how long to shadow with each dr.

[jenni82]

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for anyone who has already done shadowing....how long did you shadow with each dr.-was it a choice or did the dr. give you a timeline-ex.6wks. 12wks.
and did you follow them for one/two days a week or every day?how does the process work, also did you choose a dr. who you were familiar with or how did you choose/contact the dr.

 

[PerryCox]

for anyone who has already done shadowing....how long did you shadow with each dr.-was it a choice or did the dr. give you a timeline-ex.6wks. 12wks.
and did you follow them for one/two days a week or every day?how does the process work, also did you choose a dr. who you were familiar with or how did you choose/contact the dr.

Well, I went to a university with a hospital on campus, so they were accustomed to having undergrads coming and shadowing. I shadowed each doctor in each specialty I was interested in two or three times, depending on the exposure I got each time. The drs didn't care when I came as long as I emailed them ahead of time so they knew I was coming; they did prefer though that I stayed for their entire shift.

 

[fidelio]

I only shadowed all my doctors for one day. That's because most likely I'd never see them again. They're always so busy.

I did shadow a pharmacist also for awhile because my dad is a pharmacist and he knew my dad. It's a small community.

People are more willing to talk about their profession when they know someone you know.

I think one day with a doctor is good enough, depending on how much that doctor is willing to talk to you about it. One doctor reinforced my decision to apply to med school just by the way he explained x-rays. I thought it was so cool.

 

[MD-iwish]

I shadowed a doctor in a university hospital for about a month, 5 days a week, from anywhere betn 4-8 hrs a day. I think staying there for a month was awesome because she would let me learn a new disease/condition every couple of days when we saw it in a patient, and then I could read up, and follow up with the patient, how the symptoms declined after medication/treatment, recovery time, see what tests were taken, slides etc. It really helped me understand some core concepts and also about patient care. I would suggest spending at least a couple weeks in one setting, unless you feel that you're not getting what you want out of it.

 

[wowzer]

I shadow my PI in research, who is a neurosurgeon. Doing so allows me to learn about her interests in furtherting research while seeing her viewpoints on her actual career and what she wanted to get out of it. She always sends me a list of all her surgeries that week and I'm welcome to come to any of them. I've been watching 1-2 surgeries a week for about 18 months now.

 

[tigress]

I only shadowed for one day due to time constraints. But even one day can be very meaningful. I was lucky in that I got to go with him to see maybe 15 patients, I got to interact with the doctor I was shadowing as well as other doctors including fellows, and everybody was involved in telling me about things that were going on. I even went in to see a patient with a fellow and then he let me present the patient to the doctor. Overall it was an excellent experience that very much reinforced my desire to become a doctor.

Ideally I would have liked to shadow for about a week. But I think more than this would get boring, because you can't actually do anything when you're shadowing, so you just watch the doctor working. Maybe if you're seeing different surgeries it would be cool to shadow longer. Also, I sort of felt like I was in the way; even though they were very welcoming, I was just an extra body in the exam rooms, and I couldn't contribute much, so I felt out of place.