How to ask doctors to shadow with them/help with research?

[floatingribs]

I saw a great gem of advice (I believe it was on a fairly recent thread on the Debakey summer surgical program at Baylor) on how to ask surgeons at your university's hospitals to shadow them/tips on how to get on theor research.

There's about a 0% chance I'd be able to find the time to enter a summer program at any university, but I'm greatly interested in surgery and cardiovascular research. My university has a well known medical school and several known labs on what I'm interested in, so should I just email different doctors/researchers till I get a response back? Or are there any other ways to shadow a surgeon/do research with a doctor if I don't have any links to them? Really mad that I didn't like the post :/

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[deleted480308]

I saw a great gem of advice (I believe it was on a fairly recent thread on the Debakey summer surgical program at Baylor) on how to ask surgeons at your university's hospitals to shadow them/tips on how to get on theor research.

There's about a 0% chance I'd be able to find the time to enter a summer program at any university, but I'm greatly interested in surgery and cardiovascular research. My university has a well known medical school and several known labs on what I'm interested in, so should I just email different doctors/researchers till I get a response back? Or are there any other ways to shadow a surgeon/do research with a doctor if I don't have any links to them? Really mad that I didn't like the post :/

your schools pre-health advisor may have official observerships....if not, then yes, you random cold call and email until you find someone

 

[deleted781806]

Cold calls are your friend, unless you have personal connections in the department with previous professors you know (or familial ties). Just put yourself out there, and hopefully someone will respond to you. Shadowing is definitely an easier task to succeed in cold-calling, but research positions, at least for undergraduates, is definitely a possibility as well, that's how I got involved in my lab at first. If you are looking for paid positions, then University job boards or cold-calls would be a good way to go if you don't know anyone in the department.