Alumna Interview: Abigail Hasson

In honor of National Nurses Week, we’re spotlighting Abby Hasson, a nurse whose healthcare journey started as a scribe and who now helps shape the care patients receive every day. 

Before stepping into healthcare, Abby was working as a barista. Healthcare wasn’t in her immediate experience, but it was something she had always been curious about. “As a kid, I was always watching the medical channel,” she said. “I liked learning about the things, but I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go with that.”

When her grandparents became sick during her teenage years, she got a closer look at what patient care really meant. “My granddad required a lot of care, so I was able to see through his appointments, the good and the bad. I wanted to be that person who works more closely with the patient throughout the whole process and is able to really impact their life and their family’s lives with education and treating them the way I would want my family to be treated.”

While in nursing school, Abby met her husband, then a scribe himself, who told her about ScribeAmerica, and it seemed like the right fit. “I didn’t necessarily want to be a tech,” she said. “I kind of wanted to stay a little bit hands off and just get my feet wet first.” Scribing gave her a front-row seat to real-time patient care, medical decision-making, and how nurses and physicians worked together. 

Throughout school, she stayed on at ScribeAmerica, rotating through different specialties and balancing her shifting schedule with work, something she said wouldn’t have been possible in many other jobs. “That was one of the stressors in nursing school,” she said. “It was nice to be able to move to a whole different site, and here’s the hours that work for you now.”

By rotating through different specialties, Abby was able to test out and determine what she liked the best. Originally drawn to pediatrics and starting in the pediatric emergency room, she quickly realized that wasn’t the place she wanted to be, but being in that environment let her observe providers and nurses more closely. “I knew I wanted to pursue nursing over more of a provider role,” she said. Seeing how nurses interacted with patients helped her understand the role she really wanted to fill one day. 

Abby still uses what she learned in those early days. Medical terminology, bedside manner, documentation skills, EHR familiarity, and more, but what made the biggest impact was how healthcare professionals handled tough situations. “Especially in emergency situations… they also became more human to me,” she said. “I could see they really were not chill on the inside. It was like okay, I’m human, I can still be human in the healthcare field, and it gives me the reassurance now that I’m doing the right thing.”

Looking back, she wouldn’t change her path, only her mindset. She admitted that when she started, she felt unsure. “I’d never been in an emergency room… I honestly didn’t know what I was going to walk into,” she said. “I am very anxious and self-critical… I think I could have given myself some grace.” The experience helped give her clarity. “Some things I really thought I wanted to do, and I went in and was like, no, maybe not for me.” Being a scribe let her explore without jumping in completely, and she encourages others, especially students, to consider it. “Even if you’re deciding, ‘Do I want to go into healthcare?’ you’re able to at least look at the process and see different roles.”

Today, Abby works in outpatient medicine, specifically multi-speciality ambulatory triage. She works as the gateway between the patient and the provider. “What I do on a daily basis, if there’s any urgent symptoms coming through, we would triage them and determine if they’re appropriate to come into the office or if they need to go to the ER, dealing with medication refills, and patient messages through the portal… It’s a lot of patient education, going over results, and disease management.” 

Her early exposure to EHR systems as a scribe gives her an edge now, and her coworkers often turn to her with questions. “They come to me and say, ‘Oh my gosh, you type so fast,’ and I’m like, that’s from being a scribe.” Working alongside providers who were willing to explain their thought processes while she was a scribe also improved her understanding of healthcare today. “I was able to get into their headspace of what they’re looking at clinically and how that correlates to different diagnoses… I feel like they kind of went above and beyond for me knowing that I was a student, and just kind of going out of their way to be somewhat of a teacher, which was nice.”

She’s also currently working toward her master’s in nursing education and is set to graduate next August. She wants to educate new nurses and help them feel supported from day one. “Just trying to make them feel accepted and comfortable to learn and meet them where they are,” she said. 

Abby’s healthcare journey is far from over, but her path is clear. She’s committed to guiding and educating the next generation of nurses and continuing to serve patients with compassion and clarity. 


We’re excited to see what’s next for Abby and proud to celebrate her story this Nurses Week.