6 Reasons To Become A Medical Scribe If You’re Serious About Medical School

The journey to becoming a doctor is a long and arduous one. High GPA and MCAT requirements are hard enough to achieve by themselves. On top of your scores, you also need great letters of recommendation, physician shadowing experience, clinical hours, as well as volunteer and research work. Trying to tackle each of these tasks independently can become overwhelming for a college student. Where do you find the time? Medical Schools want you to stay with these tasks for extended periods and really accrue experience. This shows them that you understand what you are getting into and you’re still committed to doing what it takes. The problem is doing all of these while going to school full-time and maintaining a competitive GPA can become a circus act in juggling. Just completing your degree can easily feel like a full-time job. However, here at Medoptim we believe we have a solution to simplify the process for you. Become a medical scribe.

Practical Medical Experience

Working as a lab technician, researcher, or EMT are all great experiences but they don’t provide you with a true picture of what being a physician entails. The medical admissions board at your selected schools understands this. This gap is one of the major reasons they still insist on seeing direct clinical experience and shadowing experience. Since this is the case you often will find yourself working multiple jobs as a researcher, CNA/PCT, or EMT while also volunteering at a clinic and trying to shadow. Again, your time is limited so most pre-medical students end up trying to get a few months in with each job. Flash forward to interview day and Admissions committees will often ask why you didn’t stay at these places very long. At Medoptim we have had previous graduates state when they were denied admissions to Medical School it was often suggested that they work longer as a “fill in whatever job, CNA, EMT and etc” to be more competitive next cycle. So, this becomes a catch 22 for Pre-med students. Either work a lot of hours at the various EC requirements and risk their grades or work on their grades and have less than stellar EC’s. Sometimes it feels like Pre-meds just can’t win.

At Medoptim we want to change this, and we believe we have the solution.

Become a medical scribe. By becoming a medical scribe you get treatment experience, while you are shadowing, in a clinical environment. It truly is “3 birds with one stone”. How does this work? When you are a medical scribe you basically follow your physician around and document the entire doctor/patient interaction. Simply enough, but powerful for pre-meds. Since you are following a physician around you are shadowing. This is all happening in a clinic or ER so that’s a clinical experience. All of this while you are shoulder to shoulder with a physician all day seeing the ends and outs of their work. This means you are very aware of what being a physician is like and its demands. All of this adds up to very real, practical, medical experience. Since you hit so many EC’s with one job you can afford to do it long-term and this shows the admission committees that you have stick ability and likely learned something in the process. Let’s dig a bit deeper.

Clinical Hours

As we’ve discussed, being a scribe gives you constant exposure to the clinical or ER setting. Whether you are rounding or working in a clinical environment you get a strong grasp on what physicians’ days/nights are like. This not only meets, the mostly unspoken, expectations of medical admissions committees. It also gives you great stories and relatable experiences for you to share in your Personal statements and during medical school interviews. The power of quality experiences in the admissions process can’t be weighted enough and can often be the difference between admissions acceptance and rejection. Clinical experience is one of the most suggested things to people who have been rejected by medical school admissions boards. 

Using EHR’s And Taking Clinical Notes

Creating proper HPI’s, SOAP notes, and etc is an art form. Using EHR/EMR’s are one of the things physicians hate the most. However, it’s also critical for proper billing and legal protection. So, this is an area of mastery that will really make you stand out. Scribes can take a large volume of information and synthesize it down to what’s relevant while omitting what’s not. This is exactly what’s expected of physicians on a day to day basis. This is also one of the pillars of the MCAT’s format. As a former medical scribe, you will have an advantage over medical students who didn’t have the same experiences. This can last all the way into residency. We’ve had former scribes tell us that they were asked about scribing in their residency interviews. This experience is that valuable.

Recommendation Letters from Physicians

Working closely, day in and out, with physicians is what being a scribe is all about. Due to the nature of the work you are bound to make connections that will gladly help you with your admissions process. One of the ways we see this at Medoptim is through doctors’ letters of recommendation (LOR). Several of our scribes have received high caliber letters of recommendations from their various physician teams. This can be invaluable and has been the deciding factor for scribes being accepted on their first and second admissions attempts. However, it’s important to know that simply becoming a scribe won’t get you a glowing LOR from a physician. You must take the opportunity to show your team that you are a hard worker that will excel as a physician. When you do this most physicians are more than happy to attach their name to your medical school application.

Exposure to Different Specialties

Being a Medical scribe at a reputable scribe company will often give you several opportunities to gain exposure across different specialties. This looks very good on your admissions application as it shows you are truly informed about what becoming a physician means. Also having these various experiences improves your ability to be interesting in admissions interviews. Lastly, having this exposure will greatly aid you in determining what type of specialty you would like to work with. Working with a physician or in a specialty long-term is very different from shadowing. Long-term opportunities really give you a chance to determine if a certain specialty would be a good fit for your life plans and healthcare goals.

Money

Getting these experiences can be invaluable and most of them you would likely do on a volunteer basis anyways. However, as a medical scribe, you are getting paid to be a part of these experiences. Most college students could use a little more money. Applying to medical school can be a very expensive process. Having to pay for study materials, classes, application fees, and the cost to attend interviews can all add up fast. So being able to consolidate several of those requirements into a single, paid, experience can really help alleviate some of the stress.

Standout By Becoming A Medical Scribe

When applying to medical school the most important thing you want to do is try and stand out in a positive way. Being a medical scribe can help you do that. It shows the admissions committee’s that you have a strong understanding of what your career would look like as a physician. It shows you understand the day to day sacrifices being a physician will entail. When you have a good MCAT score and strong GPA the admissions committees will take a deeper look at your profile. When they do this if there is nothing more substantial than your good grades it can hurt your application. However, when you can show the admission committees that you really know what you are doing and what being a physician means you become a very competitive applicant. Throw in the ability to tell interesting medical stories, display a working knowledge of medical diagnostics, terminology, and a physician letter raving about you as a medical scribe and your application can quickly soar to the top of admission’s piles.

Any medical experience is good and will improve the quality of your application. However, few experiences meet so many of the medical admissions expectations. Plus, you are getting paid to have these experiences. When you look at it all, medical scribing is pound for pound one of the best things you can do to get into medical school.

If you find yourself wanting to learn more about becoming a scribe, or if you are looking for a paid clinical experience, reach out to Medoptim today (click here). We’re excited to get you started on the path to becoming a medical scribe and a better medical school applicant.