Frustrated. A little help please!

[kson223]

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So I am looking to apply to DO schools this application season but I haven't been able to shadow a DO yet. Any help on how to go about doing this? I am from the Chicago land area and have called at least 4 hospitals who do not allow students to shadow due to privacy issues. I have also tried a few private practices with the same results. I have done internship at a hospital last summer but was not able to get a LOR as I switched between multiple physicans every week.

Any advice on how to go about doing this?

Thanks!

 

[alphasyn]

i applied to/accepted to DO schools without shadowing a DO, however, I wanted to...but no one was available to take me after calling several private clinics in my area...=(

unless you are applying to those schools that absolutely required a DO letter, not being able to shadow a DO is not disastrous. just focus on getting hands-on medical exposure, I think this is more important.

good luck!

 

[Preciouzgeek]

Contact doctors..
Since you have previously shadowed physicians, you should use them as a network to see if they have any connections with DOs. You can also take the time to find a list of local DOs in your area, and you can email/call them to see if they are interested in becoming your mentor.

AOA sponsored site..
This is a site sponsored by the AOA. Make a free account with them, and join their mentoring program. You can search for local DOs who are apart of this mentoring program, and you can ask them to become your mentor by submitting a request. A couple of my friends have found DOs to shadow through this, and it works pretty well.🙂

http://cf.osteopathic.org/iLearn/home.cfm

 

[FirefighterDoc]

Contact doctors..
Since you have previously shadowed physicians, you should use them as a network to see if they have any connections with DOs. You can also take the time to find a list of local DOs in your area, and you can email/call them to see if they are interested in becoming your mentor.

AOA sponsored site..
This is a site sponsored by the AOA. Make a free account with them, and join their mentoring program. You can search for local DOs who are apart of this mentoring program, and you can ask them to become your mentor by submitting a request. A couple of my friends have found DOs to shadow through this, and it works pretty well.🙂

http://cf.osteopathic.org/iLearn/home.cfm

This. This is how i found doctors in the chicagoland area. Well this and working in hospitals. Just keep trying

 

[PeepsLove]

If you're in Chicago then call CCOM and ask them if they have any doctors in their clinics or know of anyone that will let you shadow.

 

[H0pefulPreMEd]

Try some of the smaller/community hospitals too. They're a bit more lax on what volunteers are able to do. If you express the interest, someone will let you. But you'll have to become a volunteer first, and that takes time.

 

[kson223]

Thanks everyone! I didn't know about the mentoring program until now so I will definitely look into it. And I tried CCOM but they told me they stopped trying to allow students to shadow DOs for now. Thanks again!

 

[HH Holmes]

Try some of the smaller/community hospitals too. They're a bit more lax on what volunteers are able to do. If you express the interest, someone will let you. But you'll have to become a volunteer first, and that takes time.

+1

That is how I shadowed a DO. Volunteered in the ER for a while, and then got the b*lls to go up to one of the attendings and ask to shadow him.

 

[kson223]

There are no mentors close to where I go to school so if the mentoring program doesn't work out for this summer, I will have to look for alternates. I will be an intern in a drug rehab center for a hospital in the fall semester. I am hoping that this will give me the opportunity to shadow a DO affiliated with the hospital. Would it be too late to have the LOR from a DO after the fall semester? (It's a part of the secondary apps, right?)

 

[Everglide]

You shouldn't have difficulty finding a DO to shadow near Chicago. Find someone who works in outpatient gig, a lot less administration issues to worry about.

Having a LOR after the Fall is way too late.

 

[Scorcher31]

There are a few schools that require a letter from a DO, but most do not. I had multiple acceptances without a letter from my doc at all (long story that I'm still a little irked about). You should have some type of shadowing experience though for both your resume and to make sure this is what you want to do. In my case, I worked with my family doctor who was an MD for about 100 hours total. If you have a descent relationship with your family doc who happens to be an MD and want to shadow him/her, I doubt admissions will find fault in that. There are both good and bad MDs and DOs. There is very little difference in how the practice other than the few DOs that do OMT.