Difficulty in Getting Shadowing Experience

[premed21]

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Hey, so I am having a really difficult time finding a doctor let me shadow them. I basically googled up all the physicians in my area, and started calling them one after another. I tell the assistant who answers the phone that I'm a premed student looking to gain shadowing experience. I ask if the Dr. would be willing to let me shadow them.

100% of the time they ask me for my name and number which I leave with them. However, out of 10 calls I have made, only 1 has called me back. How are people able to gain so many shadowing hours of all kinds of specialties?

What should I be doing differently to be able to get more success rate? Should I be writing cover letters and printing resumes for all the doctors and dropping them off at their offices? I feel like because the assistant is giving the message, and because I'm just a premed student, they don't really value or give me much importance. I want to be able to talk to the doctor, but they are shielded by managers and administrators and assistants which my message gets filtered through/gets lost.

Do you have any tips or help on how to gain more success? (especially those who have done a lot of shadowing)? Thank you!

 

[ILikeDrugs]

I would suggest asking around the time of christmas. People seem to be more jolly around that time of the year and might be more inclined to lend out a helping hand. Funny how a commercial holiday does that to people. Anyways, I had trouble finding a pcp doctor to shadow at first but eventually got a hit. I thought I got lucky, but I'm pretty sure it was because he just had his first baby. Gotta hit em up when they're vulnerable. I'll be looking for specialist to shadow in and around December so I can start up in January. 😉

 

[Curiouspremed]

I ask in person. Usually one doctor knows another doctor and I just drop in and go "Oh wow (insert specialty) was one of the specialties I was also considering, would you mind letting me shadow you?"


To meet your first doctor maybe try volunteering at the hospital and get to know someone.

 

[liveandlove]

I ask in person. Usually one doctor knows another doctor and I just drop in and go "Oh wow (insert specialty) was one of the specialties I was also considering, would you mind letting me shadow you?"


To meet your first doctor maybe try volunteering at the hospital and get to know someone.

lol 🙂 Nice!



I called my personal physician and made an appointment and during my visit I asked her if I can shadow her and she was very welcoming (when I called the office and spoke with the receptionist, she said that the doctor gets distracted easily and having someone follow her around all day long will be very distracting lol. So I had to pay the doctor a visit and ask her face-to-face )

Good luck!

 

[Wermz]

I've been trying to set up shadowing for the past few weeks, and I'm having some decent luck with it. I call up an office, usually get a secretary, talk about shadowing and offer to e-mail in my resume with a more thorough explanation of my request.

 

[tweek125]

get some friends, a bottle of everclear, and see if you can't meet a doctor to shadow at the ER you'll soon visit. i'd recommend writing the request somewhere visible on your body since you most likely won't be able to utter a single coherent word..

have you tried contacting your primary doctor? usually they have other doctor friends and (if you're doctor is super awesome like mine was) would help you contact them to set up a shadow.

do you have a HOSA chapter at your university? i know that a lot of schools have them, and in the chapter here they have a program where you get to shadow a doctor in each of the major clinical rotations that med students go through (family, IM, OB/GYN, etc.). but that's only available to sophomores and up as far as i know.

 

[premed21]

I've been trying to set up shadowing for the past few weeks, and I'm having some decent luck with it. I call up an office, usually get a secretary, talk about shadowing and offer to e-mail in my resume with a more thorough explanation of my request.

This is a good idea, asking to email in your resume. I will try doing this as well, thanks.

 

[Tuan]

Letter + Resume emailed to a health care professional you know who can vouch for you in their email referral to other physicians or you can "farm" by blindly emailing randomly.

"Dear _______.My name is___, and I am an undergraduate student at _____ majoring in Biology and Urban Studies and Planning. Some of my experiences in the medical field so far have included_________________________and_____. I would like to expand my understanding of the profession by shadowing at your practice over the course of several days this fall. I hope that through this experience, you will be able to show me the day to day activities involved in being a physician of your specialty and_________________________________________..
.I understand the major time constraints faced by doctors today as well as strict HIPAA compliance laws in effect. Consequently, I will do my best to conduct myself in a tactful manner within your business and undergo HIPAA training as needed. If given the opportunity, I believe you will be able to observe my maturity, dedication, and excitement of learning medicine..
.If you are willing to discuss the possibility of me job shadowing you throughout this fall, please contact me by the email or cell phone listed above. I appreciate your time in considering my request, and I look forward to hearing from you soon....
.Sincerely,.
.XXXXXXXX.

..
.General layout i used..
.

 

[Astarael]

Two steps that might be helpful for you:

1) Find out which hospitals in your area are teaching/academic hospitals. Physicians in these places tend to be more used to students hanging around (usually). I think you'd have more luck in this environment.

2) Wait a couple months to ask to shadow. Anytime within a couple months of July is generally not a good time to shadow in an academic setting because that's when all of the new residents start working.

 

[jesse120]

My mom asked my PCP for me -- I didn't ask her to, but she saw I was having zero luck asking around, and I'm so glad she did. He was very enthusiastic about it and I got to shadow him for a while. He talked to his partners to see if I could watch some procedures they were doing, which I was able to. I also got to observe a CABG! (my premed friends are jealous at that one!) And through that experience, I got to know one of his partners and now I'm shadowing him. Do your best to get your foot in the door and maybe it'll become a lot easier to continue. I would start with your PCP, and hopefully he/she can help you out more. Good luck!