Physician shadowing. Help!!!!!!

[Hakjam]

What's the best way to get a physician shadowing experience? Call a hospital or a physician? I live in Atlanta.

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[dreamweaver1988]

What's the best way to get a physician shadowing experience? Call a hospital or a physician? I live in Atlanta.

Big city so you have lots of opportunities. You can use the direct approach or the indirect approach.

Direct approach: (1) Cold call doctors and, as a total stranger, ask to follow them around for a few days. (2) Take a shadowing course through your college

Indirect approach: (1) Use a family connection or friend of the family connection. (2) Volunteer or work in a healthcare setting, meet doctors, suck up, and then ask to shadow them.

I prefer the indirect approach as the relationship is formed more organically. However, if you need to have hours by this coming cycle lol, then you'll have to be more proactive.

 

[UTsksk]

Get the best of both worlds, find a doc that has a clinic and does procedures that require anesthesia like a ENT. You get to shadow in a clinic setting and go to the hospital. The hospital part does get tricky since you have to jump through their hoops since I'm obviously going to tell everyone what I saw.

I used the more direct approach since my connections were VERY nonexistent. It worked out in the end because now I have connections.

 

[GomerPyle]

I shadowed 4 doctors of different specialties - all of whom I never knew and randomly asked. It is NOT as hard as you make it.

All you do is go to your local hospital/clinic's website and call their "Human Resources" or "Hiring" or "Volunteering" office and see how you can get involved. There is normally some sort of paperwork you need to fill out regarding patient confidentiality and also do some drug testing - they will then give you some sort of student badge.

Once you have your badge, you go searching for doctors that will give you permission to follow them on a certain day. All you do is randomly call up doctor offices within the clinic/hospital, talk to their assistant/nurse, and ask them if its OK to shadow the doctor. Half the time they will call you back, half the time they wont. That's why you contact 5 or 6 physicians at a time! Sometimes they will give you a doctor's email address where you can ask him yourself, or sometimes the assistants will ask and set something up. It is really easy , and most doctor's LOVE having students following them around. Mine did - and they taught me so much as well.

Have fun - its an amazing experience.

 

[justoneplease]

I agree with Gomer. For me, I just emailed a couple of different doctors and after they responded, set up a time to go meet them and whatnot.

 

[Ismet]

Check out the websites of your local hospitals and search for volunteering or shadowing. Some hospitals have shadowing programs for high school and college students (how I got my shadowing hours at my home hospital), or you could call the volunteer coordinator and ask about opportunities for shadowing.

Also, shadow your PCP and your pediatrician (I'm sure they'd love to see you!) - you already have those connections and it's easy shadowing hours.

I shadowed 4 doctors of different specialties - all of whom I never knew and randomly asked. It is NOT as hard as you make it.

Depends on where you live and what the hospital's policies are. Here in Pittsburgh, it's difficult to find a UPMC doctor to shadow if you're not going through connections or a shadowing program because there's so much red tape. There are plenty of doctors who are willing to let you shadow them, but cold calling/emailing won't get you very far if you don't know who to ask.

 

[exquisitemelody]

As others said, cold call or ask your own doctors (and then ask them if they have doctor friends would let you shadow) or your parents' doctors. Try looking to see if Tech or Emory has any information on how to find doctors to shadow. Atlanta is so big, I'm sure you'll be able to find a couple doctors who would let you in.

 

[martian93]

As someone who is also struggling to find someone to shadow, I have found that calling usually gets you nowhere fast. However, I have discovered that if you go into the doctor's office and strike up a conversation with them in person, they're more receptive. Also, if you're looking to shadow at a hospital or large clinic as opposed to a private practice, these places often have someone who is in charge of coordinating shadowing. Again, just go to the front desk, tell them what you're wanting to do, and ask who you need to speak with. Best of luck!

 

[asecondtolife]

My school has a program in which doctors willing to shadow premed students put their name down and the prospective students go through an application process for the spots. Something to look into at your school 🙂

 

[Hakjam]

I wish we had such a program in my school. Thanks guys for the response.