D.O. Experience/Shadowing Question

[doctorlew]

Hi All,

From a lot of the reading and advice I have seen on this forum and other articles, it is apparent how important shadowing a D.O. will look on your application. As a former medical scribe who worked in an urgent care setting, I had the opportunity to assist with many different MD's, DO's, and PA's. I was able to clearly see the differences in approach, to the physical examination, diagnosis, and treatment. I worked several thousand hours as a medical scribe at this urgent care. Several Q's below:

Would this experience be seen as inferior to a direct shadow of a D.O.?

How would you recommend I best present this on my application? (if I were to use this experience going into this application cycle...I definitely had many hours alongside D.O.'s)

Thank you so much!

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[Angus Avagadro]

I would be interested to hear your perspective on what you observed, how the physicians were similar and would also like to hear what you felt the differences were. Remember to be candid, and also not to be too supportive or negative to either group as my school has several MD's teaching there and you don't want to alienate them. Also, elaborate on how much time you spent with each group. Shadowing a physician should also involve asking them if they could write you a positive letter of recommendation. You would also get the opportunity to ask them questions about their training. It should not be too hard to spend a day shadowing someone in your situation. I would take a day to shadow a D.O. and also get a LOR from them. I would accept that as adequate. I have interviewed many students who could not be bothered to shadow a D.O., even when they had the opportunity. I obviously would be more supportive of someone who did.

 

[Magus5454]

Hi All,

From a lot of the reading and advice I have seen on this forum and other articles, it is apparent how important shadowing a D.O. will look on your application. As a former medical scribe who worked in an urgent care setting, I had the opportunity to assist with many different MD's, DO's, and PA's. I was able to clearly see the differences in approach, to the physical examination, diagnosis, and treatment. I worked several thousand hours as a medical scribe at this urgent care. Several Q's below:

Would this experience be seen as inferior to a direct shadow of a D.O.?

How would you recommend I best present this on my application? (if I were to use this experience going into this application cycle...I definitely had many hours alongside D.O.'s)

Thank you so much!

Scribing is basically glorified shadowing. Like above said, one day should be fine so you can approach the topic of a LOR

 

[Goro]

Hi All,

From a lot of the reading and advice I have seen on this forum and other articles, it is apparent how important shadowing a D.O. will look on your application. As a former medical scribe who worked in an urgent care setting, I had the opportunity to assist with many different MD's, DO's, and PA's. I was able to clearly see the differences in approach, to the physical examination, diagnosis, and treatment. I worked several thousand hours as a medical scribe at this urgent care. Several Q's below:

Would this experience be seen as inferior to a direct shadow of a D.O.?

No, not at all!
See what Angus said for the rest.