Is it OK to talk about a shadowing experience if...

[raylider]

I shadowed a doctor in a hospital and got a chance to see a few awesome surgeries. I even stayed for a full 24hr on-call period.
The doctor is a friend's parent and got me into the OR, but it wasn't exactly "legal" as I did not go through any actual hospital orientation or paperwork, or whatever is necessary to shadow in OR.

So my question is, is it OK to talk about an experience like this in an interview or may be a personal statement or should I avoid it? It was a significant experience, however I am not sure if it would sound shady since I won't be naming any names. Or am I overreacting and this is common practice?

What do you guys think?

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[Astarael]

I shadowed a doctor in a hospital and got a chance to see a few awesome surgeries. I even stayed for a full 24hr on-call period.
The doctor is a friend's parent and got me into the OR, but it wasn't exactly "legal" as I did not go through any actual hospital orientation or paperwork, or whatever is necessary to shadow in OR.

So my question is, is it OK to talk about an experience like this in an interview or may be a personal statement or should I avoid it? It was a significant experience, however I am not sure if it would sound shady since I won't be naming any names. Or am I overreacting and this is common practice?

What do you guys think?

You might want to wait for someone with more experience than me to tell you, but I'm pretty sure this is an ok thing to talk about. I don't think most shadowing experiences are legal in the strictest sense, since nobody really signs a release to allow you to hear about their medical problems. I think pretty much everybody that you would interview with or who would see your application will more or less know that the only way to get this kind of experience is by agreeing to keep confidentiality in return for the ability to see something you normally wouldn't.

I actually had a very similar experience to yours, I think. I was not officially oriented to the hospital, and I think at one point I was passed off as a medical student rather than an undergrad, but that just seems to be the way things work nowadays.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

It's fine. If you really needed to fill out paperwork, you would have filled out paperwork.

 

[BigRedder]

I think that a large number of shadowing experiences work out just like this, so you should certainly feel free to talk about it.

 

[orthomyxo]

It's fine. I'm pretty sure most people get to shadow because they know a guy who knows a guy, etc like you did.