Questions about my shadowing experience

[Ryzyn]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Last Friday I shadowed an EM physician who has a history of being receptive of allowing pre-meds who are part of the same EMS agency as him. I showed up early, dressed properly and conservatively, and chatted with some of the nurses at the specific part of the ED he was manning that night. When he came, we shared small talk and I asked him how he usually handled having people shadow him. He said to not be afraid to ask questions, and allowed me to follow him closely around all night, but I usually kept out of the way when he had stuff to do, writing orders/grilling residents. The whole night I had been present at his side when he saw patients around the hospital, adopting a passive role(being a literal shadow during that time) at most just letting me listen to lung sounds when I asked, and I was only asking questions when he was done with the patient or when we were walking together to the next room.
What concerns me is that he did not really take the initiative to ask me questions about myself, which I could understand because he was on the job that night, trying to see as many patients as possible and then do his dictations.
Am I over thinking this too much? This was after all my first experience shadowing. Is there someway I can improve my qualities as a 'shadower' in time for my next session tomorrow at the SICU?
Any help is appreciated thanks!

 

[Lya]

I think that is very common, especially in ED. It might probably take a few more sessions until he asks you some questions.

At this stage, I would try to remember what you learned and saw, ask good questions, and show interests.

 

[Catalystik]

Is there someway I can improve my qualities as a 'shadower' in time for my next session tomorrow at the SICU?

It sounds to me like you did just fine.

 

[Jabbed]

Last Friday I shadowed an EM physician who has a history of being receptive of allowing pre-meds who are part of the same EMS agency as him. I showed up early, dressed properly and conservatively, and chatted with some of the nurses at the specific part of the ED he was manning that night. When he came, we shared small talk and I asked him how he usually handled having people shadow him. He said to not be afraid to ask questions, and allowed me to follow him closely around all night, but I usually kept out of the way when he had stuff to do, writing orders/grilling residents. The whole night I had been present at his side when he saw patients around the hospital, adopting a passive role(being a literal shadow during that time) at most just letting me listen to lung sounds when I asked, and I was only asking questions when he was done with the patient or when we were walking together to the next room.
What concerns me is that he did not really take the initiative to ask me questions about myself, which I could understand because he was on the job that night, trying to see as many patients as possible and then do his dictations.
Am I over thinking this too much? This was after all my first experience shadowing. Is there someway I can improve my qualities as a 'shadower' in time for my next session tomorrow at the SICU?
Any help is appreciated thanks!

First priority for me is not getting in the physician's way, which you were obviously very conscientious of. Normally I would take any opportunity to ask questions, particularly right after seeing patients (what are your differentials? why did you perform this specific exam? what details of the patient's history stood out?) as there tends to be a small lull between seeing the patient and writing orders. Lunch/dinner breaks are obviously ideal as you have plenty of time to really have a conversation. As a general rule, people love talking about themselves. Ask him where he trained, why he chose this specialty, what are his opinions on the future of that specialty (very appropriate for EM), or anything along those lines. Understand that you're just a pre-med, so you're probably not particularly interesting to him. He probably doesn't care about any extracurriculars that you're involved in or what you're studying academically. Try to find mutually interesting topics or, at the very least, topics that he would enjoy talking about.

 

[TeddyBoomBoom]

First priority for me is not getting in the physician's way, which you were obviously very conscientious of. Normally I would take any opportunity to ask questions, particularly right after seeing patients (what are your differentials? why did you perform this specific exam? what details of the patient's history stood out?) as there tends to be a small lull between seeing the patient and writing orders. Lunch/dinner breaks are obviously ideal as you have plenty of time to really have a conversation. As a general rule, people love talking about themselves. Ask him where he trained, why he chose this specialty, what are his opinions on the future of that specialty (very appropriate for EM), or anything along those lines. Understand that you're just a pre-med, so you're probably not particularly interesting to him. He probably doesn't care about any extracurriculars that you're involved in or what you're studying academically. Try to find mutually interesting topics or, at the very least, topics that he would enjoy talking about.

^^ great f'ing advice right here.

 

[vcusominova]

It sounds to me as if you were the ideal physician shadow! It's not the attending's job to ask you about your background; it is your job to take from the experience what you can. What you saw/learned will be invaluable in discussing your goals, impressions, and thoughts on medicine during interviews. Take extensive notes and try to write a narrative about your shift so that you can draw upon it as needed. Concentrate on each patient and maybe read up on findings that you thought were interesting.