I asked my local hospital and they flat out said no..even though they're a teaching hospital. I asked my PCP, he said maaaaaybe. So that's another no. I know for research cold emails work, but this is quite difficult. Any pointers?
How did you find MDs to shadow?
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ANY distant relation can work. I was in the same position as you, and cold calls really don't work for shadowing as they do for research (I have no idea why - probably it's more personal).
My dad has a coworker who has a friend who is a psychiatrist. That psychiatrist friend set me up with an MD. That long chain of events worked well. Even if you don't know any MDs directly through family, ANY sort of relation will work favorably.
It's tough. I'm in the same boat as you - I haven't had much shadowing yet. So if anyone else wants to chime in it would be great 🙂
My dad has a coworker who has a friend who is a psychiatrist. That psychiatrist friend set me up with an MD. That long chain of events worked well. Even if you don't know any MDs directly through family, ANY sort of relation will work favorably.
It's tough. I'm in the same boat as you - I haven't had much shadowing yet. So if anyone else wants to chime in it would be great 🙂
I can ask the physicians themselves but usually they defer to hospital policy. That's why my PCP said maybe, because if the org he works at says no, he's bound to their rules. The hospital staff told me no flat out when I asked them after being EMPLOYED THERE. I could have just f'n clocked out and walked with a physician and no one would be the wiser but I wanted to make sure.
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It seems like I keep responding to all of your posts pfaction
Anyway, I had trouble finding physicians to shadow since I'm going to school out of state. I don't have a doctor here, and all my connections are back home
So here's how I got shadowing
#1- The surgeon performed an appendectomy on me, so I asked him at my follow-up appointment. Probably not the easiest way to get it😀
#2- Doctor I met through my church
#3- Asked physician #2 for recommendations. I got to shadow some residents in a local family medicine program because of the referral
#4- Cold calling. I called probably 6 or 7 offices and finally got one
ETA: One more thing is that I found it easier with the cold calling to call private doctors offices far away from my school since so many premeds at my school are all trying to get shadowing in the immediate area
Anyway, I had trouble finding physicians to shadow since I'm going to school out of state. I don't have a doctor here, and all my connections are back home
So here's how I got shadowing
#1- The surgeon performed an appendectomy on me, so I asked him at my follow-up appointment. Probably not the easiest way to get it😀
#2- Doctor I met through my church
#3- Asked physician #2 for recommendations. I got to shadow some residents in a local family medicine program because of the referral
#4- Cold calling. I called probably 6 or 7 offices and finally got one
ETA: One more thing is that I found it easier with the cold calling to call private doctors offices far away from my school since so many premeds at my school are all trying to get shadowing in the immediate area
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Any family friends (or neighbors) who are doctors or who have relatives who are doctors? All it takes is one to open the door.
You're the best kind of stalker sector9! I'll go cold calling as a backup. All I would need is 20 hours and as you know my background I could probably do a lot more than just stand there and observe.
LWTG: I'm the first medical professional (well...) in our family.
LWTG: I'm the first medical professional (well...) in our family.
I guess I've been pretty lucky so far:
1) Cold emailed a few docs at my university hospital and they said yes
2) My advisor/PI's collaborator was an MD and head of his department so he said yes and I pretty much could shadow anyone in that department
3) I worked in another lab with an MD/PhD fellow who had clinic duty so I shadowed him. His attending also happened to be a major collaborator of my PI so they both chipped in and helped set things up. It helped that the fellow and I were friends to begin with.
4) My PCP volunteered to have me shadow her when she heard I was applying for med school but I've already got a bunch of shadowing by that time so I declined.
In addition, both my school and the NIH (where I work) have formal shadowing programs too.
So I guess my advice is to keep trying, if you are still in school and it has a medical center then cold email some docs there. If not, try other hospitals or just pull out your insurance network listing and start calling doctor's offices that are close by.
1) Cold emailed a few docs at my university hospital and they said yes
2) My advisor/PI's collaborator was an MD and head of his department so he said yes and I pretty much could shadow anyone in that department
3) I worked in another lab with an MD/PhD fellow who had clinic duty so I shadowed him. His attending also happened to be a major collaborator of my PI so they both chipped in and helped set things up. It helped that the fellow and I were friends to begin with.
4) My PCP volunteered to have me shadow her when she heard I was applying for med school but I've already got a bunch of shadowing by that time so I declined.
In addition, both my school and the NIH (where I work) have formal shadowing programs too.
So I guess my advice is to keep trying, if you are still in school and it has a medical center then cold email some docs there. If not, try other hospitals or just pull out your insurance network listing and start calling doctor's offices that are close by.
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Same here (well, med. prof. hopeful). But I have a neighbor down the street who is an emergency medicine physician. Her hospital didn't allow premeds to shadow either, but an associate of her private practice had since moved to a different practice and hospital ~20mi away, and that hospital allowed shadowing. A call later, and I was set. You just got to keep digging.
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I just cold called all of the local docs and most were pretty receptive. If I'm not mistaken aren't you a pharmacist? If you state that you are a pharmacist wanting to go to med school you might have more luck.
Student, and that's the problem. When on rotations, it's NYS authorized and mandated, so the hospital has some assurance. I want to do this on my own so no adcom can say OH IT WAS MANDATED THEREFORE IT DOESNT COUNT - not even the potential of that. Volunteer = hospital liability. I'm hoping that the student status can help...but it hasn't so far. 🙁
PS congrats on getting in Quillen.
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My story was a pretty lucky one for me:
I was a bagger at a grocery store, so this one customer, I took out. On route to her car, I noticed she had a briefcase with my college name on it. Then when we get to her car, I then noticed she had a license plate cover with my college too, so I ask her if she is like a teacher there or something. She then responds that she is the head chief of internal medicine direction at the teaching hospital (0____0). So I tell her I am a Bio/Pre-Med major and she gives me her card with a bunch of contact info and I mass e-mail (My first mistake as a pre-med *facepalm*) a bunch of docs and I eventually shadow a radiologist.
Next on my list is Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, and mayyyyybe Family Med.
I was a bagger at a grocery store, so this one customer, I took out. On route to her car, I noticed she had a briefcase with my college name on it. Then when we get to her car, I then noticed she had a license plate cover with my college too, so I ask her if she is like a teacher there or something. She then responds that she is the head chief of internal medicine direction at the teaching hospital (0____0). So I tell her I am a Bio/Pre-Med major and she gives me her card with a bunch of contact info and I mass e-mail (My first mistake as a pre-med *facepalm*) a bunch of docs and I eventually shadow a radiologist.
Next on my list is Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, and mayyyyybe Family Med.
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I went to the hospital and went to the medical offices (private practices attached to hospital) and just went office to office saying this exactly line "I'm a student working on my medical school application, I was wondering if the physician(s) did any student shadowing?" they usually just took my information and a few days later I got bombarded with calls.
I didn't even get specialty specific, if there was an MD or DO on the door I was there.
One weird thing is I noticed trends about which specialties seemed more helpful and friendly, which is kind of like that thread a while back if different specialties require different personalities.
I have a funny story though I went into an office and the receptionist was extremely rude, and told me men were not allowed in the office unless they were accompanying a patient, I glanced over and realized it was a ob/gyn.
I found pediatrics, cosmetic/plastics, and family medicine to be the most helpful. Opthamology, pain management, oncology were all not helpful. My best guess is the patients they deal with having an effect on the tone of the office. I also noticed a huge difference between when I talked to a doctor and when I talked to the receptionist.
Doctor=nice and helpful...
Receptionist=some helpful. some not. Most didn't know what shadowing was, one asked me if I could help her on Her math homework
Office manager= always helpful, and seemed most knowledgable about shadowing and always willing to take my information
I had a few doctors offer to help me find a physician to shadow, if they couldn't fit me into their schedule. Some receptionists asked me what shadowing was, some thought I was asking for a job, and some asked me how my application was coming along.
I know this was a randomly long post but reading your post made me think of how random the shadowing process was (well at least getting shadowing) and I remember wishing someone would have gave me more advice on how to go about shadowing
I didn't even get specialty specific, if there was an MD or DO on the door I was there.
One weird thing is I noticed trends about which specialties seemed more helpful and friendly, which is kind of like that thread a while back if different specialties require different personalities.
I have a funny story though I went into an office and the receptionist was extremely rude, and told me men were not allowed in the office unless they were accompanying a patient, I glanced over and realized it was a ob/gyn.
I found pediatrics, cosmetic/plastics, and family medicine to be the most helpful. Opthamology, pain management, oncology were all not helpful. My best guess is the patients they deal with having an effect on the tone of the office. I also noticed a huge difference between when I talked to a doctor and when I talked to the receptionist.
Doctor=nice and helpful...
Receptionist=some helpful. some not. Most didn't know what shadowing was, one asked me if I could help her on Her math homework
Office manager= always helpful, and seemed most knowledgable about shadowing and always willing to take my information
I had a few doctors offer to help me find a physician to shadow, if they couldn't fit me into their schedule. Some receptionists asked me what shadowing was, some thought I was asking for a job, and some asked me how my application was coming along.
I know this was a randomly long post but reading your post made me think of how random the shadowing process was (well at least getting shadowing) and I remember wishing someone would have gave me more advice on how to go about shadowing
Has anyone shadowed abroad? I'll be in the UK for the summer and am going to try to shadow and/or do clinical volunteering but being a US citizen and only being there for 2-3 months makes it seem close to impossible :-\
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I literally grabbed a phone book, went to the physicians section, and started down the list. Some people say they have trouble with cold calling but I can't imagine how you wouldn't get at least a few opportunities by using this method. I have nearly 200 hours of shadowing from doing this. Good luck.
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I was in a similar boat, but I was searching for a specific specialty to shadow. I started by asking everyone who even remotely knew my name (and I mean everyone- teachers, colleagues, the grocery clerk, friends of friends) if they knew anyone who would know someone, and I let it snowball from there.
I never did cold-calling, but I would tag along with friends and family members when they made appointments. I would then ask the doctor directly and if (or when) they said no, I immediately asked them if they knew of anyone that I could ask instead, putting them a bit on the spot. Surprisingly, nearly every doctor had someone they recommended.
I also got the run-around from clinics about policies and directing me to the volunteer stipulations, but I never took that as an answer. The people who sent those form emails usually thought I wanted to volunteer (i.e., hands-on patient interaction) instead of being a fly on the wall. And as for contracting TB, every single shadowing I did required me to be up-to-date on my vaccines. If this place isn't requiring that and HIPAA for all shadowers, you might want to look elsewhere anyway.
I never did cold-calling, but I would tag along with friends and family members when they made appointments. I would then ask the doctor directly and if (or when) they said no, I immediately asked them if they knew of anyone that I could ask instead, putting them a bit on the spot. Surprisingly, nearly every doctor had someone they recommended.
I also got the run-around from clinics about policies and directing me to the volunteer stipulations, but I never took that as an answer. The people who sent those form emails usually thought I wanted to volunteer (i.e., hands-on patient interaction) instead of being a fly on the wall. And as for contracting TB, every single shadowing I did required me to be up-to-date on my vaccines. If this place isn't requiring that and HIPAA for all shadowers, you might want to look elsewhere anyway.
Walk-ins. One of the best ways to make nice with the receptionists is to put on a nice outfit and physically walk into a clinic. Introduce yourself and tell them you would like to shadow. Then ask if you can quickly speak with the doc's nurse or MA. They are your direct access line to the doc.
If you call, you may just be another voice at the end of the line. It's not too hard to say NO to that. It's harder to say no to a physical being... try it out
If you call, you may just be another voice at the end of the line. It's not too hard to say NO to that. It's harder to say no to a physical being... try it out
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Most of my shadowing was in a hospital clinic with neurologists that I already worked for as a research assistant. The doctors asked each patient first if it was OK for me to come in to the examining room and shadow. All the patients always said yes, and it was never a problem.
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Ask pre-med acquaintances if they've shadowed. You can then contact the docs they've shadowed.
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One of the best ways to receive patient interaction and shadow physicians is in a free clinic (usually there's less red tape as well). Plus, you get to see plenty of underserved patients and a variety of languages in addition to some pretty interesting or unusual cases.
