Legality of Shadowing

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PreciousHamburgers

PreciousHamburgers

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Every doctor I have asked about shadowing has said it is impossible due to privacy laws. How can med schools take shadowing into consideration if it is illegal? Do some states have stricter privacy laws than others?
 
It's not illegal. There are rules and consent forms, and some doctors either don't know about their hosptial's student clearance procedure or just don't want to deal with it.
 
Thank you for your replies. I figured there must be ways around it. I am just so frustrated. I have pursued every possible in I might have with a doctor somewhere and they all either say they legally can't, or they say they would, but the facility/group they work for does not permit it. I will be reapplying, and this has been the hardest thing to "check off" on my application. And the worst part is that there really isn't a way for me to convey just how much effort I have put into trying to get shadowing experience. 🙁
 
Every time I have seen a physician with either a student shadowing them, or a medical student doing their clerkship, I get asked if it is okay. I don't see why it would be illegal.
 
Many doctors don't want to put up with the paper work and risks that come with letting a student shadow them. They literally gain nothing and can only lose from it.
 
Your best option is to seek a free health clinic and shadow there. They like students more than any other facility. Many doctors volunteer at these clinics.
 
drtanman said:
Your best option is to seek a free health clinic and shadow there. They like students more than any other facility. Many doctors volunteer at these clinics.
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This is true. I got one of my shadowing opportunities this way.
 
I got my first orthopedic shadowing by bargaining with the Dr saying I would help the nurses in cleaning the rooms and stuff if he let me shadow. This was back in freshman year near a private practice literally 5 minutes from my campus. He had said no to a lot of people for same reason, but I offered him something in return. Got rejected from like 20 places though, so I was pretty desperate haha. Honestly wasn't to bad since I ended not even cleaning the place, it was just the offer that got my foot into the door 😉.
 
I had to sign HIPPA for my shadowing experience and they gave a me a badge.So it can be legal!
 
drtanman said:
Your best option is to seek a free health clinic and shadow there. They like students more than any other facility. Many doctors volunteer at these clinics.
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Or your local medical school probably has a student-run homeless/indigent outreach medical clinic. I'd look that up as not only are they likely to be welcoming, but you can get some great advice from the students themselves.
 
It's perfectly legal. I never had any physician tell me it was illegal. Many where very helpful.
 
I am just so frustrated. I have pursued every possible in I might have with a doctor somewhere
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mehc012 said:
It's illegal = it requires paperwork and/or attention which we are not willing to endure for you.
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If the physician wants you to shadow them then they will. Your best bet is getting a direct hook-up from you pre-med office. Most of us who shadowed had that "hook up" that kinda by passed the rules. For example, volunteers could shadow once a week at my hospital but a surgeon let me shadow him every day as much as I wanted in the OR and clinic depending on the patient.
 
Espadaleader said:
If the physician wants you to shadow them then they will. Your best bet is getting a direct hook-up from you pre-med office. Most of us who shadowed had that "hook up" that kinda by passed the rules. For example, volunteers could shadow once a week at my hospital but a surgeon let me shadow him every day as much as I wanted in the OR and clinic depending on the patient.
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Well, your best bet, all stops pulled out, is scribing - paid shadowing where you personally interact with docs from any number of other specialties on a given day (in the ED) or can try different locations with different specialties.
I never did the premed thing while at school and also wouldn't ask them for a step up in any way but the letter I need from 'em...I just don't like the atmosphere/attitude that the 'premeds all day errday for years and years' atmosphere results in.
 
Working as an aide or scribe is an easy way to get your foot in the door and circumvent this. You'll gain practical experience and be able to build a rapport with the physicians, which make them more likely to overlook these issues.
 
WillburCobb said:
Working as an aide or scribe is an easy way to get your foot in the door and circumvent this. You'll gain practical experience and be able to build a rapport with the physicians, which make them more likely to overlook these issues.
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Plus you'll already have HIPAA and health regs in place for at least one hospital.
 
mehc012 said:
Plus you'll already have HIPAA and health regs in place for at least one hospital.
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Meh, some still make you do them. I had to for two facilities I shadowed at where I was a current employee at the time. Sympathy for the OP though. The hoops I had to jump through and connections I had to use to shadow were ridiculous.
 
WillburCobb said:
Meh, some still make you do them. I had to for two facilities I shadowed at where I was a current employee at the time. Sympathy for the OP though. The hoops I had to jump through and connections I had to use to shadow were ridiculous.
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Really? That sucks.
One of our surgeons essentially told me I could come by whenever I was free, if they were scheduled in the OR that day. It's my job to explain things to the patient and get my name on the consent ahead of time, otherwise they have no concerns. Most of the time, if we admit anyone to surgery while I'm on an early shift (and a doc I know is on call for Surg), I just go in with the nurse when they do the surgical consent and get that sorted out. Then if the ED shift ends early enough, I pop over to the OR and see the next step in the patients' hospital stay. Never had a patient say no yet, but I'm pretty careful to pick my cases. I don't ask parents to see their kids' surgeries, for example.
 
WillburCobb said:
Working as an aide or scribe is an easy way to get your foot in the door and circumvent this. You'll gain practical experience and be able to build a rapport with the physicians, which make them more likely to overlook these issues.
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I graduated in 2009 and I work full-time. Is it worth leaving my job to become a scribe or an aide to get shadowing? Will my application even be looked at if there is no shadowing. I do not care where I go to school, or MD or DO. I have a lot of clinical experience outside of shadowing.
 
PreciousHamburgers said:
Wow. That's very surprising based on my experience.
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What was more common for me was to not get a response at all. I had 150 hours when I posted that, I now have 400+ over 7 specialties.

PreciousHamburgers said:
Thanks, I am going to pursue the LGBT route you did. I have tried everything else you talked about...
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That route works best if you are LGBT yourself and ideally have had problems with other doctors. For example, I was shadowing and a nephrologist's staff kept talking about the fact I was transsexual because they figured it out from my driver's license when I was going through the "hiring" paperwork.
 
familyaerospace said:
What was more common for me was to not get a response at all. I had 150 hours when I posted that, I now have 400+ over 7 specialties.



That route works best if you are LGBT yourself and ideally have had problems with other doctors. For example, I was shadowing and a nephrologist's staff kept talking about the fact I was transsexual because they figured it out from my driver's license when I was going through the "hiring" paperwork.
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Yeah, I am. I emailed a few doctors I found on there and already found one willing to take me on!! I'm sooo relieved and excited! Thank you so much for sharing that idea!! 🙂
 
PreciousHamburgers said:
Do people usually group all of their shadowing under one entry in the Work/Activities section? If so, who would you put as the contact?
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I put all under one entry. This is what mine looks like

LastName, FirstName, Specialty, Practice, Phone Number, Dates, TotalHours

and then did it for the next person.

For the main contact person, I used the one that wrote my LOR.
 
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