Any benefit to shadowing during grand rounds?

[TexasFight]

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My PI offered me the chance to shadow a fellow MD during grand rounds. I'm probably gonna take her up on at least once b/c that just sounds awesome. 🙂

However, is this a valuable experience to continue to later put down on my app? I'm have to go particularly out of my way to do this kind of shadowing, so if there's no "real" benefit over regular shadowing I may just end up going once.

Any thoughts?

 

[J ROD]

I think it would be worth it. Just do a little bit with the other shadowing.

 

[LizzyM]

Grand Rounds is usually a one hour lecture by an expert on a specific topic. Those in attendance are generally attending physicians and trainees from M3 medical students up through fellows. In the olden days, a patient would actually be presented and interviewed by the specialist about his/her medical history, symptoms, etc. That is less common today. Many clinical department sponsor rounds in their specialty (medicine, surgery, OB/GYN, pediatrics, etc.)

You may be able to pick up a little bit of what is being discussed but some of the material may go over your head. How well you deal with that type of frustration will determine how much you enjoy Grand Rounds at this stage in your career.

I'd suggest that you not go with the intention of learning anything about a topic in medicine (odds are 50-50 that whatever they're saying this year will have changed by the time you are in practice) but to see the environment, how physicians (in the audience) engage in lifelong learning and one aspect of academic medicine (the grand rounds lecture).