i'm having a hard time contacting for shadowing

[laOn]

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since i'm away from my hometown, i don't have a primary care physician. so i had give cold calls. i was turned down from all of them.
i'm doing a clinical volunteering at medical oncology center and i asked the volunteer coordinator but she said clinic does not allow college student shadowing.
as for the clinical exposures and knowing the daily life of a physician, i'm pretty certain i know what's going on. my entire family practices medicine and i've been playing with stethoscope since i was born. i was primary caretaker for my auntie for 6 months until she passed away with gastric cancer. i wrote on my personal statement what i learned during that period of time when i was living in the hospital 24/7.
i've seen my uncle and dad in their clinics and practices so i know of professional aspects of a physician.
should i still keep searching for the shadowing exposures?
i'm pretty bummed after getting rejected like 20 times.

 

[Mednight]

It took me three years to get some sort of lead with shadowing. My best bet for you is to google every last hopsital in your area and see if they have a shadowing program. Search "your local hospital Shadowing Program or Physician Shadowing"

And your volunteering at a clinic and they won't allow shadowing? The clinics in my area allows shadowing after volunteering with them after a couple months. For them to not allow it, is just ridiculous.

 

[libertyyne]

So let me get this straight.
1. You have multiple family members that are physicians.( Including your father)
2. You are having difficulty shadowing a physician.

 

[Endoxifen]

I literally do not understand this. Does your school have doctors as faculty/a medical school? Email them directly. Call local hospitals, etc. Shadowing is one of the easiest things to arrange.

 

[COMED2468]

I went to undergrad in a smaller city saturated with pre-med hopefuls. That meant that many of the nearby doctors' offices had either grown tired of having shadows follow them or been burnt too many times by unprofessional/unenthusiastic students. Although I had shadowed a little bit in previous years (<20), I wanted to get a few more hours and see more specialties. I scheduled a week of shadowing back home where I had a few more connections after school got out and before AMCAS opened up. I was able to get another 40 hours in that week which put me in a more comfortable situation.

It definitely didn't help me stand out, and it most likely looked very much like a checked box, but it was enough not to red flag my app and instead rely on my other ECs. If you keep having trouble with it, I would consider doing a similar trip!

 

[gyngyn]

I went to undergrad in a smaller city saturated with pre-med hopefuls. That meant that many of the nearby doctors' offices had either grown tired of having shadows follow them or been burnt too many times by unprofessional/unenthusiastic students. Although I had shadowed a little bit in previous years (<20), I wanted to get a few more hours and see more specialties. I scheduled a week of shadowing back home where I had a few more connections after school got out and before AMCAS opened up. I was able to get another 40 hours in that week which put me in a more comfortable situation.

It definitely didn't help me stand out, and it most likely looked very much like a checked box, but it was enough not to red flag my app and instead rely on my other ECs. If you keep having trouble with it, I would consider doing a similar trip!

40 hours (especially in primary care) is plenty.

 

[kopftonmd]

If you're in or near a city with teaching hospitals, you can try and find the faculty listservs and then email some of the physicians - in theory, these doctors are interested in education (that's why they're faculty at the med school) and might be more receptive. I'm in a fairly saturated city and it worked well for me.

 

[laOn]

It took me three years to get some sort of lead with shadowing. My best bet for you is to google every last hopsital in your area and see if they have a shadowing program. Search "your local hospital Shadowing Program or Physician Shadowing"

And your volunteering at a clinic and they won't allow shadowing? The clinics in my area allows shadowing after volunteering with them after a couple months. For them to not allow it, is just ridiculous.

I know! i've been volunteering at this hospital for 2 yrs and the coordinator said they had a shadowing program before but they don't do it anymore.

 

[laOn]

So let me get this straight.
1. You have multiple family members that are physicians.( Including your father)
2. You are having difficulty shadowing a physician.

1. most of them don't live in the US / the city i'm in right now . (never said my dad was a physician. )
2. called 12 local primary care clinics + 3 big hospitals but all no

 

[Mednight]

I know! i've been volunteering at this hospital for 2 yrs and the coordinator said they had a shadowing program before but they don't do it anymore.

I can understand that then, but I wonder why they ended it.