Is it THAT hard to get into thw whole shadowing business in hospitals? I called

[alexfoleyc]

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I called them on Monday (6 days ago) and the lady at the desk told me that there is an actual director person to manage students who wish to shadow, volunteer, etc..SO then I called the director and left a voicemail message. She never called back. So, I called her again on Friday and left another message. FYI: This is the ER dept's director for shadowing. Why is she not responding?

 

[runrunrudolph1]

I called them on Monday (6 days ago) and the lady at the desk told me that there is an actual director person to manage students who wish to shadow, volunteer, etc..SO then I called the director and left a voicemail message. She never called back. So, I called her again on Friday and left another message. FYI: This is the ER dept's director for shadowing. Why is she not responding?

perhaps she is on a vacation or really busy? Have you tried contacting the actual doctors?

 

[FSAP]

ER are like that. The section chief referred me to residency director and I never got a hold of her. Tried email and phone. Ended up going to her office, camping there and only to find out she could not accommodate me because of swine flu. Big WTF.

 

[VoiceofReason]

i had to submit two letters of recommendation to get into the volunteering program that i was interested in

what now?

 

[not respect]

just contact a bunch of surgeons, go to the hospital's site for whichever specialty you want to do and find some random guy to shadow. Don't pick the division chiefs though, usually they are busy/ not as friendly.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I called them on Monday (6 days ago) and the lady at the desk told me that there is an actual director person to manage students who wish to shadow, volunteer, etc..SO then I called the director and left a voicemail message. She never called back. So, I called her again on Friday and left another message. FYI: This is the ER dept's director for shadowing. Why is she not responding?

Go to her office. Face to face is always better than through a telephone line.

 

[runrunrudolph1]

just contact a bunch of surgeons, go to the hospital's site for whichever specialty you want to do and find some random guy to shadow. Don't pick the division chiefs though, usually they are busy/ not as friendly.

👍 soooo true. if you email like 20 docs, chances are at least a few of them will answer. although calling is better.

CHIEF RESIDENTS=NO.

ATTENDINGS (esp new ones)=yesss

 

[WhizoMD]

I called them on Monday (6 days ago) and the lady at the desk told me that there is an actual director person to manage students who wish to shadow, volunteer, etc..SO then I called the director and left a voicemail message. She never called back. So, I called her again on Friday and left another message. FYI: This is the ER dept's director for shadowing. Why is she not responding?

the hospital has an actual person to manage premeds? Sounds like they're making it easy for you. 😛

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

👍 soooo true. if you email like 20 docs, chances are at least a few of them will answer. although calling is better.

CHIEF RESIDENTS=NO.

ATTENDINGS (esp new ones)=yesss

100% agree residents are usually wayyy stressed out and constantly doing work, the Attendings in my experience are pretty friendly and good teachers.

 

[kami333]

100% agree residents are usually wayyy stressed out and constantly doing work, the Attendings in my experience are pretty friendly and good teachers.

Also shadowing a resident may not count, at least it doesn't for one school.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

Also shadowing a resident may not count, at least it doesn't for one school.

yeah true

 

[theacks1]

just contact a bunch of surgeons, go to the hospital's site for whichever specialty you want to do and find some random guy to shadow. Don't pick the division chiefs though, usually they are busy/ not as friendly.

Really? Both my positive returns came from chiefs, viz. Neonatology and Pediatric Emergency. In fact, the chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine gave me the green light to come whenever I want; I've followed most of the emergency attendings and nearly all of the pediatric interns and junior residents as they treated patients, not to mention the urgent care physicians, orthopedic surgeons, trauma teams, and whoever else might wander into the department.

In any case, it is much easier to get a position if you tell a volunteer coordinator "I've been talking to Dr. P of the Cool Specialty Department and he said I can shadow him, what do I have to do?" than "Um... I'm a premed and everyone told me I should do the whole shadowing thing, so yeah." Right before talking to the Neonatology chief, the volunteer coordinator I emailed the volunteer coordinator about shadowing and she said that they were at capacity and could not take any more shadows. A few days later, I told her I had a doctor lined up, and she said cool, do this, this, and this and you're all set.

 

[Hextra]

The hospital where I used to volunteer required quite a few things in order to shadow/volunteer there (they sent all these people through the same process):

Take a class (general hospital rules, what not to touch, HIPAA, etc)
Resume/Statement of Intent
Blood test of some sort
Letter from the Doc you wish to shadow (basically saying they take full responsibility for you)

It's a lot of hoops to jump through, and if you're at a hospital like this the doctors already know what you're having to do to follow them around. At the hospital where I work now, they only require a letter from the doctor and a signed consent from the department. All in all, if you go by the book it could really try your patience.

You are bound to find some doctors who wouldn't mind taking you around under the radar, but, if you expect to do a fair amount of shadowing, jump through the hoops ASAP and you'll have access to any other shadowing opportunity throughout the hospital "free of charge".