If you’re considering a career in medicine, working as a medical scribe before starting medical school is an amazing way to familiarize yourself with patient care.
A medical scribe supports medical practice by documenting the details of a patient’s history, physical exam, medical decision-making and the plan for care in the patient’s electronic medical record. You will see what it’s like to practice, how physicians respond, and how they cope with ambiguity, bad news for a patient and time pressures. You will also see the joy in making a difference in patients’ lives.
Here are a dozen benefits of becoming a medical scribe before med school.
You Will Easily Get Shadowing Hours
Most admissions committees expect students to have had shadowing experiences before applying to med school. One of the greatest benefits of shadowing is your ability to see how doctors handle the rapid pace of today’s medicine. You also have the opportunity to ask them about their coping skills. You won’t have to beg to tag along with them because you will be part of the medical care team.
It Will Flatten Your Learning Curve About Medicine
Try to approach this as the opportunity for a free education. As a scribe, you will start to listen for the signs and symptoms that helped a doctor come to a diagnosis or a differential list.
[Read: College Courses to Take Before Medical School]
Over time, you will be able to anticipate what some of these diagnoses may be. Quiz yourself in your head before they state the diagnosis, if you think you’ve seen similar presentation in another patient. It’s really a lot of fun trying to solve the puzzle!
Your Financial Status Will Improve
You will be getting an excellent salary as a medical scribe, and perhaps even more than some others around you. Save as much as you can for tuition and living expenses when you enter medical school and won’t have time to work, or at least work as many hours.
You Will Learn Teamwork
Offer respect to every team member and watch how they intuitively help one another. Many students have no idea what the roles of interdisciplinary providers are until they get to their third year of med school. You will be better prepared to understand the role of a physician, assistant, or a nurse practitioner because you have seen them in action.
Representing your team, you will network with different medical professionals and doctors in other areas, working to your benefit right away and in the future.
You Will Learn the Language of Medicine
You will learn over time how to spell and pronounce common medical terms and learn what they mean. The more familiar you are with the terminology, the less you’ll have to rely on rote memorization after you enter medical school. Big advantage!
Humans more easily remember things through experience than simply by reading a text. Interpreting medical terminology will help you interact more effectively with other team members, and they will be more likely to reach out and teach you. They see you are interested and motivated, and that brings out the educator in them.
You Will See How Trust Develops Between Doctors and Their Patients
From my perspective, this is different than basic shadowing, which focuses on the physician. What I mean here is the dance between the patient and physician that generates caring and trust.
For example, you might hear how the doctor works to clearly understand what the patient said and reflect back the words to clarify and affirm to the patient that he or she was heard. Or you might see the doctor comfort the patient by touching his or her hand during a very frightening or sad conversation.
Trying to be empathic while staying within the boundaries are important skills that you can begin observing and asking about after the patient has left.
You Will Learn About Electronic Medical Records
Very quickly, you will learn the difference between the chief complaint and the history of present illness. You will also understand the importance of past history, family history and social history.
Perhaps you’ll get to observe the examination and the different sections that you will be describing, plus the mental status exam. The order will be more meaningful to you after you have practiced it over and over again. You will type it so frequently that you could almost do it in your sleep, which may make some of the medical students you work with in the future a little envious.
You will learn about the efficiency of checklists associated with different symptoms and understand why they are clumped together. You will learn about the importance of positive and negative findings in the case and what you need to have completed before the physician can close the chart.
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Orders and billing will depend upon how the two of you work together in charting. Watch how things are ordered in the chart, such as lab studies, X-rays, medication and future appointments. Someday you will be doing that part, too. Following the many regulations assures the doctor and you will get paid.
Templates, checklists and smart phrases are ever-changing. All of these efficiency tools are part of the medical record, but vary from specialty to specialty and change rapidly in some medical systems. Learning to adapt to these will become an important part of your daily coping skills.
You Will Increase Your Typing Speed and Efficiency
You may feel very proficient in this area, but when the fast pace of medicine also requires you to learn new medical terminology on a daily basis, the extra practice on multitudes of charts will help you. Most medical programs offer excellent training before you’re thrown into the busiest of clinics.
You Will Improve Your Listening Skills
This may be the most important reason to scribe. You’ll get to hear a patient’s actual story, their pain and their fears. You will learn to be in the moment and block out distractions.
This is what all patients hope their doctors will do. This early hands-on experience with real people and real problems is invaluable. Many medical students are afraid when they first begin taking a history from a patient. Your fear will have disappeared long ago, and you will understand the benefit of the learning that you obtained as a scribe listening to patients.
You Will See Different Specialties
Medical school does not always allow adequate elective time to view as many specialties and subspecialties as you might want to consider. If you have the opportunity to scribe for some of these areas of medicine, take it.
It may feel like you are starting a foreign language, but it will be worth it. Yes, it will force you to learn at a faster rate once again, because you are starting over in a new specialty, but it will help your future decision-making because you have seen what these physicians actually do.
You Will Have More Options for a Gap Year
A scribe position can be full- or part-time, making it a viable job choice. Many positions offer flexible hours, which means you may be able to volunteer or do research, too.
[Related:What Type of Research Helps You Get Into Medical School?]
If you decide to take a gap year, assess what your med school application lacks and try to use this time to build a stronger resume before the application cycle begins.
You Will Observe Burnout
Burnout is a major concern in today’s medicine. Before you enter the field, it helps to know what you will be up against. Watch physicians to see how they cope with stress and imagine yourself in the same situation. When under duress, how do they interact with staff and patients?
During this time, you can observe who seems to be thriving and who seems to be burning out. Unfortunately, you may see some behaviors you hope to avoid. Think about how the pressure may feel day after day, year after year.
Question yourself once again. Is this the right direction for your career? If it is, watch closely those who are thriving and ask how they are doing it. How do they keep a positive attitude? How do they divert the pressure away from the patient encounter?
Talk to patients and ask a lot of questions. Also ask a lot of doctors if they would choose the same specialty again and find out their reasons.
You could probably find additional reasons to consider being a scribe. It was not an opportunity available when I was getting a medical education, but I certainly wish it had been. Go for it!
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12 Reasons to Become a Medical Scribe Before Med School originally appeared on usnews.com
