Shadowing only one specialty?

[ojy77511]

Hello, guys. I recently shadowed 2 neurosurgeons and watched around 5 cases in the OR(~30 hrs). Got to talk to and observe anesthesiologists and neurophysiologists in the OR room, too. I would love to shadow someone from internal medicine but im not sure if i can before I submit my secondary and I will most likely be working as a scribe for a primary care doctor in a month so I see no point in shadowing as of now. Is not shadowing in an office setting a red flag?


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[ojy77511]

*before primary


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[I'm No Superman]

I'm pretty sure you can update individual schools on anything else you've been doing during the cycle, so that wouldn't be an issue. Only shadowing one specialty won't get you screened out of paying schools more money to fill out another application where you can add any new shadowing opportunities you may have.

 

[ojy77511]

I didnt understand the second part. Can you clarify?


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[I'm No Superman]

Aight, so you send in your primary. Then you shadow a ED/FM/whatever physician. Then you receive your secondaries. On those, you put something like "On July X I was fortunate enough to shadow ____ in the ____ department" on the additional info portions. You can keep updating individual schools until they reject you.

 

[gyngyn]

Shadowing is meant to give you an idea what a physician's day is like.
NS shadowing, (especially in the OR) is quite far from what can be expected.
Family medicine, general internal medicine or peds would be excellent choices, though.

 

[WedgeDawg]

I shadowed a surgical subspecialty (both in and out of the OR) and emergency medicine only, neither of which were office based, and it didn't seem to affect me negatively. It's not ideal, but it's likely not going to be the reason you don't get into medical school.