Scribe-like Clinical Experience

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

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Short version: Which jobs or volunteering will give me experience as described in the bold italics below?

Background:
I've just had my reapplicant meeting with the admissions director for my top school. Her primary feedback for my application is that I'm lacking clinical experiences and she recommended that I do something like scribing. Her reason was adcoms would want to see that you've had a lot of experience with physicians so that you really know what the day-to-day life of a physician and interacting with patients looks like. (And on this point I was a little confused because I do have 100 hours of physician shadowing - pathologist, nephrologist, pediatrician, pediatric intensivist, non-trauma EM. Is this not enough?)

Within an hour I had gone to inquire at the one scribing service in my city (no openings - apparently they only hire for 1-year contracts in the spring), and looked online for any national scribe contractors that might have positions in my region (nothing near me). I'm not sure what to do now because I've also been looking for full-time clinical research positions, which would be less patient contact and apparently less impressive on an app, but more in line with my career goals...

What kind of jobs or volunteer work would provide the same kind of experience or exposure as described above? Thoughts on perioperative tech, surgical tech, or patient care associate (nurse's aide) positions? Pharmacy tech seems like it would miss the mark completely, and my clinical volunteering experience (200 hours) included very little exposure to physicians so I'm hesitant to sign up for hospital shifts again when I'm involved in two other meaningful volunteer activities (one clinical, one non-clinical).

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Anyone?

 

[takeurmeds02]

Interesting that they disregarded your 100 hours....I suppose you could look into either tech job so long as you truly are around patients. The nurse's aid thing might work too but the thing about these titles is that they can truly go either way in that you have great patient contact or none at all. I would thoroughly look into each and ask around, on-site, for details.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Thank you for the feedback! As an example she also mentioned how the previous student she had spoken with that morning had done something like, "wheel patients around. It's not very much but he was, you know, there," which I took to mean in the hospital setting.

All in all it was pretty demoralizing because I thought I had a solid app, but she kept mentioning how my app and experiences were perfectly fine but the competition was "up here" (hand above head). So a solid app =/= competitive app. Another confusing point: her example of what other students have done to be competitive was medical mission trips, which 1) I thought were looked on as pretty neutral, not necessarily an app-bumping experience and 2) it goes against my sensibility to not tour underprivileged people simply because they're underprivileged. Now I'm ranting 😳

I just really need to find something that will put me over the top...

 

[MrBen14]

So when I was headed into my gap year I had a significant lack of clinical experience. I turned down a job at a big lab corporation that was going to pay $24 an hour ... I instead began working as a scribe that pays me minimum wage. Was this hard? Yes, as it made my life significantly more financially strenuous. However, the experience is great, I feel like I've learned more about medicine, and it has provided me with a lot of substance for secondaries. Now to answer your question, I don't think any volunteer experience will give you the experience of being a scribe. If I were you, I would keep gunning for a scribe slot. Btw, I commute 45 mins before traffic, but that's how much this is worth to me.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Thanks so much. The more I read about it the more it seems like it would be an amazing experience and something I would really enjoy. I actually applied to a position last night that's an hour away; I think that's my limit for driving every day. Then I emailed the national companies to see if they had anything in my area but they all replied no. My next step will be calling the hospitals directly.