Classifying Shadowing Experience?

[derrick rose]

Firstly, I worked a PAYED position in an opthalmology clinic, which included many hours of scribing for the eye specialist. Would these hours be considered shadowing?

Secondly, I went on a volunteer mission in a 3rd world country in Africa this last summer involving opthalmologists. I had many roles, including scribing/assisting the physicians, performing duties of an opthalmic technician, as well as "scrubbing up" and watching numerous eye surgeries. Overall, I would consider this a volunteering experience, obviously. But could it also have some shadowing hours overlapped in there? If so, which volunteer roles would suffice as a shadowing experience?

Thanks for your input everyone!

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[Catalystik]

Firstly, I worked a PAYED position in an opthalmology clinic, which included many hours of scribing for the eye specialist. Would these hours be considered shadowing?

Secondly, I went on a volunteer mission in a 3rd world country in Africa this last summer involving opthalmologists. I had many roles, including scribing/assisting the physicians, performing duties of an opthalmic technician, as well as "scrubbing up" and watching numerous eye surgeries. Overall, I would consider this a volunteering experience, obviously. But could it also have some shadowing hours overlapped in there? If so, which volunteer roles would suffice as a shadowing experience?

Thanks for your input everyone!

Many adcomms will consider a paid scribe position to include shadowing, but some won't. Having some dedicated formal physician observation time where you solely concentrate on physician-(awake) patient interaction and not on your recording duties is a good idea. Ideally, you'd include an office-based doc providing longitudinal care as the most beneficial to you (like a primary care physician).

Observing surgeries falls better under shadowing, rather than volunteering, as your presence did not benefit the patient, so you might subtract those hours and list them under the Shadowing designation, instead of Volunteer. Otherwise, shadowing internationally doesn't add much value to your application, as this experience is hardly representative of the practice of US medicine with US patients.