How do you get observational experience?

[kristam92]

I know that physician shadowing is very important for a pre-med student, but how do you manage to rack up a bunch of hours? I see many people on here with a couple hundred hours of experience and I had to practically beg for my local hospital to let me sit in for two days. The hospitals/clinics here (there's three) limit each student to one 8 hour observation due to the high volume of students and low volume of MDs/DOs.

I'm wondering if this is an issue for everyone or just students in small towns like me.

Is anyone else in this same situation? If so, what should I do to compensate for this?

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[mrh125]

try outside of your town, just talking to doctors, use your university's job opportunities, try scribes of america. it's very difficult and medical schools arent very understanding about this so keep trying. You'll eventually get what you want.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Try getting in contact with local clinics/practices and asking the physicians there if you can shadow them.