How much shadowing is necessary?

[zogoto]

I posed a similar question yesterday, but I thought I would rephrase it since this is the root cause of my question. I have 30 hours with 2 cardiologists, 4 with an ID doc., and I will have about 80 hours with a geriatrician (eldely patient PCP) by the time I apply. This adds up to about 120 hours. Is this enough? I have an opportunity to shadow about 80-150 hours more in a month off from school, but I am looking to get some work experience in a completely different field from medicine just to see it before I spend the rest of my life in healthcare.

I know that having 30 hours of shadowing is way better than having 0, and to me it seems that 120 hours of shadowing is better than 30 hours, but is 240 that much better than 120? Is shadowing truly "the more the merrier?"

Thanks in advance.

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[Mobius1985]

The shadowing you have is great. More is good only if it helps you better make the decision that to be a doc is right for you, or to explore a specialty you are intensely interested in. Hopefully, you have additional clinical exposure via volunteering or work as well, where you actually interact with patients.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I agree that you don't "need" any more hours of shadowing. However you don't have a lot of time in medical school to really decide what you want to do. If you get a chance to shadow another doctor in a field of remote interest, I'd take it.

 

[flip26]

I posed a similar question yesterday, but I thought I would rephrase it since this is the root cause of my question. I have 30 hours with 2 cardiologists, 4 with an ID doc., and I will have about 80 hours with a geriatrician (eldely patient PCP) by the time I apply. This adds up to about 120 hours. Is this enough? I have an opportunity to shadow about 80-150 hours more in a month off from school, but I am looking to get some work experience in a completely different field from medicine just to see it before I spend the rest of my life in healthcare.

I know that having 30 hours of shadowing is way better than having 0, and to me it seems that 120 hours of shadowing is better than 30 hours, but is 240 that much better than 120? Is shadowing truly "the more the merrier?"

Thanks in advance.

Short answer to the underlined question: No.

There are diminishing returns with more hours with the same doctor, IMO. I read about people with literally hundreds of hours with one doctor, and it frankly blows my mind...30 to 50 hours divided among say 8 to 10 different docs makes much more sense to me than 100+ hours spent with one or 2 docs...

All this assuming you have plenty of other clinical exposure, most likely through a volunteer gig that puts you into contact with patients and near enough to docs to in effect "shadow" them, too...

 

[RuSkaya]

I shadowed one doctor for two summers and I personally got a lot out of the experience

I have read in several threads here on SDN that it makes more sense to shadow several different doctors - which is fine if that is what you want to do. In the end, however, you are doing this for yourself. So if you feel that the shadowing you have done, whatever the hours and the number of doctors, has been valuable to you ... then why worry

Just my opinion