Mentorship versus Shadowing?

[Weirdy]

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Have a quick question. Or rather 2.

1) What was your shadowing experience like? I've pm'd a few individuals on here in private and they've been EXTREMELY helpful, even pointing me where to go. So how was your shadowing experience like? What did you like/not like about the whole thing?

2) Did anyone do something else besides shadowing? Maybe you worked in a hospital instead or did a mentorship with a university med center nearby? What were your likes and dislikes? How did you cold-approach whoever was in charge to let you under their gracious merciful wings?

 

[Sweatshirt]

1) I contacted my university and they set me up with our podiatrist to shadow. If you're having trouble shadowing I suggest doing that too. I only had great experiences. I pretty much just went to the office and followed the doctor around all day. I was able to ask questions, get answers, and see all the different office procedures. I never got to go to the OR, but I've seen not pod related surgeries before

2) Podiatry related, besides shadowing I did an internship at one of the pod schools. It was amazing and I highly recommend anyone going into podiatry to do one. It helped solidify my interest in this field. We got to talk to students, do workshops, and visit clinics. Plus, the doctors you see at the internship you can count towards shadowing hours. Non-pod related I volunteered at a hospital for a year or so

 

[Weirdy]

1) I contacted my university and they set me up with our podiatrist to shadow. If you're having trouble shadowing I suggest doing that too. I only had great experiences. I pretty much just went to the office and followed the doctor around all day. I was able to ask questions, get answers, and see all the different office procedures. I never got to go to the OR, but I've seen not pod related surgeries before

2) Podiatry related, besides shadowing I did an internship at one of the pod schools. It was amazing and I highly recommend anyone going into podiatry to do one. It helped solidify my interest in this field. We got to talk to students, do workshops, and visit clinics. Plus, the doctors you see at the internship you can count towards shadowing hours. Non-pod related I volunteered at a hospital for a year or so

Nice. Thanks for the feedback. I shadowed an MD internal med during break and it was great. Got the kinks out of what to expect and how it'll work. Curious to see the same with a pod.

I called up the health advisors here to see if they could set me up with one. Got an email back saying "No opportunity exists at this time, we are not associated with any DPMs around the area." Doesn't help that the health department here in general is a bit weak unless you're into PT/OT programs.

They basically told me to hit up individual offices. Trying to see if I can go the mentorship route with a near by university health science center but wanted yalls experiences first.

As for intership, currently working on an app to CSPM because they're doing a 3 day pod experience thing. Not sure if its the same as an internship but doing that I'm sure will help me get a feel for curriculum/day to day workings.

 

[Sweatshirt]

My internship wasn't at CSPM but it was 3 days too and I imagine it'll be very similar. You will have a great experience

Keep reaching out to local offices. Someone should be kind enough to let you come in!

 

[HappyHobPod]

They basically told me to hit up individual offices.

I did this rather than using school connections. I wrote up a nice letter explaining what I was looking for and then delivered it to the office. I ended up only having to drop a letter off at one office since the DPM called me the next day and welcomed me into his practice to shadow him. Turned out to be a great experience of about ~150 hours over the course of 4 months. He encouraged me to ask questions while he was working and to interact with the patient as well. Depending on the DPM, they might just want you to sit off to the side and save your questions for later. So I was grateful for the kind of interaction I had. Was able to see a pretty full scope of procedures, especially a lot of diabetic cases.

 

[CardsFan92]

Have a quick question. Or rather 2.

1) What was your shadowing experience like? I've pm'd a few individuals on here in private and they've been EXTREMELY helpful, even pointing me where to go. So how was your shadowing experience like? What did you like/not like about the whole thing?

2) Did anyone do something else besides shadowing? Maybe you worked in a hospital instead or did a mentorship with a university med center nearby? What were your likes and dislikes? How did you cold-approach whoever was in charge to let you under their gracious merciful wings?

1) My shadowing experiences cemented my desire to go into podiatry. The pods I shadowed were some of the most interesting docs I shadowed while I was a pre-med, and they seemed to genuinely enjoy what they were doing while I was in the office. I liked that many patients seemed to leave feeling better than they had when they walked in--the opportunity to do the kind of procedures that can make patients feel better almost instantaneously was another big draw for me, and shadowing allowed me to see some of those procedures. Didn't like the massive amount of paperwork and overhead that went along with the private practice pods I shadowed. Didn't like how big of a role routine care (nail clipping, callus removal) plays in private practice when I was shadowing...even though I understand its importance

2) I was an EMT in high school and did a couple years of volunteer work in a level 1 trauma center in a big city as a pre-med. I think exposure to a whole bunch of different specialties is important when you're looking at medicine as a career. Go and see what's out there!

 

[Weirdy]

UPDATE:

YA BOY GOT A MENTOR. Well its his first time taking on a student and my first time doing anything like this but he still decided to take me on. He seemed really down to Earth on the phone and really chill. Gonna fill out paperwork and hopefully start this summer.

And again a huge thank you to all of you on here as well as the ones I PM'd. Guess all I really needed was the push to send out a bunch of emails and go for it instead of self-doubting and putting it off.