Gonna go to all doctor offices to ask to shadow, is that to ambitious? Should I call instead?

[swolebrah]

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I looked up a bunch of doctors near my area that I would like to shadow over my Christmas break.

I wrote their address down and office hours, and going to go to them personally (professionally dressed ofc) and ask them if I can shadow them at their convenience over my break (~3weeks).

Is this appropriate? Or should I call their offices first?

Only reason I'm not calling them is most of the time I get some receptionist who probably could care less.

PLEASE ADVISE!

 

[slopes23]

Good luck setting up a shadowing gig that quickly. You should have set this up a lot sooner. Shadowing requires a fair amount of lead time to make it happen. I'll be surprised if you get even one gig by the time your break is over.

 

[swolebrah]

Good luck setting up a shadowing gig that quickly. You should have set this up a lot sooner. Shadowing requires a fair amount of lead time to make it happen. I'll be surprised if you get even one gig by the time your break is over.

I can extend it to start during my next semester. I should have started earlier, but I feel confident I will be able to get at least one doctor to let me shadow. I have a lot of possible doctors noted down.

 

[slopes23]

I can extend it to start during my next semester. I should have started earlier, but I feel confident I will be able to get at least one doctor to let me shadow. I have a lot of possible doctors noted down.

If you are doing it to start during next semester then that's more likely IMHO but hey if you feel you can make it happen sooner more power to you.

 

[CarlosDanger]

I think you're going to have a tough time just showing up at an office and asking, its probably going to be a waste of your time. The staff is going to be really busy, the doctor probably won't be able to talk to you (they barely have time to talk to their own patients). My guess is they'll have you write down your information and send you on your way after giving you some strange looks. I really think you'd be better off just calling and following up, following up again, etc. This is why it takes so long to set up shadowing, theres no way around it. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky? report back.

 

[pyrrion89]

Emailing is good. Low investment, gets your foot in the door (it goes straight to their inbox, so you won't get blocked by the secretary like you would if you tried in person or calling). Email like 30 doctors and you'll get 1-2 "yes" responses.

Source: experience

 

[NickNaylor]

I think you're going to have a tough time just showing up at an office and asking, its probably going to be a waste of your time. The staff is going to be really busy, the doctor probably won't be able to talk to you (they barely have time to talk to their own patients). My guess is they'll have you write down your information and send you on your way after giving you some strange looks. I really think you'd be better off just calling and following up, following up again, etc. This is why it takes so long to set up shadowing, theres no way around it. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky? report back.

Agree with this. I would safe yourself the time and stress and just call or e-mail. I don't think showing up is going to give you some kind of advantage. In a best case scenario you wait around for forever to use some of the time of a doctor who is likely busy and is not all that interested in speaking with you. I think you'd be lucky if that actually happened - I doubt you'd even speak to most of them. This sort of things also smacks a little bit of "that guy" behavior. You don't ever want to be "that guy."

 

[chillaxbro]

Email is the best way. The biggest problem is that many doctors won't have an email listed. 90% of the ones you email won't respond.

Cold calling works as well but you usually get a less than nice secretary who doesn't know what shadowing is. You can ask to leave your contact information for the doctor which is probably the best way.

Protip, say you're a student. They usually assume it means medical student which helps your chances by a lot.

Good luck

 

[swolebrah]

Thanks for the replies. I will email and call first, thanks for saving me some time guys.