A Medical Scribe acts as support for the doctor, a kind of a personal assistant, filling out paperwork, taking notes during patient interviews, monitoring some test results, and generally getting the non-clinical tasks and paperwork out of the way of the physician they work with. The role of such a Scribe is important because it allows the doctor to focus on treating and working with patients.
An ideal candidate for this position should have prior experience and knowledge of medical paperwork and a passion for medicine. A Scribe need not have any sort of college degree or be attending a university of any sorts to begin their career, but many employers prefer hiring people who do so.
A Scribe generally works twice a week, alongside their doctor, who works either eight, ten or 12-hour shifts.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a medical scribe. For example, did you know that they make an average of $14.87 an hour? That's $30,931 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 23% and produce 154,900 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many medical scribes have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, detail oriented and interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a medical scribe, we found that a lot of resumes listed 37.0% of medical scribes included medical records, while 15.4% of resumes included patient care, and 8.4% of resumes included emergency. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the medical scribe job title. But what industry to start with? Most medical scribes actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
If you're interested in becoming a medical scribe, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 71.3% of medical scribes have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.8% of medical scribes have master's degrees. Even though most medical scribes have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a medical scribe. When we researched the most common majors for a medical scribe, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on medical scribe resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a medical scribe. In fact, many medical scribe jobs require experience in a role such as volunteer. Meanwhile, many medical scribes also have previous career experience in roles such as research assistant or internship.
