Which scribing position should I take?

[azngirlie321]

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I'm planning on scribing during my gap year, and recently interviewed with two places, but I think I'll have to make my decision without actually trying each one out. One is a with ScribeAmerica and is a family practice office, and another is with PhysAssist and is at the emergency room. I'm wondering which one I should pursue? I think the family practice position will be more chill/less hectic, with 9-5 hours, and the offices are private practices, whereas the ER position will be stressful but exciting, and at different hospitals. I'm also interested in going into internal medicine/pediatrics/family medicine. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Boolean]

Go with whatever it is you enjoy. I personally would opt for the ER, but you seem like you'd enjoy the ScribeAmerica one.

 

[Aerus]

Pick the one that you would be less likely to burn out, whether this may be distance, time commitment, or job description.

 

[Mylan2424]

I would say the ED would be fun and you would see more. I am currently an ED Scribe, but also have interests in Internal/Family/Rural specialties. I have clinical hours within the areas that I am interested in going into but I feel the ED experience allows me to tell a Med School why I would choose, say Internal over Emergency, because I have thorough experience in both.

 

[mehc012]

I've done both private practice and ED scribing.
Personally, I quit the private practice and went back to ED for a few reasons:
1. Private practice is CRAMMED for time. Seriously, patient visits are in-out-what-was-your-name-again? Maybe it was just the doc I had, or maybe the specialty, but I found it very frustrating. More to the point, the doc had little down time between patients - meaning no time for you to pick their brains. I tried switching because I thought it would be more chill - hey, the hours were shorter, the schedule regular, what's not to love? It. Was. Hell. The day just felt so busy and meaningless.
2. Private practice exposes you to ONE doc, maybe a few if it's a group practice. If you scribe in an ED, you will likely get to know several ER physicians very well. This is particularly useful when you're talking LORs...much easier to find one doc out of a group who you really click with than to hope you get lucky with the private practice physiciah.
3. Shadowing opportunities in the ED: You call the consults, so you will get to know ALL of the hospitalists, plus at least 1 or 2 from each of the following: general surgeons, ENT, Nephrology, Heme/Onc, Cardiology, Neurology.
4. ED, by its very nature, exposes you to the broad ideas of a lot of different things. Private practices tend to be a lot more narrow and detailed. Now, since you're talking FP, that may not be the case...but keep in mind that the ED IS primary care for a lot of patients, so it's kind of the best of both worlds for scribes.