VWB Blog Are you interested in a career in healthcare? Have you considered becoming a medical scribe?
So what’s a medical scribe anyway, and what are some common medical scribe duties?
Medical scribes assist physicians so they’re able to attend to patients without having to stop and take notes. The medical scribe will gather patient information for the doctor and document any necessary details during appointments.
Do you have the right medical scribe skills for the job? Let’s talk about it. Keep reading to learn all about a few top skills that you’ll need to become the best medical scribe.
1. Speed Typing
Speed typing is crucial for all medical scribes. Whether they’re an in-person medical scribe or a virtual medical scribe, it’s important that they can jot down all of the important information before it’s too late.
Medical scribes pay attention to appointments and patient encounters as they’re happening. There’s no time to ask doctors to repeat themselves and it’s important that the scribe is able to type quick and accurate information for records.
In other words, if you type too slow and burden the doctor with questions, you’re not going to be an effective scribe.
The average typing speed is 40 words per minute (wpm). You need to be far faster than this if you want to be a good medical scribe.
2. Verbal and Digital Communication
It should be obvious that communication skills are crucial for a medical scribe.
As a scribe, you’re assisting the doctor (even if it’s in a non-medical capacity). You need to be able to respond quickly and ask questions in an efficient manner. Verbal communication is important during appointments and digital communication is important for any potential follow-up.
You’ll have to communicate with office staff and medical professionals alike. You’ll be sharing sensitive information. Make sure that your skills are up to par.
3. Professionalism and Organization
You need to stay organized when you’re a medical scribe. You don’t have room to make errors or lose track of where you are. Remember, this is a professional writing job and you’ll be handing information that you can’t lose track of (or else you’ll risk HIPAA non-compliance for your workplace).
Other desk work, writing jobs, and secretarial work is going to be helpful when it comes to medical scribe hiring. Make sure to give examples of how you’ve utilized your strong organizational skills in the past.
4. Administrative or Technical Writing Skills
This is, first and foremost, a writing job. This means that you need to have sufficient administrative and technical writing skills if you want to succeed.
While there’s room for people who specialized in academic or creative writing in the past, you need to turn your efforts toward professional writing if you want to be a good scribe.
Do You Have These Medical Scribe Skills?
If you want to get a job as a medical scribe, you need to have these medical scribe skills. Whether you’re going to college specifically for a medical scribe position or you’re taking a medical scribe program, make sure that you focus on some of these skills to make yourself a more desirable employee.
Good luck with your new career as a medical scribe!
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