My dilemma - listing shadowing on AMCAS app

[bambi girl]

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Hey all,

I was wondering if somebody could give me some advice about a dilemma that I am having right now.

So for years I've been searching for an opportunity to shadow a physician and about a month ago I emailed a bunch of alums from my college to ask if I could follow them around at their practice. Luckily, one of them got back to me right away and I was able to shadow her twice. She was really nice and said that people shadow her all the time. BUT then another doctor who works at the same hospital emailed me back to say that the hospital makes it really hard for non med school students to shadow her because of the HIPPA and that in order to do so you have to get written consent from each patient.

Even though it was only about a total of 15 hours of shadowing, I'd really like to list the shadowing experience on my work/activities list since I know how important shadowing can be for some ADCOMS. Do you think this idea is risky? I am worried about getting the physician in trouble if somebody found out that she let me shadow her without going through the necessary steps. I guess I could just list the activity without the dr.'s name, but what if I am asked about it at an interview.... I don't want to get in trouble myself either....

Thanks in advance!

 

[Sangria]

Hey all,

I was wondering if somebody could give me some advice about a dilemma that I am having right now.

So for years I've been searching for an opportunity to shadow a physician and about a month ago I emailed a bunch of alums from my college to ask if I could follow them around at their practice. Luckily, one of them got back to me right away and I was able to shadow her twice. She was really nice and said that people shadow her all the time. BUT then another doctor who works at the same hospital emailed me back to say that the hospital makes it really hard for non med school students to shadow her because of the HIPPA and that in order to do so you have to get written consent from each patient.

Even though it was only about a total of 15 hours of shadowing, I'd really like to list the shadowing experience on my work/activities list since I know how important shadowing can be for some ADCOMS. Do you think this idea is risky? I am worried about getting the physician in trouble if somebody found out that she let me shadow her without going through the necessary steps. I guess I could just list the activity without the dr.'s name, but what if I am asked about it at an interview.... I don't want to get in trouble myself either....

Thanks in advance!

Even if they for some reason asked you the name of the Dr., I really doubt that they would go back, research the doctor and the policies of the hospital she works in. You don't even have to list the name of the doctor on your AMCAS.
Also, you did not know that you were breaking any rules when you shadowed and I don't think this makes your shadowing experience any less valuable. If I was in your position, I would assume that if someone is letting me shadow him or her, than it's not a problem. I don't think you can get in trouble for this

 

[Mattabet]

List it, don't worry about getting the doc in trouble. Different practices meet HIPPA requirements in different ways, and there's no reason to believe that all the practices that work out of that hospital would all use the exact same guidelines. As long as you (or the doctor) haven't actually violated HIPPA (i.e., you weren't hiding under the exam bed, typing up everything they said to publish it in a newspaper without their consent), then you and the doc are fine.