I'm currently a sophomore in high school (14). I recently broke my fibula and tore a ligament, so I've been seeing a podiatrist at Kaiser. I want to ask him for a shadowing opportunity at my next appointment, so I tried to get some administrative information on this matter. I called up volunteer services, but they told me that they didn't have a shadowing program. I don't think they understood that I had a specific doctor that I wanted to shadow. I also called up the Podiatry Department, and the receptionist picked up. She consulted with someone after I inquired about shadowing, and she simply told me to go through the volunteer department or something along those lines. I don't think she realized that I knew the podiatrist either. Being a big hospital, I know there's a lot more administrative stuff, such as HIPAA, to go through. After all these "no's" should I still ask my podiatrist? I heard that it helps ask to ask the podiatrist directly, especially because they can help me through a lot of the administrative stuff. However, I feel bad putting my podiatrist through so much administrative trouble. I mean, asking to shadow alone is a HUGE favor to ask for. I'm looking to shadow in the long term (1-2 hours weekly or biweekly). Am I asking for too much from my podiatrist? Thanks for all the help! It really means a lot!
Issues with Shadowing
- Thread starter jessmok
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In big bureaucratic institutions, it typically takes someone on the inside pushing to get the ball rolling to have a HS or college student credentialed to shadow. I'm not going to lie. It is a pain in the butt to set these things up from our side of things. It typically costs us money and effort to give you the opportunity. This is why people are generally reluctant to be more helpful. Your best bet is to ask your podiatrist directly. Be polite, but persistent unless he flat out tells you no.
Can you explain a little more about what you mean by "it typically costs us money"? I would hate to cause my podiatrist too much trouble or get him in trouble.
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To get you credentialed to follow one of our surgeons at the hospital I work at, it would cost my department $500 to get the necessary paperwork, background checks and classes lined up for you. Probably half of it goes to the background check and the other half goes to a bunch of people to push your application around for a month. If you want to do research with us, it is between $1000 and $1500. There is ZERO good reason for it, but that is what the hospital asks for. That money has to come from somewhere. There are usually funds at most places that make this an easy thing to do every once in a while, but it requires someone with a little bit of clout to advocate for those funds to be utilized for you.
From talking to people at other institutions, my hospital is among the more bureaucratic and expensive as far as setting this kind of stuff up, but not way outside the norm. Your podiatrist will not get into trouble for this. I can imagine Kaiser being similar to our hospital and just painful to set things like this up at. I would just ask him. You don't lose anything.
"I really appreciate all of the hard work that you put in helping me with my leg. I'm considering trying to do something similar to what you do, it seems very rewarding. Do you think that I could see more of what you do?"
I know that Kaiser has a volunteer program (that doesn't start accepting applications from high schoolers until May), and they run background checks on their applicants. As for the classes, I volunteer at Methodist Hospital, which has a pretty strict system as well. Even after the application process and two interviews, I had to go through 9 hours of training that involved the coding system, wheelchair usage, HIPAA, etc. Then again, I doubt this will suffice for Kaiser, as they will probably want me to take their classes.
With all this bureaucracy going on, is it unreasonable to want to shadow for a shorter amount of hours but over a longer period of time? Also, someone recommended me to get a LOR from a teacher. Would that actually help with anything?
