Scribe - Karina E.

*Disclaimer: The following jobs are NOT current job postings—they are merely examples of my paid patient care experience, the types of duties I performed, and how I obtained these jobs. Certification was not required for any of these jobs but all of the jobs did prefer candidates with 1) Prior paid work experience (even if not medical—example: I used my work experience as a teaching assistant and a restaurant hostess because it showed that I had experience in customer service),2) prior direct patient care experience (undergraduate can use volunteer experiences such as Pathmaker Internship, Flying Samaritans. Employers loved this!), and 3) a long term commitment (minimum 1-2 years). This advice can be used for obtaining a paid clinical job at most companies and clinics.

Emergency Room Medical Scribe at CEP America (Sites: Palomar Medical Center/Pomerado Hospital)

Time Period: November 2016-Present

Certification: None

Time Commitment: 2 year commitment. A minimum of 8 shifts per month (usually about two 8 hour shifts/week). Availability is flexible due to Emergency Department being open 24 hours. Must be available to work 1 overnight (Example: 9 pm-5 am, 10 pm- 6 am) and 1 early morning shift (Example: 6 am-2 pm) per month.

Qualifications Needed: Ability to type 70+ WPM, Completion of Medical Terminology course. Completion of Anatomy/Physiology highly preferred and recommended.

Special Training:

1) Must take a Scribe Competency Test at the time of onboarding. This test is chiefly comprised of medical terminology, medical acronyms, and basic anatomy/physiology. Scribe candidates are given approximately 1 month to study a manual and must memorize hundreds of medical terms/acronyms in preparation for the test. If scribe candidate fails the preliminary examination, they are unable to continue through the rest of training.

2) Scribe must attend 4 sessions of classroom training where they are taught how to properly and accurately document a clinical note. Once classroom training is complete, scribe must undergo 6 floor training shifts with a lead scribe prior to be cleared to work their first solo shift.

Job Duties:

• Accompany physicians and PA’s upon patient interview and examination

• Accurately document the physician dictated patient history, including history of present illness, review of systems, past medical/surgical/family/social history, medications & allergies, physical examination findings, and procedures as performed by the physician

• Track the progress of diagnostic studies

• Notify the healthcare professional responsible for a specific patient’s care when various studies have been completed

• Thoroughly review patient charts for proper and complete documentation

How I got the job:

I actually got the job while interning at the Emergency Department as a Pathmaker Intern. On one faithful volunteer shift, I met and networked with one of the lead scribes and was offered an interview. The rest was history. My advice for undergraduate students who are interested in becoming a scribe would be to:

1) Get an internal referral from a current scribe (apparently there is currently a long waitlist to become a scribe if applying through CEP America website with no reference. From my understanding, the leadership team are currently only hiring internal referrals, approximately 3 times per year)

2) Become a part of the Pathmaker Internship and network with the fellow scribes/providers while rotating through the Emergency Department. You never know who you might meet and what opportunities you may stumble upon!