Anyone shadowing a physican?

[Erli]

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Hi all,

What exactly does one do while one shadow a physican?

I've been shadowing an oncologist for about 1 month now and most of the time I'm just watching him interact with his patients. From time to time I do ask questions but often times I don't know exactly what to ask. I would like to get the most of this experience. Your input and/or advice is welcome.

 

[nishi]

Hi all,

What exactly does one do while one shadow a physican?

I've been shadowing an oncologist for about 1 month now and most of the time I'm just watching him interact with his patients. From time to time I do ask questions but often times I don't know exactly what to ask. I would like to get the most of this experience. Your input and/or advice is welcome.

That's about it. A few other things that made my shadowing interesting were listening to heart sounds and palpitating when the doctor found something significant. One thing I noticed though was that many patients had the same ailiment (when I shadowed a pediatric cardiologist, a good 70% of the patients that came in had an atrial septal defect). Maybe you can ask your doctor if he could suggest three common conditions that he sees often so that you can read up on them beforehand and then see how that knowledge relates to what you actually see in his office. You can also ask if he can bring you when he looks at patients' scan results. I found that to be very interesting.

 

[jaylily]

How are you guys going about shadowing doctors? I asked my GP and she agreed, but after she looked into it further, because I'm neither a clerk nor a resident, it wasn't allowed by their insurance. I contacted the provincial medical association to ask about job shadowing and they said that due to the privacy act, I probably won't be able to shadow anyone. Did you guys just contact the Dr. and ask them? Do they have to ask each patient if it's ok prior to them letting you in?

 

[Erli]

How are you guys going about shadowing doctors? I asked my GP and she agreed, but after she looked into it further, because I'm neither a clerk nor a resident, it wasn't allowed by their insurance. I contacted the provincial medical association to ask about job shadowing and they said that due to the privacy act, I probably won't be able to shadow anyone. Did you guys just contact the Dr. and ask them? Do they have to ask each patient if it's ok prior to them letting you in?

I work at a medical campus so it was easy for me to meet doctors. I pretty much asked a doctor that I was comfortable being around if I could shadow him 1 day a week for a year and he said that would be okay. When I am with him in the clinic he has to ask every patient if it is okay for a "student doctor" to be present and most patients will say "yes". It is probably a good idea for you to volunteer at a hospital, get to know some docs, and then ask him/her if you can shadow them for awhile.

If you can try shadowing a surgeon. Shadowing surgeons are ideal (so I've heard) because you may be allowed to see how medical procedures are done in the OR. Pathologists aren't bad to shadow either esp surgical pathologists but you won't get much live patient contact. Shadowing a doc that just sees patients and administer treatments can get pretty routine.

 

[DrMom]

moving to pre allo...

 

[jaylily]

Thanks Erli. I've already been volunteering at a hospital here for a year now. I've been in both the Gastro & Hematology ward, but have spent most of my time volunteering in Emergency. Unfortunately I get basically zero contact with doctors or nurses. I would LOVE to shadow a surgeon. A pathologist would be great too. I never thought of that.
I'm in Canada, so I wonder if the rules are just different here for shadowing. I'm going to see if I can volunteer in the MRI/Xray dept this summer. There's more patient contact in those areas.

 

[doc05]

erli et al --

when shadowing a physician, make sure most of your questions are directed at the doctor, not the patients. try to get an idea about how satisified he/she is with medical practice, how it has changed through the years, and what is different from what they expected when they were in your shoes. what do they like/dislike about their particular practice environment is very important.

the idea of pre-reading about various medical conditions is not bad, but don't worry too much about it. the science of medicine is fairly straightforward (for the most part). but while shadowing, I suggest you focus on what the physician does day-to-day. what they do can become pretty routine and you should make sure you're ok with that.

as far as shadowing a surgeon, make sure you spend time in their office as well as the OR. I would say that the office is probably more important, since that's where they spend the majority of their time. if you find a willing plastic surgeon, they are great to shadow, as plastics docs are among the happiest docs you'll ever meet. just keep in mind that some patients may be uncomfortable with a stranger in the room.

I would also suggest shadowing several physicians in different specialties so that you can see how things are in different specialties. you needn't spend an entire year with a given doc, but 2-3 sessions with each should be more than sufficient.

p.s. talk to an ER doc if you can. they are usually pretty friendly. have fun kids.

 

[NonTradMed]

I am volunteering at a hospital as well, I am a tutor to the children there so it looks like I won't be seeing too many doctors (plenty of nurses I think). Even though I am on campus most of my days, how should I go about shadowing a doctor? I normally don't spend much time with a doctor, and it seems odd to just randomly email doctors and ask to shadow them.....how did most people find doctors to shadow?

 

[jaylily]

I had asked my GP and she agreed (her insurance did not though) And she also asked me if there were any other areas of medicine that I was interested and she was going to contact other doctors she knew in those fields. So I suggest asking your GP and see if she has any contacts to help you out.
Good luck!

 

[sweettpea23]

I shadow a physician and have been trained on basic skills. I draw blood, take xrays, take histories, perform in office lab tests, perform urine dips, collect specimen samples for outside lab tests, give injections, place and remove bandages, splints, etc. I do a lot. I could not believe they let me do all of this without any certification. It has been a great experience.

I also do the more typical stuff: asking the PAs and physicians how a diagnosis is reached, why others are ruled out, work with them to read xrays, and watch as they perform procedures from sutures to physical exams.

Hippa laws are a BS excuse, those should not keep you from shadowing although many offices will give that reason. Other offices are associated with hospitals and thus you have to volunteer through the hospital (long waitlist). I got lucky at a small primary care clinic with a physician who takes student in all of the time. Of the 8 MAs who work there, only 2 are certified and the other 6 are prespective MD/PA students.

I also was able to shadow a nephrology PA. Just make some telephone calls and hope and pray that you'll get lucky. The opportunities are out there, they are just hard to find.

This exprience has been great and I think if I get into a school, this experience will be a major reason why. The interviewers are always impressed.