Best way to ask my primary care physician if i can shadow them?

[guitarguy23]

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What way would you ask your physician if you can shadow them?

Also, any advice on getting some other shadowing experience would be greatly appreciated! I'm hoping to shadow 3 physicians.

 

[BuckFMP]

What way would you ask your physician if you can shadow them?

Also, any advice on getting some other shadowing experience would be greatly appreciated! I'm hoping to shadow 3 physicians.

I just asked mine if he ever did shadowing. He said, "all the time." Cool. Told him my story and then set up a time. It was all low-key, but that's my doc.

 

[Practitioner]

When you're there sometime and the docs making small talk, he's probably going to ask how you're doing. Mention that you're stressing over being premed and trying to get shadowing experiences and ask if he/she'd mind letting you shadow them.

 

[MilkmanAl]

"Hey, Dr. X, I'm looking into going to med school, and I was wondering if I could shadow you at some point."

 

[Tolip]

"Hey, I'm applying to medical school soon. Could I shadow you some time?"

 

[futureNCmed]

yeah... it's not a big deal... I was nervous about asking my docs if I could shadow them at first, but after the first couple you start to realize that many doctors really enjoy having students shadow them.

As for getting more doctors to shadow... after you shadow with one physician, ask them if they have any friends/colleagues they can recommend and get you in touch with. That's how I got pretty much all of my shadowing experience. They usually give you an email address then talk to the other doctor about you so when you contact them, they will already know a little bit about your story. Good luck!

 

[Morsetlis]

Ask the old and lonely ones ;p

 

[familyaerospace]

Just call up their office and ask. I asked three of my doctors (my pcp, my neuro, and a surgeon) and my pcp and neuro both said no because I was a patient of their practice and having me as a shadow would affect their objectivity. My surgeon, on the other hand, throws me a few hours of OR time here and there (he would throw me more, but of the three surgical centers he works out of, only one is easy to sneak me back) and has been introducing me to other surgeons. My neuro introduced me to another neuro who I will be shadowing for a few days. My PCP hasn't helped much.

I have learned one thing, telling people you are a premed who overcame a medical phobia (or to leave out the premed part and just say you are overcoming a medical phobia) will get doctors more interested in letting you shadow. That is my experience anyway.

 

[BlueElmo]

I just called as well. It's pretty easy, and they'll let you do it.

 

[deleted212936]

I looked up doctors' phone # in the phone book 😀 & called or emailed their offices and asked like MilkmanAl has said, very straightforward.

 

[nisarg2010]

"Hey, Dr. X, I'm looking into going to med school, and I was wondering if I could shadow you at some point."

thats what I did and it worked. 👍

 

[FutureMD129]

I first sent emails to ER docs at one of the local hospitals, but recently I've found that going to doctor's offices in person and introducing myself as a premed student looking to shadow works better for me. I think the in person contact helps the staff take me seriously but also minimizes the "we never got your email/call/letter" excuse. I log all my contacts on an excel spread sheet and follow up if I don't hear from the practices within two weeks of initial contact. I have business cards that I leave with the staff so the doctors know how to contact me.