Medical scribes are showing up in both clinical and hospital settings, joining doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals in administering and delivering patient care. Medical scribes primarily document patient encounters in electronic medical records, so that doctors and nurses aren’t slowed down by the need to record events. They may do chart prep or assist with consultations. But more importantly, they’re a great way to get some valuable experience. Let’s learn why becoming a medical scribe could be the best move you made for your career.
It Can Help You Pay for School
If you want to go into nursing or attend medical school, it is very difficult to find a job that fits around your class schedule. However, you can always work as a medical scribe full time or part-time. It is easy to find shifts in the local hospital on nights, evenings, weekends, and holidays. You could find work in hospitals or doctor’s offices and many employers offer flexible scheduling for students.
You’ll Use the Skills throughout Your Medical Career
Becoming a medical scribe is a perfect choice for pre-med students. For one, you’ll start to get familiar with the medical language. This can help you master nursing and medical school courses later on because you don’t have to memorize these terms to understand your lessons.
Medical scribes work with doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals and you’ll mostly spend your time charting patient encounters into the electronic medical record. This is a skill that will be extremely important if you’re going to be a medical professional yourself. You’ll also learn how to ask the questions necessary to get to the correct diagnosis. For example, you’ll learn how to get their social history and perform a mental status exam.
Also, you’ll get the chance to observe patient care first-hand. You’ll learn how doctors and nurses handle a wide range of situations long before you enter medical school. You’ll also understand how they make diagnoses and the most common treatments ordered for these conditions.
It Improves Your Odds of Being Accepted by a Medical School
Note that many schools expect students to have had a shadowing experience, and, if you work as a medical scribe, that’s exactly what you’ll get. And you’ll get well-paid on top of it. This is in contrast to your peers who either had to volunteer at the facility or beg a doctor to allow them to follow along on patient visits.
It Helps You Build Soft Skills
As a medical scribe, you’ll learn how to work as part of a team of medical professionals. This is an invaluable skill for future nurses and doctors to have. You’ll also see doctors and nurses build trust with their patients in a wide range of situations. This is often essential to getting to the heart of the matter while seeing how doctors and patients interact allows you to learn what mistakes can undermine patient care.
Getting trained as a medical scribe is a great way to jump-start your medical career. It also provides you with a backup plan if you don’t get into medical school or decide an MD isn’t right for you.
