Finding shadowing opportunities?

[siakaw]

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Hi all,

This is my first post on the forum and I'm kind of new to this going-to-med-school decision...at least this time around, but that's a whole other story. Anywhos, everyone on here talks about how important it is to volunteer and shadow doctors, but I have no idea where to begin with that. I mean, I know how to look for volunteer opportunities, maybe not in the ER and other exciting places, but definitely within a hospital setting. It's the shadowing part I'm clueless about.

So...how did you find a doctor to shadow?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nontrad Dad]

Hi all,

This is my first post on the forum and I'm kind of new to this going-to-med-school decision...at least this time around, but that's a whole other story. Anywhos, everyone on here talks about how important it is to volunteer and shadow doctors, but I have no idea where to begin with that. I mean, I know how to look for volunteer opportunities, maybe not in the ER and other exciting places, but definitely within a hospital setting. It's the shadowing part I'm clueless about.

So...how did you find a doctor to shadow?

Thanks in advance!

Like me, you may have been patrolling these forums for quite sometime but hadn't gotten around to posting until now. Welcome..

First, I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before to some length so a search through the past threads should produce some additional insight.

Now, on to your question. If you're fortunate enough to live near a teaching hospital, poke around their med school's directory for clinical professors, etc. and reach out to them asking for an opportunity to watch them in action. Contact a few of them and a couple should respond with an opportunity. That's what I did and received some great responses. I'm currently shadowing two Assistant Clinical Profs.

If you don't live near a teaching hospital or med school, try poking through your local hospital's physicians directory or reaching out to family friends that are physicians.

Best of luck to you..

 

[NTF]

Check the link in my siggie. AOA mentor exchange.

 

[sgtbrushes]

It took me months to find a physician willing to shadow me. I live in a city with a large university that has a medical school, and there are hundreds of pre-med students. Many of the physicians who are willing to let students shadow them are already saturated with pre-meds.

I looked up Docs online who practiced a specialty I was interested in on Vitals.com. This website is 100% free, and tells you where they went to med school, residency, etc. Some of the information is inaccurate, so take it with a grain of salt, but I wanted at least a little background on the Doc.

Then, I'd just drive to his/her office and tell the nurse or secretary at the front desk, "I'm an undergraduate student wishing to pursue a career in medicine, and I was wondering if I could speak to Dr. Kavorkian about shadowing him?" I was turned down several times before I found a physician willing to take me on; just don't get discouraged.

 

[Nontrad Dad]

It took me months to find a physician willing to shadow me. I live in a city with a large university that has a medical school, and there are hundreds of pre-med students. Many of the physicians who are willing to let students shadow them are already saturated with pre-meds.

That sucks. I was fortunate enough to find two docs that were willing to let me shadow them within a week and a half of inquiring. A third (surgeon) said he'll get back to me soon, when things slow down a bit.

It might just be how I approached them. I emailed them explaining I graduated a couple years back, am currently on a career path I don't wish to pursue any further and that I have an interest in medicine. Plus, don't forget to show some sort of interest in their specialty and why shadowing them specifically will help you explore whether life as a doc is really what you want.

And right, don't get discouraged when extremely busy teaching physicians turn you down or ignore you altogether. Like many things in life - it's a numbers game. Keep at it if this is what you really want.

 

[sharmi]

Check the link in my siggie. AOA mentor exchange.

Will shadowing a DO doctor be acceptable to MD programs ?

 

[avatarftw]

a

 

[NTF]

Will shadowing a DO doctor be acceptable to MD programs ?

🙄 Yes.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

Check the link in my siggie. AOA mentor exchange.

I haven't heard from my selectee yet. 😳

 

[familyaerospace]

I've contacted three or four people from the AOA mentor exchange and not a single one has gotten back to me so I've had no luck at all with them.

So far I have 41.5 hours of shadowing.

I contacted a few doctors I was a patient of and they knew I had the World's Worst Medical Phobia (TM) and some wanted me to go through therapy to desensitize myself. My plastic surgeon let me shadow a few hours in the OR with him. My neurologist helped me arrange for me to shadow another neurologist. My PCP (a DO) isn't helping me shadow anyone and doesn't want me to shadow him so I am still missing some primary care although he is giving me a research project to work on. The neurologist I shadowed gave me a list of PCPs not far from him who might be student friendly.

 

[figmentj]

It took a lot of time to find physicians to shadow; I sent many emails to the doctors at the local University hospital without much success. However, you could compose a standard email and then go down the list of physicians, sending individual emails to the physicians.

This seems like a silly question, but I've been searching for days and I have yet to find a single physician listing that includes an email address. How did you find their addresses?

 

[siakaw]

It took a lot of time to find physicians to shadow; I sent many emails to the doctors at the local University hospital without much success. However, you could compose a standard email and then go down the list of physicians, sending individual emails to the physicians. You just have to change the name and add that you are interested in psychiatry or surgery, or whatever the physician's research interests are.

Thanks so much for the responses, guys! I'm pretty familiar with blindly emailing professors asking them for stuff (after-all, that's how I got my current job), so I'll try that approach.

Now the question is, where do I find them? Should I be looking for a variety of specialties, or something that I'm specifically interested in? And also, hospitals or private practices? Or both? Where would I have the best luck? And lastly, should I email doctors personally or talk to their offices?

I know my questions are very loaded and very newbie-esque so I appreciate you helping me out.

 

[NTF]

Sorry to hear that people have had problems with the AOA mentor exchange. I had a different experience but I also live in a DO heavy area of the country. (I had more responses than I knew what to do with.)

Unfortunately finding docs to shadow can be difficult w/o a clinical job. I tried cold-calling docs and got zero success and several run arounds. My shadowing experiences came entirely from docs at my job and the AOA mentor exchange.

If you truly get blown off by a physician in the AOA mentor exchange I'd email the exchange. I'm sure when physicians agree to participate there's the expectation that they'll make reasonable efforts to schedule shadow experiences. I'm pretty sure the exchange doesn't want physicians on the list who blow off students.

But I understand everyone's frustration. Unfortunately, you have to exercise every avenue until you find someone who's willing.

 

[familyaerospace]

nontradfogie,

I emailed the exchange. It hasn't helped. There are a lot of DOs around here too surprisingly, plus we have a DO school about 1.5 hours away. I might need to contact the state osteopathic association to see if they can dig up someone for me. I've been searching for people to shadow since November and that even included going off physician email lists.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

I just wish the shadowing thing wasn't expected. I've worked with doctors. It's just been a few years. I know what I want to do. Watching someone else do it a few times isn't going to make it or break it for me. 🙄 All these dang hoops to jump through. I feel like a dog in a show.

 

[familyaerospace]

*sticks a blue ribbon on ArkansasRanger*

 

[ArkansasRanger]

*sticks a blue ribbon on ArkansasRanger*

 

[ArkansasRanger]

You know I've "shadowed" seven different specialists / subspecialists, and in addition to them I've talked with three other specialties about their jobs. These aren't necessarily fields I'm interested in. They're just the ones I have worked with. FP and EM are where my interests lie since I'm a total generalist in life.

Radiologists, Pulmonologist / Critical Care, Cardiologist, General Surgeons, Orthopedic Surgeon/Sports Medicine, Anesthesiologist, and Family Practitioners staffing the Emergency Department. Most of these I ran across when I was actively working as a paramedic or in paramedic school during which I was "premed" the first go around. I simply became introduced to them, worked around them, and told them I was premed also, and was more or less invited to watch them do what they do.

I didn't mention the head and neck surgeon who let me spend quite a bit of time letting me peer over his shoulder putting tubes in kids' ears because we didn't talk much about the work of an ENT other than him saying "it gets pretty mundane." I watched a lot of the others do their procedures. I've seen tubal ligation, C-section, pulmonary bullae removed, plenty of cardiac caths and transvenous pacings, lots of x-rays interpreted, quite a few MRI and CT interpretations, too many mammograms (radiology damn sure isn't for me 😴 ), lots of ICU-oriented stuff, a bronchoscopy, hernia repairs, foot amputation which was actually messed up resulting in more amputation than they wanted to, hip replacement, lots of arthroscopies, some local anesthesias, loads of general anesthesia, an epidural, carpal tunnel procedures, casting, suturing, lots of stuff pulled out of people, and the usual primary care kinds of things going on in the ER along with a lot of other stuff I can't even recall right now. Yeah, that shadowing is sure going to be beneficial.

I've spoken with Family Practitioners in family practice, a Dermatologist, and my Allergist about their jobs.

I guess that's not enough though. sigh

 

[elia22]

It took a lot of time to find physicians to shadow; I sent many emails to the doctors at the local University hospital without much success. However, you could compose a standard email and then go down the list of physicians, sending individual emails to the physicians. You just have to change the name and add that you are interested in psychiatry or surgery, or whatever the physician's research interests are.

The best shadowing opportunities occurred when I got hooked up with the state Osteopathic Association. For example, if you live in Texas, you could give an email to the Texas Osteopathic Association. I received about 25 emails from physicians telling me that I could shadow them! Good luck.

I know this is an extremely late reply.... but i just came across this thread. Do you think you could tell me where exactly I find the email to send to the Texas Osteopathic Association? Is it just their general email address?