I chose to apply to become a medical scribe because my current job was frustrating in a lot of ways, and it wasn't medical related. I wanted something I could build my previous medical skills on, learn new things, and be of some help to people. So I got a call back and scheduled an interview.
Interview was scheduled for a Tuesday. Killed the interview. Interviewer was impressed. He asked me when I could start training and I foolishly said, "Thursday"...
Okay...I will say this. Now that I'm through with what I went through for training, I can see I'll enjoy my job. But for any of you wanting to become a medical scribe...beware of WHEN you choose to apply and start training. There is so much required of you and if you're taking heavy courses you will hurt yourself in the long run. Who knows...some of you may be able to handle the pressure. But I couldn't for the most part. I forfeited an enjoyable spring break to make sure I didn't fail my daily quizzes (I failed one miserably...like I got a 9/30) and ultimately the final exam that I had to get 80% on or else I'd be terminated.
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| Folding my paper in half helped memorize a lot of the terms I needed to know. |
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| Some of the pathophysiology info I had to learn |
I was basically cramming medical terminology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology in seven days. Then, if and only if we passed the final exam, we had what they call "T-sheet training where you learn how to document patient encounters on paper.
Add that to Organic Chem. II, Physics I, and an actual Medical Terminology course online for school. To be honest, I couldn't prioritize anything. Everything was important. I missed my first three assignments for medical terminology and its by God's grace that my professor didn't drop me for not "showing up". I became so scatter brained that even though I was writing things in my planner...I eventually stopped because I was overwhelmed (which was a bad thing to do), which in turn made me more overwhelmed because I forgot things I needed to do and wouldn't remember until the day before it was due...
So I've had a rough three weeks or so at the very least. Being a scribe gives you all kinds of exposure in the medical field that you can't get anywhere else, but it comes at a cost. You have to work for it. I actually can only speak for my company, which I'll keep nameless for now...forever really. Some people in my training class didn't pass the exam and they had more days than I did to train. My manager called me personally to congratulate me for overcoming that and I still haven't taken that to heart because, to me, I'm not fully cleared at the moment. I still need to do well for floor training starting tomorrow night (right before a physics exam btw...but no pressure, right?).
But thank God for bringing me through so far. Thank God for friends and family who let me gripe about things. The whole struggle was doable because I have people who let me know that I was not alone, even though I felt that way very often. I felt that people really don't understand what I go through and think I'm being momentarily weak, but I'm not. Part of it is due to not taking care of myself properly. If I told you how I've been feeling lately you'd be quite concerned. I say this all the time, I only want you to understand how I feel, not tell me how to fix it or fix it for me. Not everyone understands that, but those that do are the ones you hold on to. "Let me know what I can do to help you" is a very well appreciated thing to say to someone who's dealing with a lot. Just listening is appreciated too!
So that's all I've got for you. That's why I haven't blogged in so long, and resorted to writing little things on my IG captions! Once everything slows down I can hopefully do more with this thing. I don't want to give it up!
