Clinical volunteering and shadowing your own pediatrician

[deleted927028]

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Hi,

Greetings. My daughter is a freshman premed student. This summer, she is planning to do clinical volunteering at her pediatrician’s office and also shadow her. She is also planning to request a recommendation letter . The doctor has been my daughter’s pediatrician since she was born. Is this ok ? Or is there some conflict of interest? Request some feedback especially from admin officers Goro, Faha, LizzyM, Gonnif etc. Thank you in advance for your response.

 

[gyngyn]

Recommendations from shadowing are not helpful for an MD application (unless required for a committee letter).
If her pediatrician is a DO, the DO schools will like it, though.

Generally speaking, this type of letter is not what we are looking for. This is akin to having a letter from your Mom! It is not objective (nor would we expect it to be).
And yes, I do see letters from Mom.

 

[907914]

The shadowing and volunteering will be fine. An LOR would likely not be very useful and could potentially have some HIPPA conflicts.

Unless a physician is a supervisor from work or of the volunteering activities, then the LOR does not hold much, if any, value.

 

[deleted927028]

Thank you @gyngyn and @MemeLord for your responses. I will ask her to go ahead with shadowing and volunteering but not request for LOR. Thanks again.

 

[LizzyM]

It would be far better for your daughter to shadow her doctor to get an idea of what a career in medicine might be like but to put her volunteer efforts elsewhere. Rather than volunteer in a setting that is within her comfort zone, she should do her clinical volunteering in a setting that is outside of her bubble. Volunteering in a hospital, free clinic, or hospice would be a better choice in order to see a patient population that consists of people other than children getting check-ups and being treated for relatively minor conditions. (Kids who are really sick or chronically ill are shunted to specialists rather quickly.)

 

[deleted927028]

Thanks a lot @LizzyM . Very grateful

 

[hmockingbird]

Agree with LizzyM about diversifying, and another way she could use this is for networking as her pediatrician may know other doctors she can shadow or volunteer with.

(And I’d also encourage your daughter to do this type of research into her career, networking, etc herself. She is the one potentially committing 7+ years to medical education and residency so while I get that you want to be helpful, the most helpful thing here would be to enable her to start the process herself.)

 

[deleted927028]

Thank you @hmockingbird