Oberservership/Shadowing

[surtur1997]

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Hey guys,
I was just wondering how long an observership lasts or how long you should ask a physician to shadow them for. I recently got in touch with one and they said they would be okay with it, and asked how long I plan on doing it.
Thanks a lot!

 

[KungFuPanda123]

Hey guys,
I was just wondering how long an observership lasts or how long you should ask a physician to shadow them for. I recently got in touch with one and they said they would be okay with it, and asked how long I plan on doing it.
Thanks a lot!

Honestly, after like 10-15 hours, you've basically seen most of what there is to see in a given speciality. You could do more, but I wouldn't recommend doing more than 20 hours. Just go shadow like 4-5 different specialities for ~10-15 hours each, and you should have pretty good breadth/depth.

 

[McSpicy]

Most of the times I've shadowed were about 7-10 days (20-30 hours), except one summer when I shadowed intensively for about 2 months. I'd say shadow for 5-7 days for about 20 hours. You do want to accumulate shadowing across a couple specialties to show that you're open-minded even if you have an idea of what interests you already. I don't think there's a magic number for shadowing hours but I'd say the more the merrier.

 

[surtur1997]

The thing is that I already kind of have an idea as to what I want to specialize in, and just want to get some more insight into the specialty, rather than gain exposure to different ones. Does that mean shadowing for a longer period of time in the one specialty?

 

[McSpicy]

The thing is that I already kind of have an idea as to what I want to specialize in, and just want to get some more insight into the specialty, rather than gain exposure to different ones. Does that mean shadowing for a longer period of time in the one specialty?

Shadow a physician in that area for a good portion of time but also explore different specialties. For example, let's say I'm interested in cardiology so it'd make sense to shadow a cardiologist but also a cardiothoracic surgeon and also another internal medicine specialty like gastroenterology or nephrology. Approach medicine with an open mind. Even most entering medical students change their minds before the residency match.