Diversity in Shadowing?

[CockerelOnTop]

I am active duty military officer, rehab professional. I have 170 hours of shadowing (70 of which are in the OR) but 160 hours of this is under military orthopedic surgeons. It is split between 3 hand specialists and 3 general orthos. The other 10 hours are with a non-military PM&R. How much diversity should I seek in shadowing? Most primary care where I am stationed is completed by PAs. I know our EM docs, radiologists, and hospitalists, so I could probably swing some time with them, but not sure how many hours I should seek under different specialties. Any input is appreciated

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[gyngyn]

By far, longitudinal care shadowing is what we hope for.

 

[deleted407021]

By far, longitudinal care shadowing is what we hope for.

As in PCP > ER doc?

 

[gyngyn]

As in PCP > ER doc?

Yes, General Peds, IM, FM, even Psych or Ob-gyn.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Let me also chime in and say that plenty of people get into medical school with their only shadowing being surgery or specialties that have either brief or ephemeral patient visits and aren't very longitudinal. While ideally shadowing primary care in addition to subspecialty care is the way to go, shadowing only a surgeon isn't going to keep you out of medical school by any means. This is likely to be way low on the ladder of things to be worrying about. As long as you have had exposure to what a doctor does, can can see yourself doing that or something similar to it in the future, and can articulate that convincingly to adcoms, you're probably going to be perfectly fine. FWIW/n=1, I only shadowed emergency med and neurosurgery prior to applying and no one batted an eye.

 

[Ismet]

Let me also chime in and say that plenty of people get into medical school with their only shadowing being surgery or specialties that have either brief or ephemeral patient visits and aren't very longitudinal. While ideally shadowing primary care in addition to subspecialty care is the way to go, shadowing only a surgeon isn't going to keep you out of medical school by any means. This is likely to be way low on the ladder of things to be worrying about. As long as you have had exposure to what a doctor does, can can see yourself doing that or something similar to it in the future, and can articulate that convincingly to adcoms, you're probably going to be perfectly fine. FWIW/n=1, I only shadowed emergency med and neurosurgery prior to applying and no one batted an eye.

True, but if anywhere in your application or interview you state a desire to do primary care, and you have no primary care exposure, that's not going to look good. You also didn't shadow only EM or only surgery. (Also I consider EM to be a special kind of primary care )

 

[WedgeDawg]

True, but if anywhere in your application or interview you state a desire to do primary care, and you have no primary care exposure, that's not going to look good. You also didn't shadow only EM or only surgery. (Also I consider EM to be a special kind of primary care )

Good thing I didn't indicate any desire to do primary care in my app then

 

[CockerelOnTop]

Thank you all for the input!