What are the other jobs you speak of?
Clinical MAs, EMTs, CNAs, phlebotomists, unit secretaries, lab techs, research lab techs, clinical research coordinators, pt transport aides, psych/mental health/behavioral health techs, ED Techs, EKG techs, standardized patients... really, any clinical position in a hospital or clinic (or academic medical center) setting can provide you with at least as good (and often better) clinical experience as can a scribe position (as well as almost certainly higher pay). Scribing is probably the "best" pre-med job simply because it was made
for pre-meds (i.e., it usually involves flexible hours, requires little/no experience or formal training, anticipates short tenure, is understanding of academic commitments, pretty much requires direct physician interaction and mentoring, etc.); however, someone working an actual clinical job can fairly easily get the desired mentoring from physicians as well as have far greater access to patients and hospital resources than does a scribe (which scribing is technically not; it's actually a clerical position with clinical support responsibilities, just like a registrar/patient access rep in a clinical area -- speaking of which, you could probably get better prep for interviews and actual medical practice through a patient registrar position in the ED, since it'd better expose you to the financial side of medicine, which you won't really get good exposure to in med school, whereas you'll learn everything a scribe or any clinical or research-oriented individual in the hospital learns while in med school).
Having said all of that, it really depends upon what you want...
Preparation for Practice (i.e., learning what you won't learn while in med school):
- ED Pt Access/Registrar (health care business practices/billing)
- Unit Secretaries
Responsibility for Patient Care:
- Clinical MAs
- EMTs
- CNAs
- Phlebotomists
- Unit Secretaries
- Clinical Lab Techs (not direct patient care)
- ED Techs
- EKG Techs
- Pt Transport Aides
- PT/Rehab Techs (typically no cert required; minimal/no experience required for most places; working with a PT primarily, of course, but medical directors -- incl. PM&R MDs -- will likely be around)
- Psychiatric/Mental Health/Behavioral Health Techs (often get to do full assessments, etc. probably one of the best on this list while simultaneously the least-often seeked out; the best of these are the ED Behavioral Health Tech positions some EDs use because they end up being full-fledged ED Techs while simultaneously getting to do full psychosocial assessments and working closely with multiple types of physicians and other healthcare providers)
Research:
- Clinical Research Lab Techs
- Bench Research Lab Techs (mostly at academic medical centers)
- Clinical Research Coordinators
Getting Your Feet Wet:
- Standardized Patients (also can be good for making connections at the local med school...)
- Scribing (great for getting physician contact/shadowing; lacks "official" patient care responsibility in most hospital systems, although you get to be in the middle of things and are often entrusted with quite a bit of responsibility by the physicians; most systems I have seen technically prohibit any direct patient-scribe interaction, although I have yet to see a physician actually adhere to such policies; you're basically the doc's personal assistant)
