Length of Shadowing

[paperaeroplane]

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For those of you who have shadowed doctors, how many days a week did you shadow and for how many hours? Also, how many weeks did you shadow?

I am trying to get a better idea of how long I need to shadow for. I only have July to shadow this doctor, but I am wondering just how much I need to shadow and what would look good. Thanks.

 

[NickNaylor]

Shadow enough to be able to talk about it and get a good glimpse of whether you would like to do this person's job. It should be about seeing if this career interests you, not how much you have to do to get accepted. There's no magic number.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

1-2 days total per doc, 4-24 hours per day.

 

[deleted202457]

i usually shadow each dr 2 hrs a day 5 days a week so i can see different things each day. one day i go in early and see new patients. some days i go in later to see returning patients. somedays i'll go to the hopital with them and see precedures. you just wanna mix it up and see as much as you can. obviously you can't see everything, but you can try and optimize your time spent with them.

 

[Dannyw]

I've shadowed probably 10-12 different specialties at 1-2 days. I think it's pretty easy to get an idea of what they do after a full day.

 

[sonia1177]

For those of you who have shadowed doctors, how many days a week did you shadow and for how many hours? Also, how many weeks did you shadow?

I am trying to get a better idea of how long I need to shadow for. I only have July to shadow this doctor, but I am wondering just how much I need to shadow and what would look good. Thanks.

Honestly, it really just depends. If you know what you want to do (what specialty you are thinking about) then I would shadow as much as I can. But just to get a glimpse of other specialties, I would do it for less time. I typically shadow a doctor once or twice a week, anywhere from 3-6 hours a day. It just varies.

 

[familyaerospace]

My goal is to always try to shadow a minimum of 10 hours each and to take more if I can get it. So far, I have 36 hours from a neurologist (which is one specialty I knew I would enjoy), 30 from a plastic surgeon, 8 from obgyn/peds, and 6 from a nephrologist. I can't remember if I am forgetting any. I will have some family medicine coming up too.

 

[Web MD]

I'd shadow a physcian for 2 days, maybe 6-10 hours/day. After that, I'd probably switch to a different specialty. I highly recommend shadowing an ER or trauma doc once during the week, and at least one other time on a weekend to get a different feel for how the environment can change.