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Direct Patient contact
- Thread starter themanthemyththelegend
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Hospital volunteer --> shadow
Volunteer at summer camp for disabled kids
Volunteer at summer camp for disabled kids
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Break your hand and rip your pinky out of the skin, see the ER physician as they stitch you up, wait till he/she asks what you study, ask if you can shadow. Zing.
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Eesh- now that's dedication lol
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Hey, I'm not complaining. Pinky is forever crooked, but I landed a shadowing spot in the ortho OR observing hip replacements.
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EMT for both but it's a lot of sitting around and it's not strictly "clinical" so to speak - what I mean by that is that you should still get shadowing or volunteering hours in a clinical setting like a hospital or nursing home so you know what you're getting into. But in terms of patient contact, I enjoyed that the most.
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Yeah on a real note, become a student volunteer at the hospital in the city of your college/univ! Make connections as a student volunteer with various workers (docs, nurses, PA's, MA's, etc.), that's patient contact. As the grand master @LizzyM says, if you can smell the patients, it's direct patient contact. Even if you're in there logging fluid intake, like I did for 4 years.
And while that's going on, call your PCP/family doc and explain that you are interested in shadowing. Especially if your family/you are close with that doctor, the odds he/she allows you to shadow increases significantly.
And while my example of my pinky was unfortunately true, it can be much less severe for you! By that I mean, next time you see a doctor for whatever reason, ask at the end of the visit if they typically allow college students to shadow. It's relatively difficult to call a random doctors office up and ask them to shadow and have them not think you're a serial killer. But when you are there as a patient, it becomes that much easier. I was literally 3/3 on shadowing specialties I had to see during my UG years.
Another option is scribing. I feel like I'm always mentioning this... -_- That's a great way to not only get paid to shadow, but learn the inner workings of a physician's mind: How they think, how they make differentials, how they do rule-outs, how they come to a diagnosis. I've only been doing it for 4 months now, but it's been amazing. Especially if you work in a specialty.
And while that's going on, call your PCP/family doc and explain that you are interested in shadowing. Especially if your family/you are close with that doctor, the odds he/she allows you to shadow increases significantly.
And while my example of my pinky was unfortunately true, it can be much less severe for you! By that I mean, next time you see a doctor for whatever reason, ask at the end of the visit if they typically allow college students to shadow. It's relatively difficult to call a random doctors office up and ask them to shadow and have them not think you're a serial killer. But when you are there as a patient, it becomes that much easier. I was literally 3/3 on shadowing specialties I had to see during my UG years.
Another option is scribing. I feel like I'm always mentioning this... -_- That's a great way to not only get paid to shadow, but learn the inner workings of a physician's mind: How they think, how they make differentials, how they do rule-outs, how they come to a diagnosis. I've only been doing it for 4 months now, but it's been amazing. Especially if you work in a specialty.
