Can't find someone to shadow

[lalaland123]

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Hey guys, I have called offices and doctors but I just cannot find someone to shadow.

What other ways can I approach this? I really want to shadow this summer and see what it's actually all about.

I don't know any relative and can't ask my family doctor.

 

[CaliGirl14]

Hey guys, I have called offices and doctors but I just cannot find someone to shadow.

What other ways can I approach this? I really want to shadow this summer and see what it's actually all about.

I don't know any relative and can't ask my family doctor.

Perhaps you can ask your pre-med friends about the doctors they shadowed?

 

[Barcu]

Do you have premed advising that could help?

Do you know anyone who knows a doctor? Like friends' family.

 

[senorsquishie]

What about your PCP? They might even know other Dr. in the area open to shadowing.

 

[PD187540]

I honestly don't think that this is a necessary requirement in order to get into medical school.

For example, if you've had undergraduate training in a hospital as part of your degree requirements, if you've worked after school in a hospital setting, and if you have some general volunteer experience, I don't think it matters whether you have any physician shadowing experience. It COULD help get you a letter of recommendation (maybe...although shadowing experiences last like a day, so is that REALLY enough time for someone to know you well enough to write you a LOR? Nope.)

You really have to know people in order to get this type of experience. Cold-calling is ridiculous...loan officers cold-call people about their mortgages, and likewise, this is a horrible way at trying to get shadowing experience. So therefore, I'm leaving this out of the application process. Shadowing is all about observing...that's all you'd do is observe. I know how a hospital generally operates, and the overall ambiance has sunk in enough to tell me that YES, I'm ready to become a physician. Bang...that's it.

If during an interview, an adcom were to ask me, "Why didn't you get any shadowing experience?", I'm going to respond with, "I'm a doctor, not a loan officer!" (Yes, I swear to god I'll say that if I'm asked LOL).

 

[TribalSeeds]

I honestly don't think that this is a necessary requirement in order to get into medical school.

For example, if you've had undergraduate training in a hospital as part of your degree requirements, if you've worked after school in a hospital setting, and if you have some general volunteer experience, I don't think it matters whether you have any physician shadowing experience. It COULD help get you a letter of recommendation (maybe...although shadowing experiences last like a day, so is that REALLY enough time for someone to know you well enough to write you a LOR? Nope.)

You really have to know people in order to get this type of experience. Cold-calling is ridiculous...loan officers cold-call people about their mortgages, and likewise, this is a horrible way at trying to get shadowing experience. So therefore, I'm leaving this out of the application process. Shadowing is all about observing...that's all you'd do is observe. I know how a hospital generally operates, and the overall ambiance has sunk in enough to tell me that YES, I'm ready to become a physician. Bang...that's it.

If during an interview, an adcom were to ask me, "Why didn't you get any shadowing experience?", I'm going to respond with, "I'm a doctor, not a loan officer!" (Yes, I swear to god I'll say that if I'm asked LOL).

what does being a loan officer have to with shadowing a physician? ...nothing....

 

[PD187540]

what does being a loan officer have to with shadowing a physician? ...nothing....

It's all in the steps taken to get there. That's one thing more pre-meds and physicians have to do: think outside the box! I guess some people aren't skilled in drawing parallels (there's a technical term for that, but it eludes me right now).

 

[lalaland123]

I understand your point that it may not be vital. I don't only want to do it so I can add it to my application.

I actually want to do around 40-50 hours just to understand what a normal day is like and how physicians practice. I think I would find it helpful..

🙁

 

[ReptarBar]

there is nothing wrong with cold calling. go on WebMD, go to physician search, pick the specialty you want, then search. just tell the receptionist that youre a college student blah blah interested in medicine, ask to leave a message, then youre done. i've done this 3 times, each about 5-10 calls, and it worked every time.

 

[fizzgig]

volunteer in a small clinical setting. i volunteer in a big ED but i don't interact with the docs if i'm actually doing my job for the most part. but, i volunteered at a student run free clinic and talked to one of the attendings who oversaw. that's how i got shadow #1, and this person's contact at the hospital in a related dept got me shadow #2.

write a letter that's all grown up and mature like and bring it in person to a few offices so that someone (not the doc of course, but someone) will see your polite, professionally dressed face smiling and being not socially awkward or menacing. i left 3 letters and got one response for shadow #3 (you may need to do more than this - i got lucky, plus i had looked these people up on the internet first... a person with a mentoring award seemed like a good bet, and that is the person who responded to me).

find someone who is a doc, through a friend or your own doc or however, and ask them to recommend someone, or ask them to sit down with you and just have a free lunch and conversation with you about medicine and your decision, and then ask them if they know of anyone who might consider having a shadow. having someone who can vouch for you not being a total loon may help you get past the itch to hit 'delete'...

also look at hospitals websites and search for formal shadowing programs. if you're in school your premed advisor might know of ways to do this, and if you're not it's possible that a local university's premed person might still be willing to give you 5mins of his/her time to tell you how their premeddies do it.

 

[bucks2010]

I honestly don't think that this is a necessary requirement in order to get into medical school.

For example, if you've had undergraduate training in a hospital as part of your degree requirements, if you've worked after school in a hospital setting, and if you have some general volunteer experience, I don't think it matters whether you have any physician shadowing experience. It COULD help get you a letter of recommendation (maybe...although shadowing experiences last like a day, so is that REALLY enough time for someone to know you well enough to write you a LOR? Nope.)

You really have to know people in order to get this type of experience. Cold-calling is ridiculous...loan officers cold-call people about their mortgages, and likewise, this is a horrible way at trying to get shadowing experience. So therefore, I'm leaving this out of the application process. Shadowing is all about observing...that's all you'd do is observe. I know how a hospital generally operates, and the overall ambiance has sunk in enough to tell me that YES, I'm ready to become a physician. Bang...that's it.

If during an interview, an adcom were to ask me, "Why didn't you get any shadowing experience?", I'm going to respond with, "I'm a doctor, not a loan officer!" (Yes, I swear to god I'll say that if I'm asked LOL).

First - working in a hospital does not give you near the same experience as shadowing. In a hospital, you're likely working in one unit the whole day. You don't see what the physician does before he comes in, after he leaves, etc. Not to mention it's very unlikely you're going to get to see any procedures like surgeries without shadowing a surgeon. I've been able to do so a few times and have found it to be a very positive experience.

Second - there are no physicians in my family. I have shadowed 5 physicians for a total of 50 hrs, and I set all this up through a combination of cold-calling and other random connections I made. So don't freak out because you don't know any physicians. You just have to keep trying until you find someone willing to let you follow for a day. I had to call a good number of offices to find a physician willing to let me shadow, but the shadowing experiences I had were well worth it. Shadowing is an excellent opportunity to expose yourself the broad array of specialties available within medicine. I happen to be employed in the hospital in a patient-care capacity, but without shadowing I never would've been able to observe the life of several types of surgeons, interventionalists, and a primary care physician. Not to mention, any advice/input you glean from attending physicians is very valuable.

I would encourage you to keep on trying to find some docs. I actually found one of my most valuable shadowing experiences through his blog (found out he practiced in my city). So that may be one avenue for you to consider.

If nothing else, shadowing is a hoop to jump through in order to demonstrate that you're qualified to enter medical school (although I would contend it's much more valuable than being an inconvenience). You can leave it out at your own risk. But really, giving 5 days of your time to explore any aspect of medicine you wish is not only a very easy hoop to jump through (compared to things like the MCAT), but it will give you insight that could prove very valuable to you in the future when you are considering what specialties are of interest to you.

 

[2old4med]

My local teaching hospital has shadowing program if you put in a certain amount of volunteer hours first. This may be another option you can investigate.

 

[MyCarIsDirty]

At the hospital I volunteer at, I went through an official "orientation and processing" day. When I showed up for day one, the doctors didn't even know about any of that, and they have people volunteer all the time.

I then asked if I were to just randomly show up, would anyone care or notice? They said no. Tag along with a friend and try to meet a doctor and set something up. I brought my girlfriend to the hospital at 11pm on a Saturday once. We got to see some cool stuff.

The only reason I went on that odd hour/day was because I missed the time I normally show up for the week. I'm just that kind of person that needs to make sure I get my stuff done. I'm sure there's a word for that.




In other words, go with friend>meet doctor>ask to shadow>shadow.

You sound desperate, so that's what I would do.

 

[Nefertiri]

Last week, I emailed 10 attendings in the same specialty at an area med school. I told them I was a pre-med, interested in the specialty and to let me know if shadowing was possible.

Only 2 responded. One said i would have to go through their "pre-med shadowing program...blah blah...application..blah"

The other told me when and where to meet with the residents.

I find that assistant professors/and attendings are really eager to teach. Plus they want their residents to teach too. Find an attending and hit em up, this is the 3rd one i've shadowed.

 

[QueenTut]

I had a hard time finding doctors to shadow at first. But calling around helped- I ended up shadowing a family member's oncologists for a few days. I also met some doctors in the hospital where I volunteer who let me follow them around and help with some procedures.

 

[PD187540]

My local teaching hospital has shadowing program if you put in a certain amount of volunteer hours first. This may be another option you can investigate.

That's actually really good advice! I live on Long Island, NY, and the North Shore-LIJ system is a group of teaching hospitals. In fact, they're affiliated with Hofstra University's new medical school program. That's probably a good bet for Nassau County, NY residents.

 

[PressPforPi]

Maybe it's easier to shadow a physician who is affiliated with a medical school? One of the general surgeons I shadow is really cool because he's associated with one. So on top of getting to watch surgeries, I get some pretty awesome advice and insider information from 3rd year medical students.

 

[Cinclus]

there is nothing wrong with cold calling. go on WebMD, go to physician search, pick the specialty you want, then search. just tell the receptionist that youre a college student blah blah interested in medicine, ask to leave a message, then youre done. i've done this 3 times, each about 5-10 calls, and it worked every time.

It has consistently failed every time I've done this. I've called around 35 offices. I've learned that it's not a good sign when the receptionist is like, "What's shadowing?"

 

[Gigantron]

I'm surprised nobody has posted this link yet: http://cf.osteopathic.org/iLearn/home.cfm

You'll find plenty of physicians to shadow in there. I was able to find a cardiologist that was willing to let me shadow him through this.

 

[ucsfstudents]

Some summer premed programs offer shadowing opportunities. Talk to premed friends, contact a medical school close by and connect with a medical student. They can often easily connect you with a physician to shadow.

 

[yamaraja808]

I just volunteered at a hospital and just asked the physicians there if I could follow them around. If they said yes, great. If they said no, I would just find another physician during my shift. As long as the E.R. was not busy, the nurses and staff there did not mind my following the physicians around. It worked for me.

 

[mouthwash4hobo]

also look at hospitals websites and search for formal shadowing programs.

👍

 

[lalaland123]

Ok guys, so as you people said i did some more calling around : D


and I found ONE who said that they do take students, but they already have someone at this time...so i kinda insisted that I was interested

so they took my name and said they would get back to me

i call back Monday...tehy said doctor wasn't there, called today, they said doctor is at the other office

should i call again? I really hate being annoying...but she does seem like a doctor who actually cares about students who want to shadow.

 

[desi0chick]

yes, go for it. what's the worst that could happen? they say no. so just keep on trying.