Anyone shadow a radiologist before?

[Bap2qwrq7]

Just wondering if anyone here has shadowed a radiologist before? If so what exactly happened?

Just curious because usually when I think radiology I think little to no patient contact but I don't know too much about the field as it is.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

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[Haybrant]

i got bored after shadowing a cardio surgeron after a few wks; i can only imagine how id feel after shadowing a radiologist

 

[MayoMed]

I have shadowed a radiologist a few times. While I enjoyed the time I spent with him, I never saw a patient. For the most part, we went to various parts of the hospital and read scans. It is definitely not the most exciting field of medicine, I can see where it could be very rewarding for a person with the right mindset.

 

[eddie13231]

Last summer I was at a vetrans hospital working in cardiology and was in nuc med quite a bit. Yes basically all the radiologist did was inject the patient with some radioactive stuff and use his machines for a chemical stress test. I don't think it would be that bad; I was looking at all his charts and stuff and some of it was pretty interesting but cardiology is where its at!

 

[Law2Doc]

Just wondering if anyone here has shadowed a radiologist before? If so what exactly happened?

Just curious because usually when I think radiology I think little to no patient contact but I don't know too much about the field as it is.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

It's actually kind of cool if you are into technology and you are working with a doctor who likes to teach (or at least is willing to explain what the heck he is looking at/for). Most of the patients you see are in an adjoining room being loaded into machines (eg MRI, CT), and admittedly the level of patient interaction by the radiologist that you will get to see is often limited to his attaching leads, giving injections of dye or beta blockers, and asking patients to "take a deep breath and hold it" (and in some cases even this too is now done by machine). But you'll end up with a pretty good sense of anatomy, and a good feel for what it going on in terms of cutting edge medical tech.

 

[DrHopeless]

It is not as bad as you would imagine. I have been doing this on and off for a while (about 2 years). Yeah you are right, sometime it is very boring, but sometime you get to see very interesting cases. After a while, you can read the basic X-ray/CT/MRI scan.

Well if you could, shadowed a radiologist, especially one work in Emergency Diagnostic, because sometime you get to see the actual trauma cases as they come in (ie. you work with the tech and help them take the X-Ray in the trauma room), then you switch gear and sit down with the radiologist and see the diagnostic itself. This could be very interesting if you get gun shot cases or something like that. So good luck man and a big teaching hospital is key to a good shadowed experience.

 

[Haybrant]

if you want to do something interesting and worthwhile with your time, perhaps you ought to work in the lab of a radiologist and shadow him/her every now and then. Shadowing is a waste of time as an undergrad for more than a couple wks b.c you really dont know much. Research and getting papers out is worth your time as a ugrad

 

[tacrum43]

Just wondering if anyone here has shadowed a radiologist before? If so what exactly happened?

Just curious because usually when I think radiology I think little to no patient contact but I don't know too much about the field as it is.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I shadowed one once. After I showed up, he basically told me he was too busy and dumped me on a rad tech for the entire time I was there. I still don't really know what a radiologist does. I decided that one day was enough.

 

[amnesia]

I have shadowed a radiologist a few times. While I enjoyed the time I spent with him, I never saw a patient. For the most part, we went to various parts of the hospital and read scans. It is definitely not the most exciting field of medicine, I can see where it could be very rewarding for a person with the right mindset.

that sounds fun... walking around and reading scans. 👍

 

[LucidSplash]

My Aunt is a radiologist and I've shadowed her a few times. She works at MD Anderson in Houston, and she actually sees patients quite a bit and assits in surgery, although that is admittedly not the norm for a radiologist. She specializes in breast mammographyand biopsies, so we spent a lot of time looking at films of breast malignancies but also of lungs and whatnot. I watched her assit with a few minor surgical procedures, like biopsies and catheterizations as well. I also listened as she told a woman she had breast cancer.

I've been with her (at work) like 3 or 4 times, and it never fails to be interesting. But again, I think that's a function of where she works too, and the heights she has reached in her career field. She herself has described it as being in a kind of radiologist's "candy shop" because she gets to treat so many different kinds of patients with different kinds of diagnoses.

If you can get in to shadow a radiologist at a hospital like this, it can be a very interesting experience. Clinic radiologists really do spend a lot of time looking at films and rarely see a patient, whereas at the specialty hospitals they do a lot more.

 

[tinkerbelle]

Just wondering if anyone here has shadowed a radiologist before? If so what exactly happened?

I sat in a dark room all day watching these two radiologists look at films. It was so amazingly boring.

 

[Teragen]

I shadow a radiologist I know every so often and he reads scans, did MRI's, read MRI's(this is pretty cool) and had a few patients. Then I got to see all the weird xray's like bottles and chains in some tight places lol. The collection they had was pretty funny. You have to know your anatomy very well.

 

[OSUdoc08]

Just wondering if anyone here has shadowed a radiologist before? If so what exactly happened?

Just curious because usually when I think radiology I think little to no patient contact but I don't know too much about the field as it is.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I shadowed a radiologist, and we interpreted CT's, MRI's, PET's, Angiograms, Mammograms, sonograms and more...

We also did some procedures including barium enema's, barium swallow's, and a renal biopsy.

Compared to my time in the ER and surgery, it was absolutely boring, and I wasn't a fan of the radiation exposure during the time I was actually doing something.

 

[Stroganoff]

I shadowed a radiologist at a rural hospital (my hometown) several times. A ton of chest X-rays, mammograms, sonograms, and brain CTs and MRIs. Various other minor X-rays as well as nuclear medicine imaging. A lot of my classes in undergrad focus on medical imaging, so a lot of this was pretty cool, especially when she generated 3D images on the computer from CT scans...you can basically rotate and zoom in/out and go through each slice, in living color.

Being an undergrad, I only know basic anatomy and you see a lot of "spots" and stuff that you think might be abnormal but are really just benign calcifications--everybody has 'em. The radiologist said you pretty much have to look at thousands and thousands of films before you get the hang of it. I just sat there in the dark office and watched/listened to her dictate and diagnose. Occasionally I saw some barium work with patients, but most of it had zero patient contact.

 

[Yamo]

Radiology is one of the hardest specialties to get into.

 

[relema]

I shadowed an emergency radiologist. There were some interesting cases from when car crash victims came in. I saw some x-rays of some very shattered bones. Also when the patient was at a high enough trauma level the radiologist had to go into where the patient was in case she had to do an emergency ultrasound. Overall I enjoyed my experience.

 

[doc05]

Radiology is a very exciting field despite the long hours in a dark room. While most don't have much patient contact, some do. If you're a pre-med it will be difficult to get a meaningful experience out of shadowing a radiologist, but you should try. You'll be best off with a radiologist who's willing to teach -- unfortunately the guys in private practice are often far too busy to do that. Plus you need good knowledge of anatomy to get the most out of it. good luck.

 

[illiniTJ]

Radiology is one of the hardest specialties to get into.

Radiology = limited pat. contact, but usually set hours and big bucks. This is a good lifestyle specialty if you'd like to spend more time taking care of your family than someone else's.