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Can you leverage connections at your clinical volunteering/employment gig? That’s how I got an additional 20+ hours of shadowing in a hospital system which typically didn’t accept cold-call shadowing requests.

Also, did you only call hospitals? Community/sliding fee clinics in my area are very shadowing/student friendly providing you’re willing to jump through HIPAA/immunization records paperwork hoops. Maybe try stand-alone clinics?

What about your own primary care physician or childhood pediatrician?

Edit: to more specifically address your final question, I sent along a very polished, up-to-date CV along with a message of introduction (who I am, where I am in the pre-med process, what I hope to accomplish) when I cold-emailed physicians. I had good success with this approach.
 
Crynoglare said:
Don't cold call, it's a waste of your time. Email or visit the hospital's medical education office and they can set you up. Once you're shadowing one doctor, finding another becomes a lot easier. Agree that you should do it where you volunteer as you've already cleared their health screen and HIPAA training.
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I did lmao. They said I was responsible for finding a doctor to shadow.

Planes2Doc said:
Use networking connections if possible.
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Would it be weird if I emailed the radiologist I shadowed 6 months ago and asked if they could refer me to a doctor? I tried hinting at it a when I was shadowing but they told me to contact the department of education in the hospital.

StayWandering said:
Can you leverage connections at your clinical volunteering/employment gig? That’s how I got an additional 20+ hours of shadowing in a hospital system which typically didn’t accept cold-call shadowing requests.

Also, did you only call hospitals? Community/sliding fee clinics in my area are very shadowing/student friendly providing you’re willing to jump through HIPAA/immunization records paperwork hoops. Maybe try stand-alone clinics?

What about your own primary care physician or childhood pediatrician?

Edit: to more specifically address your final question, I sent along a very polished, up-to-date CV along with a message of introduction (who I am, where I am in the pre-med process, what I hope to accomplish) when I cold-emailed physicians. I had good success with this approach.
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I'll try, but it's in the ER and I'm looking for primary care shadowing. The free clinic websites don't have a shadowing page so I don't know where to start with them.

I don't have a PCP.... Also haven't seen my pediatrician in a long time.

Was this an email or a fax? Where do you find emails of physicians? I've only found clinic and fax numbers.
 
beattheprocess said:
Would it be weird if I emailed the radiologist I shadowed 6 months ago and asked if they could refer me to a doctor? I tried hinting at it a when I was shadowing but they told me to contact the department of education in the hospital.
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If you had good rapport with them, I don't see why not.
 
My medical school used to publish a physician directory that included most physicians work emails. They stopped doing that, but the emails all follow the same pattern, so it's easy to guess their work email. If you can figure out one email at a nearby hospital/school you might get lucky and be able to just guess others based on their full names. Emailing doctors directly in my experience is the best method when possible.

I had your same issue when I was home over the summers and away from school. It can be hard!
 
Reach out to rural (like super rural) hospitals and clinics that are unaffiliated with a health system. They will be eager to help.
 
beattheprocess said:
I did lmao. They said I was responsible for finding a doctor to shadow.



Would it be weird if I emailed the radiologist I shadowed 6 months ago and asked if they could refer me to a doctor? I tried hinting at it a when I was shadowing but they told me to contact the department of education in the hospital.



I'll try, but it's in the ER and I'm looking for primary care shadowing. The free clinic websites don't have a shadowing page so I don't know where to start with them.

I don't have a PCP.... Also haven't seen my pediatrician in a long time.

Was this an email or a fax? Where do you find emails of physicians? I've only found clinic and fax numbers.
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I don't think the radiologist would mind if you politely asked for a referral. The worst s/he can say is no, but I can't imagine that they'd care or think it strange at all.

I agree with other posters in that cold-calling on the phone is often a waste of time. And you've noticed that physician email addresses are often hard or impossible to find; this is usually intentional (they don't want a bunch of random spam). However, it was easy to find email addresses for office managers/general information inboxes. If I found a general clinic/hospital contact, I would send my CV and a nice statement of introduction ("To whom it may concern, I am StayWandering, a pre-medical student at X State University. I'm reaching out to express my interest in shadowing Dr. Jones at your clinic...")

Most requests got ignored, but I got a few bites and 40+ shadowing hours out of my efforts.

But most importantly, and probably most relevant for you: I had to be pretty persistent. This is the hardest part. you don't want to feel like you're being annoying, but you do need to find a way to graciously, humbly, and politely stay on their radar. Squeaky wheels and all. I had one contact agree to connect me with a doctor in his office, but I had to remind him 3 times in as many months before I finally shadowed. Can you follow up with the supervisors to whom you were initially connected? As long as they didn't give you a hard no, it's not inappropriate to politely follow up.
 
Use your networks if possible. If you're still in college, ask your premed office if they have contacts of doctors who are open to shadowing. Ask your fellow premeds (especially those already accepted to med school) where they got their shadowing experience. Otherwise, volunteer at a free clinic, and ask the supervising doctor at the end of a shift. Cold calling as a last resort, the yield typically is low. It takes persistence and some degree of luck. Good luck.
 
I never had much luck shadowing in undergrad. If you have a medical school in the area they generally post the emails for most of their academic physicians. I would try reaching out to some of them as they are generally more receptive to students. Would be worth driving an hour or so for a full day of shadowing. Good luck!
 
If you plan on cold-calling more, you could try going in-person to an office and speaking with the front desk. Act professional, explain to them why you're wanting to shadow 'X physician,' and then from there they can gather your contact information. At least then they can put a face to a name rather than a random call. I always suggest this if you don't have any connections to go off of at the moment. It worked in my experience and you also meet some people willing to point you in the right direction even if they can't let you shadow them 🙂.
@beattheprocess
 
I'm going to be direct as this was an issue I also faced.

1. Use any and all connections. Mom/dad nurses/healthcare workers? Ask them, they know doctors.
1b. Any of your friends parents nurses? Virtually all hs students/college students have some friends with a mom or dad that's a nurse or technician of some sort. Clearly explain what you need and they'll be happy to accommodate.

2. Beggars can't be choosers. It may be your dream is to pursue a career in pediatric hem/onc and so you only wan't to shadow that specialist. If you find 1 to shadow that's great, but you cannot limit yourself. When I mentor college pre-meds now they tell me "oh all the <insert super-duper-triple fellowship doctors> in this absurdly small field said no." You need to branch out. Aim for 1 to 2 docs in the following:
a. Internal Medicine: Hospitalist, or any specialist (allergy/immuno, cardiology, GI, etc.)
b. Familiy Medicine: Probably the best type of doc to shadow
c. Pediatrics: general peds or any specialist - speaking of which - you likely have/had a pediatrician - go back and ask them. They might tell you "oh I can't let you shadow because you're from x-community and probably know my patients/families"in which case ask him for another clinic where he knows doctors to get you in.
d. ANY type of doctor. No offense, the purpose of shadowing/clinical observation is the physician-patient interaction, and hence shadowing in radiology is usually not the best/most interesting type. Avoid rads and pathology cause, well, there's no patients. Instead, honestly, it can be a specialty you've never heard of, just e-mail about it. Can be a private practice clinic or an attending at a hospital.

3. E-mail: blast a few physicians from each department - DO NOT BLAST ALL AT ONCE - they'll all see your e-mail and laugh at you (this happened to me). E-mail say, 5 IM, 5 peds, 5 FM doctors per day. One will eventually bite. Make your e-mail short, sweet, and to the point:

"Hi, my name is beattheprocess, I'm currently <insert year at college>. I'm interested in learning about y field from you. I was wondering if I could shadow you in your clinic for 1 afternoon per week. I've had clinical experience before working with patients <do not lie I'm making an assumption thinking you've volunteered in a hospital, you likely have, so insert that detail here>. Thank you.

Another variation is to insert your GPA/major after your college presuming its commendable - if you're a senior BME major at MIT rocking a 3.98 hell yes brag about that!

4. VOLUNTEERING! Volunteering was the best way for me to "network" although that wasn't my goal. I just hung out in the stock room unpacking boxes, and when docs would come down I'd get them the supplies they needed, and make small talk. Eventually they got to know me and they knew I was applying to medical school and interested in clinical shadowing and would politely offer. Even if they don't, after you get comfortable, you can ask them.
 
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Dr. Stalker said:
I'm going to be direct as this was an issue I also faced.

1. Use any and all connections. Mom/dad nurses/healthcare workers? Ask them, they know doctors.
1b. Any of your friends parents nurses? Virtually all hs students/college students have some friends with a mom or dad that's a nurse or technician of some sort. Clearly explain what you need and they'll be happy to accommodate.

2. Beggars can't be choosers. It may be your dream is to pursue a career in pediatric hem/onc and so you only wan't to shadow that specialist. If you find 1 to shadow that's great, but you cannot limit yourself. When I mentor college pre-meds now they tell me "oh all the <insert super-duper-triple fellowship doctors> in this absurdly small field said no." You need to branch out. Aim for 1 to 2 docs in the following:
a. Internal Medicine: Hospitalist, or any specialist (allergy/immuno, cardiology, GI, etc.)
b. Familiy Medicine: Probably the best type of doc to shadow
c. Pediatrics: general peds or any specialist - speaking of which - you likely have/had a pediatrician - go back and ask them. They might tell you "oh I can't let you shadow because you're from x-community and probably know my patients/families"in which case ask him for another clinic where he knows doctors to get you in.
d. ANY type of doctor. No offense, the purpose of shadowing/clinical observation is the physician-patient interaction, and hence shadowing in radiology is usually not the best/most interesting type. Avoid rads and pathology cause, well, there's no patients. Instead, honestly, it can be a specialty you've never heard of, just e-mail about it. Can be a private practice clinic or an attending at a hospital.

3. E-mail: blast a few physicians from each department - DO NOT BLAST ALL AT ONCE - they'll all see your e-mail and laugh at you (this happened to me). E-mail say, 5 IM, 5 peds, 5 FM doctors per day. One will eventually bite. Make your e-mail short, sweet, and to the point:

"Hi, my name is beattheprocess, I'm currently <insert year at college>. I'm interested in learning about y field from you. I was wondering if I could shadow you in your clinic for 1 afternoon per week. I've had clinical experience before working with patients <do not lie I'm making an assumption thinking you've volunteered in a hospital, you likely have, so insert that detail here>. Thank you.

Another variation is to insert your GPA/major after your college presuming its commendable - if you're a senior BME major at MIT rocking a 3.98 hell yes brag about that!

4. VOLUNTEERING! Volunteering was the best way for me to "network" although that wasn't my goal. I just hung out in the stock room unpacking boxes, and when docs would come down I'd get them the supplies they needed, and make small talk. Eventually they got to know me and they knew I was applying to medical school and interested in clinical shadowing and would politely offer. Even if they don't, after you get comfortable, you can ask them.
Click to expand...

Where are you finding emails? All I'm seeing are identical phone numbers for each doctor?
 
beattheprocess said:
Where are you finding emails? All I'm seeing are identical phone numbers for each doctor?
Click to expand...
It's called stalking/using their website. Easier at university at hospitals.

Simply dig around any department, and you'll eventually, find a list of physician emails.
 
If your undergrad has an alumni network, use that. I was able to search by profession and location and emailed like 40 docs and got maybe 10 responses, 4 docs to shadow out of that. I made the subject line "fellow XYZ alum," made each e-mail personal to their specialty ("I'd never heard of
integrative oncology before but on some research, it looks so interesting and I would love to learn more!") or location if it was relevant ("I grew up in XYZ right near your clinic")
 
I struggled for a while to find doctors to shadow too. My tips are:

1. Visit the office with a resume, don't bother calling. I'd call, speak to the office manager, email a resume, and never hear from them again. Going in-person has been much more successful. Speaking to the office manager and doctor face to face is an opportunity to sell yourself to them.

2. Go to smaller offices, not large hospital affiliated practices. The larger offices have more rules and regulations to go through. I tried to shadow at the hospital that I volunteered at for a year, and the compliance officer said I could shadow, but not when the doctor was with a patient(????). I went to a smaller family practice office and was able to speak to the doctor right then and there.
 
procrastitator said:
I struggled for a while to find doctors to shadow too. My tips are:

1. Visit the office with a resume, don't bother calling. I'd call, speak to the office manager, email a resume, and never hear from them again. Going in-person has been much more successful. Speaking to the office manager and doctor face to face is an opportunity to sell yourself to them.

2. Go to smaller offices, not large hospital affiliated practices. The larger offices have more rules and regulations to go through. I tried to shadow at the hospital that I volunteered at for a year, and the compliance officer said I could shadow, but not when the doctor was with a patient(????). I went to a smaller family practice office and was able to speak to the doctor right then and there.
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This is really good advice. I’ve found that doctors of a certain generation - especially established primary care docs - are often kind of old school. If you show up politely, with resume in hand and professionally dressed, they (or the staff) will often go out of their way to help you. Anyone can send an email; you appear ambitious and confident if you turn up in person and directly describe how you want to shadow *this* particular doctor. The worst that can happen is that they say no.
 
Got blocked by the spam filter trying to email the medical school directory and called some more clinics and the receptionist forwards me to the supervisor which is never there and I leave a message and never hear back again. This is awful.

How bad would only 20 hours shadowing in rads look? I will have about 180 hours clinical volunteering by the time I get my MCAT score back, so would that somewhat "offset" the lack of shadowing?
 
beattheprocess said:
Got blocked by the spam filter trying to email the medical school directory and called some more clinics and the receptionist forwards me to the supervisor which is never there and I leave a message and never hear back again. This is awful.

How bad would only 20 hours shadowing in rads look? I will have about 180 hours clinical volunteering by the time I get my MCAT score back, so would that somewhat "offset" the lack of shadowing?
Click to expand...

Contact your college/university alumni office. Tell them that you are trying to connect with grads in the [geographic] area who are physicians and ask if they can help you out. Alumni offices are always trying to get docs to be engaged with current students and fellow alumni and they may be willing to help you get your resume and your request out there to fellow alumni.

Depending on the type of HS you went to, this can also be a route (works best if you went to a really big college prep high school that has lots of grads who stay in, or come back to, the area).
 
1) Go back to the radiologist you shadowed.
2) Ask them to call literally any doctor they know for shadowing.
3) Shadow them.

If someone I knew who was shadowing me came to me looking for more hours I could probably hook them up with literally any specialty. Hell, call your pcp and ask if you can shadow one of their colleagues.

You need to talk to docs though, not other people.
 
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