Is physician shadowing prior to medical school mandatory?

[Proconsul1981]

I thought the GPA and MCAT were paramount?

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[Bobby_Ray]

GPA and MCAT are important. But you are trying to get into a professional career. It’s going to be a big red flag to admission committees if you have no experience seeing what the job you are trying to get into is like. How do you know becoming a physician is the right career for you if have no experience seeing what their job is like?

 

[charactercomic2]

It is coming off as if you don't like the premise of shadowing and would rather not do it. Shadowing gives the student an idea on whether or not they want to get into medicine., if they want tp spend the next few years trying to get into medical school, if they want to spend 4 years in medical school etc.

 

[deleted1066189]

shadowing is a necessity, or at least scribing

If I didn't shadow a variety of specialties, I wouldn't have a motivation to go into medicine. I didn't like shadowing inpatient (particularly surgery), didn't want to go into medicine till I started shadowing specialties in an outpatient setting (primary care, and a couple surgical subs in the clinic)

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Maybe not mandatory, but necessary. It would stick out like a big painful zit on your app if you didn't. It would be hard not to notice or keep staring at.

 

[KnightDoc]

I thought the GPA and MCAT were paramount?

Yes, they are paramount, kind of like the ante at a poker table. Without them, you don't get looked at. (Of course, there are different expectations for different schools and different demographic groups.)

Once you clear that hurdle, everything else is looked at. If you are missing something, you are at a distinct disadvantage to the thousands of fellow applicants who are missing nothing. Whether or not you survive depends on how awesome the rest of your application is.

You can, of course, take your chances, but by far the wisest course of action is to make sure you are checking all the expected boxes. JMHO, as someone who pushed an application back a year during COVID to avoid hearing an answer I didn't like to a similar question. 🙂

 

[Goro]

I thought the GPA and MCAT were paramount?

SDNers are advised to not to focus on single metrics.

Even if med schools do not explicitly state on their admissions websites (something that most pre0meds seem to ignore), while shadowing isn't a re-req, it is still a necessity.

You need to show that you understand what a doctor's day is like and how different doctors approach the practice of Medicine.

Scribing will allow for both shadowing and patient contact.

 

[LittleBrother]

I got into w/o Shadowing or Scribing....

Clinical experience is mandatory, but I was able to sell some of my experiences as a Marine and an EMT to make up for the more classic physician-focused clinical activities I lacked.

I would say that shadowing is your low-hanging fruit and you should have a very good reason as to why a lack of hours doesn't impact your understanding of what you are getting yourself into. In fact a lack of Shadowing was something I explicitly provided an explanation for on my Apps.

 

[Orims]

I thought the GPA and MCAT were paramount?

They are important, however, they alone will not guarantee admissions to a program or prevent you from being considered. While my GPA was quite high (3.9+), my MCAT (513) was below the 10%tile for half of the schools I was admitted to. Strong clinical, volunteering, research, etc., will help overcome "low" GPAs or MCATs (I say "low" because even if you have stellar ECs, these cannot help you if your MCAT is 498 or GPA 2.8, extreme examples).

Shadowing is also important as it gives you an insight into a doctor's day to day routine. I got in with ~40 hours, which is on the low end, however I feel that my other clinical activities , one which was being an interpreter (so to some degree active shadowing), helped complement.

 

[Breadleee]

It's definitely not mandatory. I just applied to 20 medical schools this cycle got 14 II and multiple acceptances so far. Not a single minute of shadowing was reported on my app. However, I have a strong story where my father was in the hospital a lot and I took care of him and met doctors and nurses for hours through his care and taking care of him. So I could still speak on it. I also am low income so I had to work a job through college and could use that as an excuse as to why just volunteering in the hospital and my father's care and talking to doctors that way was enough for me. I also did mention in interviews I shadowed in HS. However, I never put this officially on my app. I may be an anomaly though so take my story with a grain of salt and still get shadowing I'd say 😀

Overall though don't let this be the hill you're willing to die on it can only hurt you honestly.

 

[Banco]

Shadowing is the most important. Every 100 hours you shadow is worth +1 point on the MCAT and +0.1 for your GPA.

 

[Goro]

... what. April Fools was yesterday, right? Little late for the jokes now.

For anyone believing in this person’s ‘advice’, shadowing DOES NOT make up for GPA and MCAT. That’s patently false. Shadowing’s more something you tick off that you have, instead of something that somehow magically increases your stats through doggedly hovering over a physician for ___ hours.

In case this is sarcasm, dangit you raised my blood pressure far too quickly sir.

* sigh* Sarcasm doesn't travel well over the electrons

 

[Proudfather94]

SDNers are advised to not to focus on single metrics.

Even if med schools do not explicitly state on their admissions websites (something that most pre0meds seem to ignore), while shadowing isn't a re-req, it is still a necessity.

You need to show that you understand what a doctor's day is like and how different doctors approach the practice of Medicine.

Scribing will allow for both shadowing and patient contact.

How do you guys feel about virtual shadowing during covid? especially if you have a clinical job like a cna where you are in the room while the doctor is talking to a patient.

 

[Goro]

How do you guys feel about virtual shadowing during covid? especially if you have a clinical job like a cna where you are in the room while the doctor is talking to a patient.

Better than nothing!!!! I'd cut you slack due to COVID

 

[Proudfather94]

Better than nothing!!!! I'd cut you slack due to COVID

That's a possible route for op to take then. My hospitals hurting for cnas/pcas Right now so I'm guessing that's nation wide. You get to observe the doctor talking to their patient if you're in the room and virtual shadowing can supplement what you don't see. My hospital doesn't let people shadow the doctors directly unfortunately

 

[YCAGA]

Why would you spend the time studying for the MCAT and taking medical school prereqs if you didn’t even know what being a doctor is like…don’t even think about this from a medical school application point of view. Think about this from making halfway decent decisions for yourself point of view.