Shadowing Concerns/Questions

[icedearth33]

Gonna try to be quick and to the point.

1. I work at a hospital laboratory and for personal reasons I would eventually like to shadow a few different co-workers there including a member from the array of departments within the laboratory. Not all of them will have an MD or PhD degree, however, but it doesn't matter to me because I have the time to do it, and well.. I just want to. With that said - Would this type of shadowing be relevant when it came to medical school applications? Or is this something that I would not even be able to include when the time came?

2. I feel very awkward when it even comes to the topic of shadowing. I see how busy the doctors are that I come in contact with, and I don't want in any way shape or form to feel like a burden to them. I would like to eventually end up shadowing more than one emergency physician (again, for personal reasons as well as application reasons), but at the same time I do not want to go through the process of contacting them and being bothersome if come application time, there is only space for one doctor's name per field of medicine or anything like that. I have no idea what these applications look like, so I'm really just looking for some advice as to how shadowing experience is laid out within an application.

3. I've never shadowed before. Therefore I have no idea how to go about it. I've read posts before and other types of information, and realize that I should use e-mail, phone, personal, and other ways of contact when inquiring with a physician, but I guess I'm just curious about a bit more of the process. For example, how does it usually work? Is this process old hat for most doc's? How receptive are emergency physicians in anyone's experience? How about surgeons? Do they see this process as bothersome? Also, what would one obtain at the end of their shadowing for proof? Should a letter on official hospital letterhead be requested by the doctor? Is there a place to even include these in a medical school application?

Thanks for the help!!!

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[502623]

This seems like a great topic. I, too, feel like I'm imposing when shadowing like my presence is not only unwanted but specifically a burden to the doctors when they're trying to work. Even if this is the case, it's still what must be done in order to get some clinical experience.

 

[icedearth33]

This seems like a great topic. I, too, feel like I'm imposing when shadowing like my presence is not only unwanted but specifically a burden to the doctors when they're trying to work. Even if this is the case, it's still what must be done in order to get some clinical experience.

I agree. I just want to obtain as much information as I can before I start harassing. haha

I'm also looking to know whether it's frowned upon to shadow multiple doctors in one department of a hospital. Or if that's maybe something I should just ask the first physician I end up shadowing in that area.. and see what their opinion is.

It's a running joke in my lab that I'll have shadowed every doctor in the hospital by the time I apply for medical school. lol But I honestly wouldn't mind.. if they're receptive to it, then I will definitely go with as many as I can. But again, before starting, I wanted to see if there were any specific "DON'T do that..."''s that I should know about.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Gonna try to be quick and to the point.

1. I work at a hospital laboratory and for personal reasons I would eventually like to shadow a few different co-workers there including a member from the array of departments within the laboratory. Not all of them will have an MD or PhD degree, however, but it doesn't matter to me because I have the time to do it, and well.. I just want to. With that said - Would this type of shadowing be relevant when it came to medical school applications? Or is this something that I would not even be able to include when the time came?

2. I feel very awkward when it even comes to the topic of shadowing. I see how busy the doctors are that I come in contact with, and I don't want in any way shape or form to feel like a burden to them. I would like to eventually end up shadowing more than one emergency physician (again, for personal reasons as well as application reasons), but at the same time I do not want to go through the process of contacting them and being bothersome if come application time, there is only space for one doctor's name per field of medicine or anything like that. I have no idea what these applications look like, so I'm really just looking for some advice as to how shadowing experience is laid out within an application.

3. I've never shadowed before. Therefore I have no idea how to go about it. I've read posts before and other types of information, and realize that I should use e-mail, phone, personal, and other ways of contact when inquiring with a physician, but I guess I'm just curious about a bit more of the process. For example, how does it usually work? Is this process old hat for most doc's? How receptive are emergency physicians in anyone's experience? How about surgeons? Do they see this process as bothersome? Also, what would one obtain at the end of their shadowing for proof? Should a letter on official hospital letterhead be requested by the doctor? Is there a place to even include these in a medical school application?

Thanks for the help!!!

If you want to do it and have time, then do it.

 

[dsoz]

On the application, there is a space for activity, you write shadowing. There is a drop-down menu for the type of activity, and you choose shadowing. You type in the number of hours. You list a contact name, number, and address. There is then a big box to describe what you did. You can put anything in the box. I broke down the different physicians that I shadowed (4 different ones in 3 different fields), how long I spent watching each, and a brief description of why doing this was important to me.

Shadow as many as you want. List them all, and give a total number of hours. Keep track of all of this. I kept a "note" on the notepad app on my phone. Date, time spent, physician and a short entry of how I felt about some of the things that I observed. It really helped when it came time to apply.

good luck

dsoz

 

[Chir0nex]

If you don't have a relationship with a doc in the field you want to shadow, ask ask around (try other pre-meds, med students, even secretaries at the department) to find out which ones tend to be most open about teaching. Send them a polite e-mail explaining who you are and what you would like to get out of your experience. If they are too busy they will let you know, and you can try someone else. However, most of the physicians I have met are pretty open to shadowing. At this point, stop worrying about being a burden, if it was a problem, they would have said no. Just be aware when following them around, for example, if they are dictating notes or making phone calls, avoid asking questions. One thing to be aware of, is that depending on the specialty you may need some basic training. If you are interested in surgery some hospitals require you to have a scrub training sessions to enter the actual OR for example. In general you lose nothing by asking politely to shadow, and despite how busy doctors can be, it is not huge burden to having someone else there.