However, staying beyond 8-12 months provides you diminishing returns because at this point you've pretty much hit the maximum knowledge a scribe could get. Don't lose your sight of the forest from the trees.ĮDIT: To address the concerns of many people that posted: I very much support scribing and that it provides a great medical experience. Remember, You're using this job to get a peek at a doctor career, so don't let this job use you to make scribe company owners even more richer. You're also constantly exposed to sick people and your shitty college insurance won't cover all expenses because you pay copay. I've lost my gym gains and I've personally seen my coworkers become out of shape. I myself have developed wrinkles and grey hair because of this job. You're not gaining any more knowledge and you're not earning decent money. If you stay as a scribe too long, you're doing a disservice to yourself. This provides a good amount of time to get good deal of understanding on how your respective hospital operates and enough time for you to consider if being a doctor is a good career path for you. The main asterisk is have a length in mind, like 8 months (kinda like my trainer did). So, would I still recommend scribing to get clinical experience for premeds? Yes but with an asterisk. Albeit, in my personal experience all the medical providers I've worked with at the very least have treated me with respect, and most were nice overall (well, except for one PA - fuck you, John!) Being an outpatient scribe from what I was told is a little manageable, but expect to be at your hospital/clinic all day.Īnd since this is slave work, expect to have asshole doctors, PAs, or Nurse Practitioners who may treat you like crap. And if you're an ED scribe, expect you'll have to work overnights.

Doctors usually work 8-12 hour shifts, and you'll be staying until they're done to finalize your charts. And once the novelty fades, you become a monotonous keyboard warrior.Īnd if you think this job is a typical 8 hour job, you're dead wrong. Once you get the hang of things, the stress lowers, but stress will still be there because almost all hospitals with scribes are busy places (otherwise, they wouldn't request for scribes), so you'll always be on your feet moving around. Ramping up the first 2 months is already stressful because you're required to learn all these medical terminologies that you've never heard of and in a very short amount of time. It is a very stressful job for very little pay.

What are the downsides of being a scribe? It's pretty much slave work. In addition, you get to rack up numerous relevant clinical hours and a sweet letter of recommendation from a physician. It will not cement your decision to be a doctor, but it definitely gives you a very good peek. This is very important because you want to have an idea early on if being a physician is something you want to do as a career. What is awesome about being a scribe? You get to watch first hand how doctors work on patients and how they work alongside other doctors, nurses, and entire medical personnel. Keep in mind that my perspective is that of an Emergency Department (ED or ER) scribe in a busy major city, so this might slightly differ from those less busy neighborhoods.

I've been a scribe for 1.5 years now, so I feel I can speak very well on what a scribe entails. I scribe for one of those big companies - this simply means, we get paid the minimum wage that the city can offer. After being a scribe for 1.5 year now, I finally saw the wisdom in her decision. Boy, this could not be any more further from the truth. I was a fool for thinking that the scribe who trained me was giving up on opportunity because she left after 6 months of scribing.

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