Non-physician shadowing experience

Started by Dr Tony T. Chopper
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Dr Tony T. Chopper

Dr Tony T. Chopper

Professional Whippersnapper
7+ Year Member
DO shadowing aside, I have been really interested in the supplement business and interdisciplinary care between physician to acupuncturist to herbalist. I want to be able to have a working knowledge about what supplements I could recommend to patients if more invasive intervention could be avoided. I have plans on shadowing an acupuncturist and perhaps herbalist but I am not sure if this will help my application in any way. Any thoughts?
 
gonnif said:
I would be much more worried that an adcom would view this negatively. Applying to medical school is, in many ways a negative process. That is so many highly qualified apply that adcoms that they need to weed out applicants. Any flag, concern or item that can be construed in a negative fashion may.
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I might have miscommunicated a bit when I mentioned non DO shadows. I am speaking as a student who has already had extensive DO shadowing and would like to shadow professionals of other disciplines out of interest.
 
You can shadow whoever you want, but I would be very careful about showing an interest in quack medicine.
 
Dr Tony T. Chopper said:
DO shadowing aside, I have been really interested in the supplement business and interdisciplinary care between physician to acupuncturist to herbalist. I want to be able to have a working knowledge about what supplements I could recommend to patients if more invasive intervention could be avoided. I have plans on shadowing an acupuncturist and perhaps herbalist but I am not sure if this will help my application in any way. Any thoughts?
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Yeah, no. DO's really don't like being lumped in with alternative medicine. They have been fighting that stigma for 60 years. Thats right up there with writing 'I don't really care about being a DO, I just want to be a doctor' on your secondary. It may be true, but you don't say it cause your app gets thrown out. So yeah you may want to perscribe herbs like a ND, but don't tell the DO schools, they want real physicians not as allantois says 'quacks.'

Side note: On display at NSU they had a book of Quackery from like 1895. The funny thing was the book was serious.
 
If I was an adcom, I would look upon an app that mentioned shadowing an acupuncturist or herbalist very very extremely unfavorably.
 
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