How Many Doctors to Shadow?

[YouEverHadOurSausages?]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently lining up shadowing opportunities and my question is this: Is it better to shadow one or two physicians many times? Or would it be better to shadow many different physicians in multiple specialties once?

I could understand reasoning behind both, and I'm just curious which option you think would be best as far as experience goes, but also look best for ADCOM's. There's not really any specialty that I favor so I would like to see as many as possible but I don't know if I might be better off sticking with one or two physicians to gain a better understanding and build a better rapport.

Thanks!

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[Save a life]

I would say if you can build rapport with one or two and see what they do on a daily basis that would be good.

I had two physicians that I worked with for an extended period of time and they ultimately became my letter writers. However, these weren't the only doctors I worked with and I was able to see how other physicians work as well.

So my suggest is build a longer term shadowing/working relationship with one or two and just shadow the rest.

 

[deleted781806]

I would definitely go with the plan to shadow one or two physicians over a long course of time, because it will give you a better idea of their daily lives and it will provide a lot of experiences to pull from for future essays and interviews. I'd also recommend finding a primary care physician as one of them, instead of picking two specialists if you were thinking of doing that. I shadowed a FM Resident over the course of one semester and he turned into one of my letter writers, which I think proved very helpful to my application (I also talked about my experiences with him almost non-stop while interviewing).

 

[gyngyn]

Shadowing hours need not be more than 40 to 50. A sample of outpatient longitudinal care is recommended.
You don't need letters from shadowing experiences, nor do I recommend them for MD schools.
DO schools do love a DO letter, though.

 

[Toutie]

Somewhere around 2-3-4 doctors. Make sure at least 1 is primary care. A few days (15-20 hrs) each should be fine to get an idea what their day is like. Total hours around 50-75 hours should be sufficient. Once you get past 150 hrs...it's TOO MUCH! You should be spending your time on something more worthwhile.