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r/premed•
LacRepressor

Medical Assisting or Scribing for experience?

☑️ Extracurriculars

I have the opportunity to work at a doctor's office. Which would be better for experience to put on an application?

Scribing - get to be there while doctor treats the patient. no direct patient interaction on my part, just sit there in the corner on a laptop. Essentially shadowing.

Medical Assisting - get to directly interact with the patient, take vitals, and question patient directly to get medical history. leave the room once doctor gets in so don't really get to see doctor-patient interaction

Or... both? Might be able to work something out where I scribe some days and MA others.

Posted Feb 2, 2022, 2:40 AM UTC

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AorticAnnulusADMITTED-MD•

Having done both, I liked scribing more. Seeing the doctor-patient relationship close up and having the potential for downtime between patients to get to know the docs (and vice versa) are the two main things I preferred about scribing. Maybe it’s just the personalities of the physicians and the different practice settings I’ve worked with in both positions, but as an MA the doc treated me more as an employee while as a scribe they treated me more like a colleague.

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ada98123•

Absolutely MA. I really think there's nothing better than being an MA when it comes to clinical experience.

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adrii0907ADMITTED-MD•

I agree with this! You get to have so much direct patient interaction. If you tell the doc you're premed they'll most likely be eager to let you shadow them too at least when it's not so busy. I never scribed but I got all my clinical experiences as an MA. In my experience med schools have loved this and definitely asked about my specific patient interactions that stuck with me.

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Excellent_Bar_8275•

Hands down MA! It’s more hands on and I feel like as a scribe all I did was type all day so it’s passive learning. MA is fun! You get to put your hands on things. Activates all your doctor senses ✨

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