How to get shadowing: A tutorial

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sliceofbread136

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Some people (like me) cannot find shadowing for the life of them. Their parents have no friends, and cold calling doctors is just getting no results. I figured I'd make a thread where everyone could post how they got shadowing, and it might give others ideas on where to start.

I'll give my successful method first: I recently started volunteering in the ER, and I brought my resume to one of my shifts. I went to the little "doctor area", put on my big boy pants, and said to the nicest looking doctor I could find "hi, sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if there was anyway I could find a doctor here who would let me shadow them." To my surprise this actually worked. Everyone has to do shadowing anyway, so I think this is a very effective method.
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Mine: "Hey dad, can I shadow you?" then in the doctors' lounge: "Hi Dr. X, do you mind if I go on rounds with you some time? What's your number?" ...wash, repeat

Some others I have seen work: volunteer at a free clinic, ask to shadow after showing commitment; ask a friend with connections to hook you up; scribe in the ED and when a patient goes into surgery near the end of your shift, ask your doc to ask the surgeon if you can scrub in for the surgery...

The key here in all 3 cases is connections! You may have them naturally (like I did) or have to build them (like others did -- and I did this too because, frankly, I didn't want to just shadow my dad's friends and colleagues nor be the pre-med that relied upon family connections to be successful)
 
One of the physicians that I shadowed was my own pediatrician...haha...

In fact, I went to my pediatrician up until their age cut-off (21). She was just that awesome.

Oh I still remember the hilarious conversations with the front desk personnel of how I often was the biggest kid there.
 
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I found my shadowing through the research jobs I had after college. There were physicians working in the lab who had clinics at the hospital, and I approached them very nicely. The physicians at most teaching hospitals are very used to having patients follow them and tend to be pretty open to it.
 
I had more success with the smaller clinics. Once you get someone to agree to one shadowing appointment, a positive and helpful attitude will get you more.
 
I volunteered in the emergency department. After being there long enough, the staff will eventually remember your face (and hopefully your name). Then just ask one of the ED physicians if you can shadow them and you can go from there.

Also some SURF programs at medical schools include some formal shadowing as part of the program.

EDIT: Also volunteered at a free clinic, which gave us an opportunity to shadow some of the physicians there as well.
 
Hotshy said:
I volunteered in the emergency department. After being there long enough, the staff will eventually remember your face (and hopefully your name). Then just ask one of the ED physicians if you can shadow them and you can go from there.

Also some SURF programs at medical schools include some formal shadowing as part of the program.

EDIT: Also volunteered at a free clinic, which gave us an opportunity to shadow some of the physicians there as well.
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I asked before they remembered my name/face. It takes courage to that though haha.
 
My undergrad has a list of alums that became doctors and were willing to be shadowed by current students. I would guess that a lot of schools (especially small ones) probably have similar leads in their Career Advising or Health Professions office.
 
Mazdave said:
My undergrad has a list of alums that became doctors and were willing to be shadowed by current students. I would guess that a lot of schools (especially small ones) probably have similar leads in their Career Advising or Health Professions office.
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Similar situation here. My undergrad's premed office had a long list of physicians who were open to being shadowed. Really awesome.
 
Slowpoke said:
One of the physicians that I shadowed was my own pediatrician...haha...

In fact, I went to my pediatrician up until their age cut-off (21). She was just that awesome.

Oh I still remember the hilarious conversations with the front desk personnel of how I often was the biggest kid there.
Click to expand...

lol. This reminds me of the scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall where Peter tells the doctor that he thinks he may have VD, and the doctor says Peter, I'm your pediatrician. Do you realize you're sitting on a fire engine?

To stay on topic, I got all of my shadowing through doctors that members of my family have gone to. When they found out that I wanted to apply to medical school, they offered to let me shadow them. This probably won't work all of the time, but if you cast a wide enough net, chances are someone will agree. Also, I few docs at the hospital I volunteer at have offered, but I haven't taken them up on it yet.
 
I don't personally know any physicians...which is perhaps why I don't have any "formal" shadowing on my application. That said, I was able to "shadow" during downtime in a clinical volunteering position, and in a clinical research position. If you are volunteering in any clinical setting, perhaps you can see about forming a relationship with the physicians there.
 
In addition to all of this, above all, be persistent until someone lets you.:D
 
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