I have shadowed a few docs and I'm wondering how one attests to their shadowing experience on an application. Aside from specialty, do you report things like the time spent shadowing a particular person? Would two or three visits with a particular doctor be considered sufficient?
How do you end up reporting your shadowing experience?
- Thread starter YourBro
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I put down:
Specialty
Total Hours:
If i did anything procedural (one dr let me wrap a bandage, another let me listen in the stethoscope to an irregular heartbeat)
If the Dr performed a procedure I wrote that in as well.
that pretty much covers it for me. Maybe i'm missing something as well?
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Add the entry under "Other". Name it shadowing.
Put the first and last date, doc's name and specialty, contact into (phone or email is fine), total hours. It's fine to comment on something special you saw or did, but keep it brief. Put the total shadowing hours at the bottom of the entry.
Put the first and last date, doc's name and specialty, contact into (phone or email is fine), total hours. It's fine to comment on something special you saw or did, but keep it brief. Put the total shadowing hours at the bottom of the entry.
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I never thought to write down things I did... uh oh, I hope I didn't forget them... One resident showed me how to do an eye exam (I think he called it something more specific, but I forget) on a girl who had her pupils dilated somewhere else before coming to the ED... pretty cool to see the blood vessels and stuff. Anyone know if it's just called an eye exam or if it's something specific?
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An 'ophthalmoscopic exam,' where you can appreciate the optic disc and retinal vessels, is part of a complete eye exam. It might also be referred to as a funduscopic exam.
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Doc's name, credential (M.D. or D.O.), specialty, # of hours you shadowed. No one expects you to be doing procedures - that's why it's called shadowing. Adcoms just want to know that you have been exposed to the reality of medical practice.
A couple of tips, based on things I have seen this year while serving on the adcom at my medical school:
1. Try to shadow more than one specialty.
2. Try to ensure that one of the specialties you shadow involves primary care.
3. Only report shadowing with an M.D. or D.O. While it may be interesting to shadow a psychologist, a podiatrist, a chiropractor, or a veterinarian 😕 (I have seen people report all of these as "physician shadowing"), don't list it on your application. We're not going to count it, and it looks like you're trying to pad your application.
4. Make sure you spell the doctor's first and last name correctly. At least where I'm at, many of the in-state applicants end up shadowing docs in the same community where the medical school is located. Unsurprisingly, in many cases someone on the adcom knows the doc the applicant shadowed -- and recognizes that the name is spelled incorrectly. This makes you look sloppy and careless, which is probably not what you're hoping to get across.
A couple of tips, based on things I have seen this year while serving on the adcom at my medical school:
1. Try to shadow more than one specialty.
2. Try to ensure that one of the specialties you shadow involves primary care.
3. Only report shadowing with an M.D. or D.O. While it may be interesting to shadow a psychologist, a podiatrist, a chiropractor, or a veterinarian 😕 (I have seen people report all of these as "physician shadowing"), don't list it on your application. We're not going to count it, and it looks like you're trying to pad your application.
4. Make sure you spell the doctor's first and last name correctly. At least where I'm at, many of the in-state applicants end up shadowing docs in the same community where the medical school is located. Unsurprisingly, in many cases someone on the adcom knows the doc the applicant shadowed -- and recognizes that the name is spelled incorrectly. This makes you look sloppy and careless, which is probably not what you're hoping to get across.
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How many hours should we shadow each doctor? And for how long?
How many doctors should we shadow?
Is it ok to shadow PAs?
How many doctors should we shadow?
Is it ok to shadow PAs?
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I shadowed one, for enough hours to say that I'd done it and have something to say about it in an interview. So maybe 8 hours/3 visits? I had plenty of other exposure to what medical practice is like via family so I didn't feel like I really needed to do it for my own purposes. It was enough.
And I did put it down under Other.
And I did put it down under Other.
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FWIW, our adcom would not consider "physician shadowing" experiences to include PA, NP, RN or social workers. Generally we look for at least 24 hours of shadowing, but many of our successful applicants have a bit more than that. As stated previously, this only represents one adcom - no idea how it's looked at elsewhere.
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Do you mean 24 hours total shadowing or shadowing per physician?
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Total.
