How many job shadowing hours?

[aweimer]

Fellow pre-optometrists,

I was wondering how many job shadowing hours you all had / if there is a general rule of thumb for how many hours you should have to be competitive? I am looking for a numerical response, something to assuage my anxiety over acceptance a bit...

On another note, if you have a heart-warming, funny, or uncomfortable job shadowing story I would love to hear it.

Best of luck during your application process, friends.

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[Nrp103]

In all honesty, I probably shadowed about 2-3 optometrists. They let me shadow about 1-2 weeks max. If I were you , try looking into being an optician or getting an internship at an optometry office. For me, shadowing didn't really help me that much. My optometrists were just telling me the pro and cons about the field. However, when I worked at different optometry offices and interacted with the associates/ patients/ doctors.. it definitely gives you a broader scope about the field!

Good luck

 

[aweimer]

Thank you for the pro-tip! I would love to have worked in an office, but I am unfortunately already applying and haven't had that experience. I plan on trying to get a job in an office when I graduate (in December), but my class schedule makes that challenging

I do have 22 hours shadowing in a retail setting, 20 hours at a low vision clinic, 10 at a surgery center/optical, 13 at a multi-doc practice, 10 at various single doc practices, and 3 at a vision therapy office. Adds up to ~90...

 

[moes27]

Ive been an optician for 3 years and have about 400 shadowing hours but what i think what i got out of it the most was networking with other doctors that were friends with the doctor i worked with/shadowed and in return being able to shadow them.

 

[Groucho Marx]

I hardly shadowed at all. It was probably like a total of five days; I really don't think that schools weigh this stuff as heavily as one might think--maybe SUNY and Berkeley would care more. GPA and OAT matter the most, and for some old and new schools, they don't even seem to matter a ton.

 

[KHE]

I did very few shadowing hours though that was 20 years ago.

The whole point of shadowing isn't to try to rack up the highest number of hours, it's to make sure that

a) you understand what the profession of optometry is
b) you really think that's the best career for you

If you get to that point after 4 hours of shadowing then I'd say you've done enough shadowing.

 

[Snakedoctor1]

The only school I am aware of that even assigns a number is Pacific, and they only require 30 hours.

 

[Robin des Bois]

Too bad you can't shadow an OD in Canada.

 

[caitlinfollansbee]

I'm about a year out from applying, but by that time will have over 5000 hours of working in a private practice with two doctors who are business partners, but who each practice entirely differently. I'll also have about 50 hours shadowing at 3-4 other locations by the time apply.

Now, from my experience of working bs shadowing, I would absolutely recommend working at an office over shadowing if you have the opportunity. I learn more from the day-to-day stuff than I have when I've shadowed for a few days. Both of the Drs I work for are very adamant about pulling me into the exam lanes when something fairly unusual/interesting comes in-- failed corneal transplant, iris strand, asteroid hyalosis, many patients with keratoconus, patients who've had cataract and retinal surgeries, etc. Not only have I been able to see it in person and see it through the slit lamp, but I'm able to ask questions the moment it's in front of me.

Another one of the biggest take-always I've gotten from working hands-on in an office is just realizing what kinds of questions patients ask, what their concerns are, what they could care less about, etc. Those are important things you'll only learn by experiencing them. Shadowing is great for specializations like retinal specialists, peds, and shadowing surgeries with ophthalmologists.

Just my two cents--I've talked to others interested in optometry at my university and they don't have near the experience I have and don't think that's shadowing/working/experience is very important. I completely disagree. Shadowing 50 hours at three different locations really doesn't give you an idea of what the career is like. 5 days in an office isn't enough time to really understand what's going on, either.

Experience is important, whatever type it is. I've been told by schools and by doctors that you should get as much exposure as possible. I have a friend who has about 40 hours total and she thinks she done. Don't make that mistake! You can never learn enough. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I learn something new every day at my office. Even simple things like dealing with incorrectly ordered CL's, teaching insertion and removal of CL's, adjusting frames, helping patients understand how progressives work, explaining what you're doing while you're pre-testing them, trying to troubleshoot when they can't adjust to a glasses/CL Rx, dealing with insurance companies, learning how to handle patients who are uncooperative, etc etc... The list goes on.

I'm just saying that the opportunity to work in an office is invaluable. Do whatever you can to get your foot in the door with one! This was not by any means my way of bragging or saying I know what's best, but I have greatly appreciated many peoples' posts on this forum and I wanted to help if I could. I hope this does help!

Good luck!

 

[caitlinfollansbee]

Also, I feel like most people applying for school are going to have good grades/OAT scores, or they wouldn't be trying to get into optometry school. Being able to get experience and share with the schools what you've learned and how it helped you decide to become an optometrist seems to be a better way to set yourself apart. The director of admissions at SCO said at the tour I went to that they have turned down people with perfect scores because they didn't communicate well in the interview, and chose people who didn't have perfect scores but had great personalities and experience that set them apart. It's more about your story and what you can bring to the program. Everyone's going to have good scores, sell yourself to them by giving them something they don't already have.