What Is Medical Scribing & Is It Right FOr You?
Updated November 30, 2020
What Is A Medical Scribe?
To really understand the role of a medical scribe, we first need to understand how this role originated and why scribes exist today. Scribing is a relatively new profession that can be traced back to the expansion of the “Electronic Medical Record” system, which is a fancy way of describing all of the computerized documentation that goes on behind the scenes for each and every patient encounter.
Simply put, each time you go to the doctor, someone needs to type up a note summarizing what symptoms you reported, what labs, imaging and other data the doctor used to evaluate those symptoms, and the doctor’s plan moving forward.
If this sounds like a lot of extra work for doctors, you’re absolutely correct! The expansion of Electronic Medical Record systems was a well-intentioned push by the US government through several pieces of legislature including the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), and the Obama Administration’s Affordable Care Act to improve quality of care and reduce healthcare costs. One of the consequences of this legislation is that doctors have to spend a little more time each day documenting information into a computer. That’s where medical scribes come in!
The job of a medical scribe is to document what happens during a patient visit so that the doctor can spend a little more time focusing on the patient and a little less time staring at a computer screen. Medical scribes help ease a doctor’s workload and facilitate a more personal patient-doctor interaction while also gaining clinical experience and learning a great deal about medical decision making.
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Is Medical Scribing Right For You?
Medical scribing is a great option for people who want to gain clinical experience, meaning that you work directly with patients in a hospital, emergency room or clinic setting, as opposed to conducting research in a lab or office. Compared to some other clinical professions such as working as an EMT or MA, scribing tends to require less training.
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Scribing is also a good option if you’re looking to save money for medical school in general and/or to finance your application process! Scribing is a paid job, whereas most post-bacc or masters degree programs require you to spend money, unless you happen to receive a scholarship or stipend. The caveat is that scribes are typically paid close to minimum wage, so if you’re looking to really save money you may want to consider a more competitive but higher-paying job in healthcare consulting or certain research positions! It’s also worth noting that, in general, taking a gap year might allow you to save money short-term, but you’re also postponing the more significant money-making portion of your life which will happen after you obtain your MD, DO, PA, etc.
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Scribing is also a great way to build close relationships with doctors, because you will quite literally spend all day, every day with the doctors you work with. Building close relationships with doctors is important for so many different reasons! You may be able to ask the doctors you work with for a medical school letter of recommendation, and since they know you so well they’ll likely be able to write a very personal and compelling letter. On top of this, if you don’t come from a family of medical professionals, or even if you do, it can be really great to have someone you’ve built a close relationship with show you the ropes and explain all the nitty-gritty ins and outs of medicine!
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Lastly, scribing is still a relatively new profession, which means that there’s a lot of room for upward mobility. Even within a few months you may be able to take on leadership positions such as training other scribes or helping your site manager conduct performance reviews. In some cases, you may even have the opportunity to become a site manager after as little as a year!
Alternatives To Scribing
If you’ve made it to the end of this article, and you’re still not sure if medical scribing is right for you, there are lots of other ways to gain clinical experience! You could spend time working as an EMT (emergency medical technician), MA (medical assistant), or conducting clinical research.
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If you’re not necessarily looking to gain clinical experience but still looking for gap year ideas, there’s a plethora of other options to choose from! To name just a few, you could spend time doing basic science, translational, or public health research, you could work in healthcare consulting, you could pursue any number of post-bacc or masters degree programs, or you could even work in a non-medical field! You can check out a more detailed article on how to choose a gap year plan here. In addition, you can learn more about how to apply to become a medical scribe here.
Rayne peerenboom
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Medical School: The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Year: M1