Importance of Shadowing with Lots of Prior Clinical Experience

[singergirl18]

I am applying this year, and I only have 20 hours of shadowing experience.I have talked a lot to residents and physicians through work and I am arranging shadowing an ER physician right before my apps. Is not having a huge amount of shadowing going to hurt me? I have learned SO MUCH from my experiences, and I feel that working alongside physicians (and other health professions) has been the most telling. I have had repeated exposure to physicians, nurses, NPs, and PAs, and I have gotten to really see their roles in various settings such as emergencies. It just isn't formal "shadowing". Is that a huge problem?

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[justAstudent]

For what it's worth, I was in a similar position as you, and I got by just fine with about 20 hours of shadowing. I wasn't an EMT or anything, but I had about a year of clinical research experience where I worked side by side with physicians in a large hospital.

 

[The Chemist]

depends on the school. some state "minimum 40 hours." others call it a "passive form of learning" and say "as long as you've done some."

you should be fine, generally, when considering all your other exposure

if in doubt, quickly schedule more shadowing and update/include on secondaries, as appropriate (I wouldn't send an update just for shadowing hours, but you could include shadowing on a more substantial update)

 

[jm192]

I think you can explain it away during an interview. But, someone may look at your application and wonder why it's so low. If school x has so many interview spots, and you're on the fringe of being interviewed or not--maybe they see the low shadowing #'s and decide to go with someone who appears to have explored it more. Fair or not.

Part of it is knowing what you're getting into. You've covered that.
Part of it is showing you can handle school, work, etc and still make time to shadow.
Part of it is just jumping through their hoops. If you can't jump through the hoops to get in, why should they think you'll do what it takes to survive?

I'd try to get to at least 50 hours of formal shadowing.

 

[singergirl18]

So since I will be starting work in the CICU, it will be different to formally list it on the app, but after a summer of full time before going back to school where I'll switch to two nights (12 hr shifts) a week, it would probably be significant to enough to put in an update. I could include the shadowing with that. I will have a lot of time this summer.

 

[routeniner]

Do you think how recent the shadowing experience was is important as well? I have around 50 hours, but they were all 3 or more years ago...

 

[Heplayer92]

Are shadowing and clinically volunteering mutually exclusive?

I shadowed physicians for 120ish hours for a high school class that I took, but am unable to put it under my works/activities (so my advisor suggested that I add it somewhere into the personal statement).

I have 0 hours of "formal shadowing" during college. However, I was able to "shadow" a variety of care providers through my 300+ hours of clinical volunteering experiences, but under works/activities, they will go under clinical volunteering.

Would this be problematic as well? Seems similar to the OP, because OP has obviously done some shadowing...but under works/activities, would be unable to put that under the "shadowing" category? It's the experience and insight that really counts right?

 

[singergirl18]

One thing I noticed when I did shadow was that I was being told a lot of happy, flowery statements about how everyone LOVES their job and how GREAT everything is. When I was working alongside these people, I saw a more representative picture. I spoke to a resident about a month after she started, and she was telling me that she wished she went to grad school to teach Chemistry instead. I feel that by actually working with patients and medical professionals, I have experienced the good, bad, and the ugly, and that my decision is very informed.

I personally think that clinical volunteering/work is a sort of shadowing if that's what you make it. It has the opportunity to go both ways. However, I don't know if adcoms see it the same way, and that is what I am worried about.

 

[Mad Jack]

All you really need is 40 or so total hours of shadowing. The purpose of shadowing is not to get clinical experience, but rather to see what a physician's day is like. You could have 10,000 hours as an EMT, which certainly shows you can deal with patients, but doesn't mean you know what a doctor's day and life are like. I worked alongside physicians for 5 years in the hospital and read up and down the forums and yet I learned a lot about the nitty gritty of working as an inpatient doc in 5 days of shadowing.

Just get the time in. 40 hours, spread out over as many days or docs as you have to. It'll help your app and likely give you something new to say come interview season.

 

[DermViser]

One thing I noticed when I did shadow was that I was being told a lot of happy, flowery statements about how everyone LOVES their job and how GREAT everything is. When I was working alongside these people, I saw a more representative picture.

You've learned a lesson that's more important than you realize.

 

[jm192]

Are shadowing and clinically volunteering mutually exclusive?

I shadowed physicians for 120ish hours for a high school class that I took, but am unable to put it under my works/activities (so my advisor suggested that I add it somewhere into the personal statement).

I have 0 hours of "formal shadowing" during college. However, I was able to "shadow" a variety of care providers through my 300+ hours of clinical volunteering experiences, but under works/activities, they will go under clinical volunteering.

Would this be problematic as well? Seems similar to the OP, because OP has obviously done some shadowing...but under works/activities, would be unable to put that under the "shadowing" category? It's the experience and insight that really counts right?

Why?

You shadowed. Class or not, you shadowed. You list that as shadowing experience. Mention it was part of a class if it makes you feel better. But no ADCOM is going to think you're trying to cheat the system or double dip for counting your class related shadowing.

 

[Heplayer92]

Why?

You shadowed. Class or not, you shadowed. You list that as shadowing experience. Mention it was part of a class if it makes you feel better. But no ADCOM is going to think you're trying to cheat the system or double dip for counting your class related shadowing.

Hmmm lol, I'm glad you feel that way! That's what I was thinking too, but every other source (AMCAS guidelines...my pre-health advisor, my pre-med advising website...the adcoms my pre-health advisor talked to) told me that experiences that are ONLY high school should not be included. It's not like I was that much dumber or more immature during senior year of high school compared to freshman year at college =P Thanks for the response jm192! Hope that response also helped you out OP!