Some may ask why I feel the need to shadow when I'm already accepted to a US med school. Let me explain it first. First of all, I'm Canadian and shadowing is not legally allowed here. I only started shadowing since April this year and I had to drive all the way down to Buffalo NY to shadow. I've done it only three times so far. Also, none of my family members are remotely doctor-related so my exposure to this field is rather lacking. Therefore I would like to make it up through shadowing. Lastly, the US healthcare system is vastly different from the Canadian healthcare system and I would like to know more about your system (insurance etc.) by shadowing.
Here is my plan for M1/2. Please give me some feedback if it's not realistic. I plan to devote an entire afternoon per week to shadow. But I don't want to shadow the same doctor for two years. Instead, if possible, I would like to shadow one doctor from different specialties, each for around two months, so that I can get exposure to different specialties.
I believe it might be easier to find shadowing opportunities as a med student. However, I would like to find a physician that can truly teach me something. Therefore I would like to ask for any tips on how to find a great mentor. For your information, I found my current shadowing mentor by sending out cold emails to 50 doctors in that hospital and he was the only one who replied. But I would assume that there could be a better way to find mentors than sending out cold emails which is a bit risky (what if you end up with a doctor who has an abusive personality...?). I'm going to call the pre-med advising office tomorrow at the school that I'm going to attend and perhaps shoot another email to a current med student. Hopefully they can hook me up with someone great. I contacted the admission office but they just gave me a link to the career offfice which is kind of useless...
Here is my plan for M1/2. Please give me some feedback if it's not realistic. I plan to devote an entire afternoon per week to shadow. But I don't want to shadow the same doctor for two years. Instead, if possible, I would like to shadow one doctor from different specialties, each for around two months, so that I can get exposure to different specialties.
I believe it might be easier to find shadowing opportunities as a med student. However, I would like to find a physician that can truly teach me something. Therefore I would like to ask for any tips on how to find a great mentor. For your information, I found my current shadowing mentor by sending out cold emails to 50 doctors in that hospital and he was the only one who replied. But I would assume that there could be a better way to find mentors than sending out cold emails which is a bit risky (what if you end up with a doctor who has an abusive personality...?). I'm going to call the pre-med advising office tomorrow at the school that I'm going to attend and perhaps shoot another email to a current med student. Hopefully they can hook me up with someone great. I contacted the admission office but they just gave me a link to the career offfice which is kind of useless...