How much shadowing is required or necessary?

[futureopt31]

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How much shadowing is required or necessary?

 

[273160]

I haven't applied/been admitted to optometry school, so I may not be the best person to answer this question. However, I've read on this forum and heard from students that there are a couple of things you want to get from shadowing. One is that you will have to shadow with one doctor for at least 40 hours in order for this doctor to write a recommendation on your behalf. The second, and possibly more important factor, is to shadow in a variety of settings. I've heard about a few people who had spent more than enough hours shadowing but it wasn't enough. Schools want you to get exposure to different settings--examples being private practice, hospitals, lasik centers etc. In total, I'm guessing that shadowing with 3 optometrists would be sufficient and 2 MIGHT get you by.

 

[DawgOD]

yea.. you wanna get experience in all different settings... not just b/c admissions want you to.. but for your own benefit.. so you will know what each type of setting experience is like.. then when you graduate.. you will have good knowledge of what you want to do whether it be private, commercial, non-profit, etc.

 

[thanotoriousfob]

I haven't applied/been admitted to optometry school, so I may not be the best person to answer this question. However, I've read on this forum and heard from students that there are a couple of things you want to get from shadowing. One is that you will have to shadow with one doctor for at least 40 hours in order for this doctor to write a recommendation on your behalf. The second, and possibly more important factor, is to shadow in a variety of settings. I've heard about a few people who had spent more than enough hours shadowing but it wasn't enough. Schools want you to get exposure to different settings--examples being private practice, hospitals, lasik centers etc. In total, I'm guessing that shadowing with 3 optometrists would be sufficient and 2 MIGHT get you by.

The bolded part is not true. I don't know where you read/heard that but I did 40 hours total with about 5 different doctors and managed to get some solid letters of recommendation.

Each school requires a certain amount of shadowing. For me, 40 hours met the requirements for the schools I applied to. You should always check with the schools' requirements.

It is important as bterry said that you shadow in different settings. OD Schools like to see you are well acquainted with different practice settings and understand the pros and cons of each.

When shadowing make sure to ask active questions. "Why did you choose optometry? Tell me about the history of optometry, the future, current events, ethical issues, what's school like, how do you manage a private practice, insurance, etc." Remember, you are not there to learn every little technique (you'll learn that in school), you are there to learn about the profession itself and whether or not it fits your professional needs.

Good luck.

 

[mathcod]

I believe I may have been the source on the 40 hours thingy as I've mentioned it in a couple of my posts. What I meant is that you should have at least a minimum of 40 hours of total optometry shadowing to be in good standing. I know that OSU requires a minimum of 20 hours (10 hours spent at 2 different optometry settings), but in my opinion, 40 hours is what you want to set as a minimum (not necessarily at the same setting). The number 40 represented the number of hours at my college to get transcript notation for interning, so I picked that as a good threshold.

However, Berkeley rejected me without waitlist with the only negative feedback being that I lacked in optometric experience, and that was with forty hours of shadowing (in an honest evaluation of my application, I thought I was a good candidate because my interview was great, my OAT was 400/380, my gpa was 3.5ish, I had decent ECs and leadership experience, great LORs, all of which were commented on in the positive side of my interview feedback). My only optometric experience was 40 hours of shadowing, joining and being active in a pre-opt club, and becoming a certified vision screener for Prevent Blindness, and that wasn't considered competitive.

In conclusion, the more experience at different settings, the better. Try to have it documented that you shadowed as well somehow rather than have them take your word for it (at least mentioning it in your personal statement). In my subjective opinion, I think having at least 40 hours should be your target lower bound.