Is this shadowing?

[randommedstudent8]

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[allantois]

Count it as shadowing, just don't count it twice for volunteering.

 

[Goro]

Shadowing is NOT volunteering!

So I have around 25 hours of shadowing in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Cardiology, and Orthopedic Surgery. I know this is a little low so I was wondering if I can double-dip with my clinical volunteering experience at a free clinic as shadowing on my secondaries when schools ask for additional information. At times during clinic, there are volunteer physicians and when clinic is slow, I have the opportunity to step into the patient rooms with the physician to observe them interacting with patients. I also have the opportunity to talk to the physicians about their jobs and I have honestly learned a lot about the profession from these interactions. Could I count this as shadowing as well as clinical volunteering? If so, I would have 50+ shadowing hours.

 

[randommedstudent8]

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[randommedstudent8]

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[Goro]

Seeing what a doctor's day is like is shadowing.

In this process, don't take shortcuts, or look for easy ways out. Do what's required and expected of you. Do you want to be a doctor or not?

I understand, but do you think the fact that I got to observe physician patient interactions a little while I volunteered would make up for my lack of shadowing hours?

 

[Tommyguns89]

Seeing what a doctor's day is like is shadowing.

In this process, don't take shortcuts, or look for easy ways out. Do what's required and expected of you. Do you want to be a doctor or not?

Hmm, what if throughout your volunteering day you happen to observe what a doctor's day is like, or at least the patient-doctor interaction? In my volunteering I see the latter a lot. Obviously double dipping is bad, but I think this might be a good way to demonstrate you have some idea what it is like to be a doctor in the hospital. All of my actual shadowing has been at a doctor's office.

 

[ngc 2170]

Hmm, what if throughout your volunteering day you happen to observe what a doctor's day is like, or at least the patient-doctor interaction? In my volunteering I see the latter a lot. Obviously double dipping is bad, but I think this might be a good way to demonstrate you have some idea what it is like to be a doctor in the hospital. All of my actual shadowing has been at a doctor's office.

If this were the case, jobs such as scribing would completely negate the need to do shadowing. They are separate for application purposes, but I'm sure you could talk about a volunteer/job experience in terms of how much it showed you about doctors' work.

 

[jhg1232]

Seeing what a doctor's day is like is shadowing.

In this process, don't take shortcuts, or look for easy ways out. Do what's required and expected of you. Do you want to be a doctor or not?

http://www.uwmedicine.org/education/md-program/admissions/applicants/shadowing

"Shadowing means specifically observing the physician-patient interaction."

 

[Tommyguns89]

http://www.uwmedicine.org/education/md-program/admissions/applicants/shadowing

"Shadowing means specifically observing the physician-patient interaction."

So most of my volunteering involves interacting directly with patients and I see a lot of doctor-patient interaction. I do think it is different from formal shadowing, because when I did that in a doctor's office I got to see more of the behind the scenes stuff like how record keeping is such a big part of how doctors spend their days. That being said, would it be considered dishonest if I counted some of my volunteering hours as shadowing hours(based on your definition), as long as I dont double dip?

 

[jhg1232]

So most of my volunteering involves interacting directly with patients and I see a lot of doctor-patient interaction. I do think it is different from formal shadowing, because when I did that in a doctor's office I got to see more of the behind the scenes stuff like how record keeping is such a big part of how doctors spend their days. That being said, would it be considered dishonest if I counted some of my volunteering hours as shadowing hours(based on your definition), as long as I dont double dip?

one of my health care volunteering activities was more centered on patient interaction (taking vitals) but i did have some physician shadowing opportunities during that time when I didnt have to see other patients. i listed it as one activity on amcas as "health care experience" (not sure of the exact title) but in the description i mentioned that i had many chances to shadow the physicians as they treated patients


so yeah dont double dip, count it as one activity but when yo udescribe it you could talk about how you had the chance to shadow as well as get hands on interaction with patients.

 

[Tommyguns89]

one of my health care volunteering activities was more centered on patient interaction (taking vitals) but i did have some physician shadowing opportunities during that time when I didnt have to see other patients. i listed it as one activity on amcas as "health care experience" (not sure of the exact title) but in the description i mentioned that i had many chances to shadow the physicians as they treated patients


so yeah dont double dip, count it as one activity but when yo udescribe it you could talk about how you had the chance to shadow as well as get hands on interaction with patients.

That is probably the best way to handle it.

 

[nwts]

So most of my volunteering involves interacting directly with patients and I see a lot of doctor-patient interaction. I do think it is different from formal shadowing, because when I did that in a doctor's office I got to see more of the behind the scenes stuff like how record keeping is such a big part of how doctors spend their days. That being said, would it be considered dishonest if I counted some of my volunteering hours as shadowing hours(based on your definition), as long as I dont double dip?

I think even if you don't double dip on your hours, you'd still kind of be double dipping if you counted it as both because you'd be portraying it as two separate activities when it was actually one. As another person said, I would put it as one activity and explain how you got to both interact with patients and observe physicians treating patients.