It has been so long since I blogged, I realize I tend to blog when I want a little rant and I haven’t had any rant moments this summer.  But I have got a lot of emails about the ER Scribe job I currently have so I’ll answer all of those, but give a quick UBC update.  So I have pretty much finalized with myself, because I am such an indecisive person which is why I keep changing my mind about majors!  I just want something doable, yet something that interests me.  If you’ve read my blog for a while now, you know I was biology, then I transitioned into CMS and then I debated CMS and Integrated Sciences.  I really liked my transition between biology to CMS because of the flexibility.  Biology is a great program and suits some people, but it doesn’t suit me.  CMS and Integrated Sciences offers the flexibility I want, and is a smaller program which is always good.  So I pretty much decided this summer that Integrated Sciences was for me, and I started off wanting to Integrate Microbiology & Immunology and Physiology.  But it seemed too heavy for me, and didn’t really capture what I want to do in the future. 

I want to go to medical school,  and I’d also like to go to third-world countries at some point and do relief work and help with the health in different communities….all I know is at some point I want to go to probably Africa and help with the nutrition, vaccinations, and techniques to limit disease.  Based on all of this, I finally decided that an Integrated Sciences major tying Nutrional Sciences and Microbiology would be optimal for me.  I haven’t had my complete application approved yet, apparently its a long process…but a process I’m willing to deal with because I really want to do this major.  For the major you have to pretty much set up a plan, course by course, fitting in all of the Faculty of Science requirements as well as Integrated science requirements, and this part is what took me the longest.  Based on my plan it looks like I’ll be done at UBC December 2014 instead of June 2014, only because certain courses were only available first semester and I can’t do it second semester and be done June 2014.  It’s things like that, that made the planning such a hassle, I think if I’ll be stuck till December I might as well make it an honors degree and add a few credits I’ll have to talk to the advisor about that.  Anyways!  I will be posting my schedule for next year when I’ve finalized it, I should post it within a week.  It may change a little bit if the Insc people dont like some course selections but I’m pretty certain of what I’m taking.  Since MCAT studying didn’t go quite as I planned this summer (that story is for another day) I’m gonna get a little headstart with some courses, especially Phyl 301 which seems like a semi-nightmare. 

Now on to my job.  I started my position as an ER Medical Scribe this summer, and it’s been a really great experience.  I’ve seen so many different patients and cases from mild to quite serious.  I think the coolest thing I’ve seen so far is the doctor stick a tube into a patients chest to reinflate the lung (atleast thats what I think he was doing).  Nonetheless, very cool to see.  One thing I am certain of now is that I’m not grossed out by blood, weird bodily functions, pretty much anything cringe-worthy I’m not grossed out by.  I already kind of knew this, but now I’m certain.  Someone emailed me that my blog came up when they searched ER Scribe Vancouver, which is pretty cool, just goes to show how new this is in Canada.  Also impressed that they were looking it up, as I didn’t know about being an ER scribe until I saw the email from Pre Med Society.  I did a little FAQ below that covers most of the questions I’ve been getting.

FAQ
1.  How did you find out about the position?
Through pre-med society at UBC.  It’s quite funny to me how everyone and their moms wants to do med school at UBC yet such a small amount of people are part of pre med society.  Anyways, join! 

2.  Where can I get more information about the program?
Well I’m in the first ER scribe program in Canada, so I assume there isn’t much information out there.  Before I had my interview I looked up the job in the states, and it’s pretty much the same duties.  So google!  If better resources for information become available, I’ll definitely put it on here. 

3.  How are the hours?
Well all the scribes have a doctor they primarily work with and you show up when the doctor comes, so that could be a normal morning/day shift, or it could be an evening/night shift.  The night shifts take getting used to, but their actually my favorite because I’m naturally a night person. 

4.  Can I get into the program?
As far as I know there are more doctors wanting scribes, so there likely will be opportunities, look out for it, sorry I can’t give a more specific answer.

5.  What exactly do you do?
I follow my doctor with patient’s chart and write down the past medical history, subjective, and objective (physical exam), as well as a few miscallaneous tasks.

6.  How long is training?
I’m sure this differs, I think I was done training after 6-8 shifts with each shift being 8 hours, somewhere around there.

As for all the people who wanted me to email them with more details, I will be getting to that very soon.  Also, apparently blog squad is going to be featuring only first year bloggers, I’m not sure, but bookmark my blog should that happen   Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!