Documenting shadowing experience

[Pico25]

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I recently shadowed a specialist at a large hospital for several days. He offered to write a letter for me. The AAMC and Kaplan websites both mention letters of recommendation on their pages about shadowing.

My questions are:

1. For the purposes of documenting my shadowing on applications is it sufficient to state the time/what I did and contact info for the doctor or will they ask for some kind of statement from the doctor as documentation?

2. Does it make sense to get a letter of recommendation from a doctor I've shadowed for less than a week? From what I've read it's much better to get letters from people who know you better. (I graduated over 5 years ago so I will be relying more on former coworkers than professors).

3. Based on this page from AAMC it looks like letters can't be submitted until the application opens, so even if I wanted one from him is it best to wait until then?

 

[natalux]

They're not going to ask for a statement from the doctor to prove your shadowing, all you need is an estimate of the hours spent, contact info for the doc, and a description (maybe a significant anecdote from your time there, if there was anything especially impactful) of what you observed. I don't think an LOR from a doctor you only spent a week with will hold much weight. I didn't have any physician LORs in my application, personally.

 

[drducky.]

1. No
2. Yes
3. Interfolio