and some quizzes as an optional warmup. Took a quiz and it was a nice reminder that I basically had a memory dump after the MCAT was done.
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Which vids? My school recommend we review or look at biochem if we haven't before. Might peruse through BRS or Lippincott to brush up a bit.


Also I can see how the scribe training might seem intense - but I think it's mostly because of all the new terminology you learn. (I did PhysAssist's training program)
 
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LostinLift said:
Which vids? My school recommend we review or look at biochem if we haven't before. Might peruse through BRS or Lippincott to brush up a bit.

Also I can see how the scribe training might seem intense - but I think it's mostly because of all the new terminology you learn. (I did PhysAssist's training program)
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Lippincott's Biochem is more than enough. I swear every new edition that comes out of that book I fail to notice any difference, just change in font, colors, and plasticky pages.
 
Mad Jack said:
You just ate 3 pancakes a day for four days and you're asking if it's the same as eating 5 pancakes a day every day for 2 years. :lame:
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I quite happily calculated my pre-clinical time and it's about 450 days, including weekends. So basically 325 days of school. Really isn't that much. Bring on those 1625 pancakes!

And ok @DermViser , going to browse through Lippincotts over the next 2 weeks then.
 
LostinLift said:
And ok @DermViser , going to browse through Lippincotts over the next 2 weeks then.
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It's obviously a lot of detail, but you're studying for the course, not the boards (which is nowhere near the ridiculous detail that course exams are in Biochem).
 
LostinLift said:
I quite happily calculated my pre-clinical time and it's about 450 days, including weekends. So basically 325 days of school. Really isn't that much. Bring on those 1625 pancakes!

And ok @DermViser , going to browse through Lippincotts over the next 2 weeks then.
Click to expand...


Fine. Also you will be eating that many pancakes within 4-5 weeks leading up to step 1. Optimism is good.
 
I'll bring you all my progress reports, of both my grades and sanity, starting after the first block exam 🙂
 
LostinLift said:
Which vids? My school recommend we review or look at biochem if we haven't before. Might peruse through BRS or Lippincott to brush up a bit.


Also I can see how the scribe training might seem intense - but I think it's mostly because of all the new terminology you learn. (I did PhysAssist's training program)
Click to expand...

I had Lippincott's for my undergrad biochem course (it was recommended). I immediately regretted buying that book after the first chapter.

They sent us ones on cellular respiration, cell structure, diffusion and osmosis, hemoglobin and sodium-potassium pump. I only have a general understanding of each of these things left in brain. All the details are long gone, having been destroyed by laziness and beer.
 
LostinLift said:
I'll bring you all my progress reports, of both my grades and sanity, starting after the first block exam 🙂
Click to expand...

I'll use another marathon analogy, because I think it's appropriate. Reporting back on your sanity after the first block and trying to gauge how you'll feel throughout the first two years of medical school is like running a mile and then trying to gauge how you'll feel 20 miles later. It's good to be optimistic to an extent, but not naive.
 
sinombre said:
I'll use another marathon analogy, because I think it's appropriate. Reporting back on your sanity after the first block and trying to gauge how you'll feel throughout the first two years of medical school is like running a mile and then trying to gauge how you'll feel 20 miles later. It's good to be optimistic to an extent, but not naive.
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Almost time to put up or shut up, so for now, I'll shut up. :happy:
 
So yeah, thank you everybody for belittling everything I said, especially those who haven't gone through the training. It was an honest question.

To reiterate and elaborate, what I meant to say is that if I extended those 4 days into 4 years of the same workload expected every day, would it equate to medical school's workload?
 
Jordan1671 said:
So yeah, thank you everybody for belittling everything I said, especially those who haven't gone through the training. It was an honest question.

To reiterate and elaborate, what I meant to say is that if I extended those 4 days into 4 years of the same workload expected every day, would it equate to medical school's workload?
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Look the answer is just no. I liked the marathon analogy. Have you run a mile? Can you parallel that to running a 30 yard dash, at all?

Also, if I had reported back after our first exam, I would have painted a picture much different than I will now of the whole year. That first block was my favorite, but studying became so much more efficient that my work load during that first block basically dwarfed every other block. While the year got "easier", it just drags on and you burn out; actually studying effectively and stressing about doing so was hard at first, then it became hard just to make myself do what I knew would lead to success. The struggle evolves even over just the first year.
 
Jordan1671 said:
So yeah, thank you everybody for belittling everything I said, especially those who haven't gone through the training. It was an honest question.

To reiterate and elaborate, what I meant to say is that if I extended those 4 days into 4 years of the same workload expected every day, would it equate to medical school's workload?
Click to expand...

I've been employed by 3 EMR scribing companies including PhysAssist. The training is supremely superficial as you are mostly just building a vocabulary of medical terms and learning basic emergency protocols (chest pain, priority 1 strokes, etc).

Using chest pain as an example: after your training you'll be very familiar with the buzz words and basic protocols. ACS, anginal equivalent, pleuritic chest pain, STEMI/NSTEMI, Prinzmetal's (variant) angina, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection/aneurysm, pericardial tamponade, CHF. You know that emergent PCI takes place ASAP for STEMI, but within the first 24 hours for NSTEMI. You order a D-Dimer to rule out DVT (you might even learn about when it's appropriate to order a D-dimer over other testing). You can order a CT chest or V/Q scan to rule out pulmonary embolism. CHF is associated with pulmonary/pedal edema. etc etc etc

What you aren't responsible for learning during your training is the pathogenesis of any of the above, which is the brunt of med school. Apples =/= oranges.

That's not to say that scribing in and of itself isn't valuable. You'll definitely be at an advantage compared to someone else with no clinical background, and after a few months/years you'll become exceptionally proficient with taking patient histories, which will pay dividends in 3rd year+.
 
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