Purpose for Shadowing?

[bluezeno]

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[psipsina]

I did it as a way to motivate myself thru the drudgery of the first two years. Seeing what I was working towards put things into perspective for me. I really loved hanging out in the ER or with a surgeons and getting to scrub in.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Hey guys, so I was just wondering what the purpose of shadowing a doctor is when we're in med school. Is it just so you can get hands on experience to see what that specialty is like? But then, isn't this what 3'rd and 4'th years are for?

Do some try to get letters of rec. out of this shadowing exp? I heard that letters of rec. should all be from doctors you meet during your 3'rd and 4'th year rotations or doctors you've done research with.

Also, if I do decide to shadow, how much is appropriate? 3hr/week for a semester?

I guess I'm just curious b/c I don't see any value in shadowing a doctor when that's what we're going to be doing in our 3'rd and 4'th years and I'd rather spend this free time (the little that I have) doing something I wanna do (like studying lol).

Thanks for the responses!

Id say more for finding out what certain specialties are like not for getting LORs.

 

[hoqhuuep]

For me, it's putting purpose to the seemingly useless memorization. Scrubbing in on thoracic surgeries makes that section of gross anatomy that much more meaningful.

Like the guy above me said though, not about the LORs.

 

[xanthomondo]

I agree with the above.

In my (required by the school) shadowing of a FP, I get excited when patients rattle off their meds and I actually have a clue what they're taking and what it's used for.

 

[Dral]

You don't get to experience everything you may want to do 3rd year since your clinical electives are set and usually consist of 8 or so basic fields with limited specialty exposure.

You'll be applying for residency in the first half of 4th year. If you choose to go into a difficult specialty to match into, you'll be behind the game as far as letters, research, and experience goes. A lot of 4th year is to experience things you might not otherwise experience in the rest of your career...not really to choose your specialty.

 

[ZagDoc]

You don't get to experience everything you may want to do 3rd year since your clinical electives are set and usually consist of 8 or so basic fields with limited specialty exposure.

You'll be applying for residency in the first half of 4th year. If you choose to go into a difficult specialty to match into, you'll be behind the game as far as letters, research, and experience goes. A lot of 4th year is to experience things you might not otherwise experience in the rest of your career...not really to choose your specialty.

Agreed. Even with your clinical rotations, you still only get a "pie slice" through medicine as far as the fields you are exposed to. Shadowing is a great experience to get exposure to fields you won't see on your core rotations that you may be considering.

 

[mediocriskid]

i agree with what has been stated in the forum about shadowing developing an interest, but for those that know what they want, shadowing is an invaluable tool for networking. I think many med students overlook this. Sure research, letters, etc look good but if you develop a rapport with a well known physician within that specialty who is willing to make calls (especially before an externship or applying to programs); doors open. I have tons research but i can say it's the connections that i made through it that will help me the most. Medicine is just like business- it's who you know, not what you know (sorry to burst the gunners' bubble). If you're considering something competitive find out who the head cheeses are in your area (many have moved onto private practice and away from university medical centers). Phone calls play big in the match and your residency.

 

[njbmd]

My preceptor (in Emergency Medicine) during first semester first year decided to teach us how to take a great history and present patients. That teaching turned out to be invaluable. He also held case discussion sessions where we reviewed cases from the standpoint of both clinical and basic science. When second year and USMLE time came around those discussions were awesome.

Needless to say, there's a lottery to get into the ED and have this man as mentor. All of us aced Step I and third year.

 

[ropeadope1983]

I think shadowing is a great idea up until the day you start medical school. For all those premed's out there, definitely shadow as much as you can without hurting your grades, etc. The day you start medical school the best thing you can do is put as much effort as you possibly can into learning all there is to learn in medical school. There's a time and place for everything. The first 2 years of medical school is the time to read a lot and build up your background. From the beginning of 3rd year onwards you will need to use that info and continue to build on it and make it practically useful to you (not to mention using that info for that important exam at the end of your 2nd year that largely dictates what residency you can enter, and where you can enter it). Now being in my 3rd year I can't stress enough how important it is to stay focused in your first 2 years and get as much as you can out of it. Many times I've watched my fellow classmates head to the ER or other places during their first 2 years because they feel the need to get a head start on their clinical training (or even worse, to get a head start on brown-nosing). I can tell you for certain that this is useless because everyone is expecting you to be rusty for your first rotation when you are supposed to catch up on your clinical training, and they generally don't hold it against you. It also makes the most sense to wait until you have that knowledge background built from your first 2 years of medical school before trying to make clinical sense out of it. I won't even get into the topic of brown-nosing because, as Ferris Beuller once said, "you can't respect someone who kisses your a@@". We'd all be better off if nobody kissed anyone elses' a@@ because nobody likes doing it (well...I guess I shouldn't say "nobody", seems like there are some people out there who absolutely love doing it!) and it seems perverse to me that there are people out there who actually like receiving it, and we might actually do them a service by denying them that feeling.

Just do the best you can doing what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.