Nvm.

[obgynhopeful]

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[NotASerialKiller]

I worked for a group of physicians for about a year. On my last day, one of them gave me their contact information and basically offered to be a point of reference for anything pre-med I was needing help with. We've chatted a few times here and there since. I asked if could shadow them and was rather disappointed upon hearing nothing back at all. A few months passed and they reached out to me again. Small talk really. I mentioned volunteering in the hospital and hopefully shadowing in the hospital I was currently working in. To my surprise they responded with "You can shadow me." Naturally, I was excited. I responded with "That would be great. When should we do this?" and again, haven't heard anything back at all since a week.

I know physicians are busy, but the complete lack of timely and respectful correspondence seems so distasteful.

At this point I don't even want to shadow this physician, let alone associate with them. It just seems so unprofessional to me.

That's all. Just wanted to vent.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Physicians are busy people who get a massive amount of correspondence. As a pre-med, it can be difficult to get in touch with them and sometimes they forget to respond. As a med student, it can be difficult to get in touch with them and sometimes they forget to respond. As a gardener, it can be difficult to get in touch with them and sometimes they forget to respond.

Just remember they're doing you a favour by letting you shadow them, they don't owe you timely responses. They might glance at your e-mail when they have 20 others to respond to and the pre-med slips their mind. If a long time has passed just e-mail again and politely remind them you'd still like to shadow them sometime.

 

[DokterMom]

Physicians are busy people who get a massive amount of correspondence. As a pre-med, it can be difficult to get in touch with them and sometimes they forget to respond. As a med student, it can be difficult to get in touch with them and sometimes they forget to respond. As a gardener, it can be difficult to get in touch with them and sometimes they forget to respond.

Just remember they're doing you a favour by letting you shadow them, they don't owe you timely responses. They might glance at your e-mail when they have 20 others to respond to and the pre-med slips their mind. If a long time has passed just e-mail again and politely remind them you'd still like to shadow them sometime.

Agreed -- In a situation like this, never bounce the ball back into their court and leave yourself in a position where all you're supposed to do is sit and wait for a call back that may never happen.

If you want to make something happen, then YOU need to maintain control of the follow-up. Imagine if instead you had left a VM or email message that said you were following up about shadowing opportunities and that you'd call them soon to see about scheduling something specific -- Well, that way, you get to keep calling until you get what you want and their easiest option is to give it to you. They've already said 'Yes' in principal -- now it's just about the scheduling.

Propose one day and have 2-3 backups in mind -- even if you can make any day work. Here's your second message: "Hi it's @obgynhopeful calling again about shadowing. I was hoping next Wednesday the 7th could work, but if that's not good for you, I could also make Thursday or the following Tuesday. Would any of those days work for you? If I don't hear from you, I'll give you a call in a couple of days to follow up. Thanks!" What 's the easiest thing for the Dr. to do? Check his/her calendar now -- They may or may not call you back, but if you happen to catch them on the phone, it'll be harder for them to say "I don't know" because checking those dates would have been so simple...