Hi guys, I was wondering what your experiences have been shadowing a doctor in a hospital vs. shadowing a doctor in a private practice? Which would you say is better, pro's and con's of each, and what year did you begin shadowing. Additionally, which setting would a Gastroenterologist most likely be practicing? Thank you!
A few points of clarification. The question of "hospital vs. private practice" is a little like asking red paint for the bedroom or steak for dinner? You can be in private practice and work in a hospital. For simplicity sake:
#1 Inpatient (colloquial, "hospital") vs. Outpatient (colloquial, "clinic" or "office")
The vast majority of physicians practice some sort of outpatient medicine. Some are exclusively outpatient, for example a family medicine physician with a stand alone clinic. Some are exclusively inpatient, a couple of examples would be emergency and critical care physicians. Many however do both. Some surgical specialties do most or all of their procedures in the outpatient setting, but most operate in an inpatient setting and see patients in their outpatient clinic. Many internal medicine physicians will see patients in the hospital, but have their clinic as well.
#2 Academic vs. Private Practice
This could be an essay by itself, but in brief... Teaching facility vs. privately owned/operated business. There are tremendous blurring of the lines, but in the extremes, a physician at a teaching hospital that works with students and residents is in academics. A physician that works either for a private hospital or are part of a physician group is in private practice.
It is important to shadow a variety of physicians. You should know the basics of what each of those terms mean and an idea of what physicians go through in each of those settings. I think that it would be errant to not spend at least some time with a primary care physician (IM, FM, OB/Gyn, Peds). Everything else is gravy.
Gastroenterologists practice both inpatient and outpatient medicine. They practice both in academic and private practice settings. If I had to guess, not being in the field, the splits would be 20%/80% and 10%/90% respectively.