The Potential Impact of Scribes on Medical School Applicants and Medical Students with the New Clinical Documentation Guidelines

Abstract

The presence of scribes in various specialties, including internal medicine, is being heralded as a way to decrease clinician documentation time and burnout. Many medical school applicants become scribes to understand life as a doctor and gain clinical experience. Scribing is already perceived by some as a new key to successfully gaining entrance to medical school. One season of our admissions data showed that scribes were more likely to be admitted (OR = 1.61). Scribes may also inadvertently make it harder for medical schools to secure clinical placements for medical students. While trained scribes are highly valued by providers struggling to deal with increasing documentation burdens, supervising or training scribes also requires time that cannot be devoted to teaching. Medical documentation duties could provide valuable learning experiences for medical students. The recent ruling allowing medical students to contribute directly to clinical documentation without requiring redocumentation by supervisors gives medical schools and clinician-educators an opportunity to consider the unintended consequences of the scribe movement for medical education. Educators should consider when and how students can maximize the educational benefits of participating in patient documentation despite the templated methods commonly used in electronic health record (EHR) systems.

Survey of Osteopathic Medical Students Regarding Physician Shadowing Experiences Before and During Medical School Training

“…For instance, medical school applicants often become scribes to learn about healthcare professions, gain clinical experience, and increase chances of matriculation at medical school. 10 Further study of all volunteer, paid, scribe, research and observational experiences would be of interest. Sixth, given the non-observational nature of many of the activities reported by students, further exploration of the extent to which they assisted in these procedures would be of interest.…”

Being a Medical Scribe: Good Preparation for Becoming a Doctor

“…Additionally, recent changes may soon allow medical student documentation to be utilized as physician notes. Medical students with scribe experience will be well prepared for such documentation since their paid employment as scribes was premised on the delivery of high-quality documentation [12]. Scribes may provide even further value to academic physicians by allowing them more time and greater focus to teach medical students and/or residents [13].…”

The role of undergraduate medical students training in respect for patient confidentiality

“…Students must access the CH to develop their abilities in CH use and maintenance and to understand the nuances of the EMR itself during a medical consultation [44]. Moreover, the handling of the CH is analogous to learning based on clinical cases, so that, in addition to promoting good professional conduct, it permits more active participation by the student in their training by directly applying theoretical knowledge to real cases [45][46][47]. This approach translates into the doctor's social duty (distributive justice) of caring for and obtaining maximum benefits (beneficence) for all the patients.…”