For students
Sit where the scribe sits
A doctor sees a patient. Someone beside them writes down what happened, in the language medicine actually uses. That is the job you are about to learn.
Start here
Before anything is taught, the course asks you 24 questions you almost certainly cannot answer yet. That is deliberate. You answer them again at the end, and the gap between the two is the clearest evidence you will get that something changed.
Then you build up. Medical words come apart into pieces — cardi- is heart, -itis is inflammation, hepat- is liver. Once you can take them apart you can read words nobody taught you.
Terminology
The history
The note
Vital signs
Communication
Safety
EthicsWhat you will actually do
Decode a real chart
One patient, 2 visits. You read what the clinician wrote and work out what happened between them.
Take a dictation
5 notes, written by hand while someone speaks. This is the part that feels like the actual job, because it is.
Scribe an encounter
A simulated patient visit, documented start to finish. Yours to keep.
Learn what you are trusted with
4 rules and 8 situations where they get tested. Confidentiality is not a footnote in this job.
And then there are the games
15 games and drilling activities, plus 200 flashcards across 12 decks. They are optional, they do not run out, and they are where the vocabulary stops being something you read and starts being something you know.
What You Got Wrong
Builds itself out of your own mistakes. Every term you miss anywhere in the course goes into it, and it keeps serving them back until you stop missing them. Nobody else gets your version of it, because nobody else got the same things wrong.
Twin Trap
The pairs that look alike and mean different things — hyper and hypo, dysphagia and dysphasia. It drills drug names too: Ventolin and ProAir, Advil and Motrin, Synthroid and Levoxyl. These are where documentation errors actually come from.
Word Fall
Terms drop down the screen and you decode them before they land. It starts generous and speeds up the longer you survive, so the words you know cold buy you time on the ones you do not.
Typing Run
An ambulance run to the hospital, typed. 3 routes: Day is word parts, Night adds drug names, Trauma is everything. Type the twin of a drug on the road and you crash — the same rule as a chart, for the same reason.
Build It, and Name It
Assemble a word out of its prefix, root and suffix. Then the reverse: you are shown something and you give the term for it. Between them they turn the word parts from things you memorized into things you can use on words nobody taught you.
Hear it, Spell It
A word said out loud, typed against a clock. Closer to the real job than anything else on the list — a scribe hears the word before they ever see it written.
Crossword, Unscramble and Hidden Words
The same vocabulary, 3 other ways in. These do not list the words down the side the way a normal puzzle does. You get the definition, so you have to know that a runny nose is called rhinorrhea before you can go looking for it.
Where It Lives, and The 14 Systems
Put a symptom on a body, and then in a system. Tap a system to see everything that lives inside it. This is the part that makes the review of systems stop feeling like a list.
Take the Dictation
The Unit 10 cases, replayable as often as you want. Same audio, same clock, no limit on attempts.
The flashcards
12 decks with audio, so you hear every term as well as read it: First words, Word parts, Exam findings, The twins, Under pressure, Trauma call, On the med list, The alphabet, Who does what, Before they arrive, How long, how often, and Words you built — which fills up with the terms you assembled yourself.
They are built for spaced repetition: short sessions you come back to, rather than one long one the night before.
You earn XP for all of it, and the record page keeps the whole thing — units finished, decks mastered, time spent, what you got wrong and then got right.
Where it goes after this
Medical Explorer is the first tier. If you want to keep going, professional training continues at Scribe Academy and can be started from 16.
FoundationsYou are here
Primary careThe whole patient
Urgent careMove fast, see more
EmergencyEvery second counts
CIM AcademyWhere the paths meetExplore the medical route
Most people think there are 2 jobs in a hospital — doctor and nurse. There are 16 clinical roles and 24 specialties, and this course walks you through all of them. Deciding against medical school is not the same as deciding against medicine, and knowing that is probably the single most useful thing you will take out of this.
The map below has a route for each way in. They are not a ranking. They are different jobs with different training, different hours and different reasons to want them.
The volunteer route
The one you can actually start now. A hospital volunteer placement is open to a 15-year-old, and a volunteer who already knows what the people in the building do — and can follow what they are saying — is useful on day 1 instead of week 6. Medical terminology is the language of the building. This course teaches it.
The medical assistant route
Behind every provider. Rooming patients, vitals, injections, the running of a clinic. Certificate programs are short and the job exists everywhere, which makes it one of the fastest ways to find out whether you like being in the room.
The EMT route
On scene, on the move, first to care. Short training, immediate responsibility, and a completely different rhythm to a clinic — you go to the patient rather than waiting for them.
The nursing route
The largest profession in healthcare and the one with the most branches inside it. Compassion, critical thinking, advocacy — and it goes as far as you want to take it, from an associate degree through to a nurse practitioner running their own panel.
The research route
If the part that interests you is why rather than who. Clinical research coordinators, lab work, trials. Documentation discipline matters here as much as it does at a bedside, which is why the skills in this course carry over.
The core clinical route
Medical school, residency, and a specialty at the end of it. It is the longest and the most expensive, and Units 13 and 14 tell you exactly what it costs before you commit to it. This course does not talk you out of it — it makes sure you are choosing it on evidence.
And the skills transfer further than medicine. Law, journalism, insurance, social work, veterinary medicine — anywhere somebody has to take an account, structure it, and separate what was reported from what was found.
Questions you might have
What do I need to do this?
A computer with a keyboard, and headphones. That is the whole list. A laptop, a desktop or a Chromebook all work, and an iPad with a keyboard attached works too.
The keyboard matters. Several units ask you to type a clinical note against a clock, and 2 of the games are typing games — on a touchscreen those go from difficult to annoying. Headphones because every term can be tapped to hear it said aloud, and Unit 10 is audio.
Is there an app?
No. It runs in a browser. Nothing to install, no account to make, no password to forget. You open a link and start.
Can I do it on my phone?
Partly. The flashcards and most of the reading work fine on a phone, and that is a good way to use the 10 minutes before class. The typing units and the capstone want a real keyboard.
Do I have to do it all at once?
No, and you should not. It is built for an hour at a time. The course remembers where you stopped, so putting it down for a week costs you nothing.
Is any of this graded?
No exam, no grade, nothing to pass. There are 24 questions before you start and the same 24 at the end, and the only thing that matters is the difference between them — which is yours to look at, not a score anybody marks you on.
What happens when I get something wrong?
You are told why, and told the thing that separates the 2 answers. Then the term goes into What You Got Wrong, which is built entirely out of your own misses. Nobody else gets your version of it.
Do I need to know science already?
No. Nothing here assumes biology or chemistry. Unit 4 hands you 41 word parts and after that a word you have never seen becomes one you can take apart — which is a different thing from memorizing a list.
Does my teacher or parent see what I do?
They see a summary — units finished and how long it took — and your final self-assessment if you choose to share it. We never ask you for your name or any personal detail, and your record page belongs to you.
What if I decide this isn't for me?
That is a real answer and the course says so. Finding out at 16 that you do not want this costs you 8 to 10 hours. Finding out halfway through a degree you are paying for costs considerably more. Either answer counts as finishing.
Do I get anything at the end?
A certificate, and a record of what you did — units finished, decks mastered, time spent, what you got wrong and then got right. It is coursework, not a license or a qualification, but it is real evidence you can point at for a volunteer placement or an application.
Ask a parent, guardian or teacher to sign you up
The course is free during the pilot. Applications are filled in by an adult — a parent, guardian, co-op leader or teacher — because most of the people taking this are under 18. If you are 18 or over you can apply for yourself.
Go to the application Send this to a parentProfessional training continues at Scribe Academy, and can be started from 16.
Issued by the Institute for Clinical Documentation Excellence.
All patients, encounters and records in this course are fictional.
Completion is not a professional credential, a license, or a qualification to practice.
Academic credit is awarded by the issuing school or parent, not by this course.
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