How to go about shadowing a doctor

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austin2192

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I am a pre-med student in the second semester of my sophomore year and I really need to start working on my ec's. There is research that I will apply for through my school but as for shadowing a doctor I am not sure how I should do it. Did most of you get connected with a doctor through your college or was this something done independently? If it was done independently how did you do it?
 
I work at a nursing home as a CNA and my friend's dad is a physician that works on call there so we've met through work. However I asked my friend to see if his dad would be willing to help me set up job shadowing at the local hospital since he used to work there. So I was just lucky to know someone who was a physician with connections at the local hospital.

I'm sure if you ask your premed advisor at your college he/she could help you set up a job shadowing position.
 
Just go to you local hospitals and ask around! The Doctors know what is like being a Pre-med and they will help you out. Although im not saying they are all nice people, but your just bound to find someone who sees that you really want this, and will decide to help you.
 
Do you have a pre-med advisor? Have you gone to talk to them? At my school, once your reach a certain number of hours and have maintained a certain GPA, they provide with a list of contact information for Physicians that are willing to have students shadow them

If that's not an option for you, you might ask your PCP if they know of any colleagues that would be willing to allow you to shadow them.
 
I went to the hopsital's website and just emailed a bunch of doctors in the specialities that I was interested in. Explain who you are, why you're interested in shadowing (because you're interested in going to medical school and want to learn more about the life of a doctor), and any other things you think are important. Keep it short, and don't expect all of them to get back to you. Doctors that are enthusiastic about having pre-meds shadow them will get back to you within a couple of days. Everyone else doesn't care or is too busy.
 
Find a doctor that speaks your homeland's language. Typically he serves a specialized population and is sympathetic to your cause.
 
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