Remind a doc you shadowed them?

[CockerelOnTop]

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Hello everyone 🙂 Below are my shadowing hours. I was wondering if it is odd (and/or necessary) to reach back out to the physicians from 2009 to 'remind' them I shadowed. I completed shadowing with 2 of them with a group of medical interns/residents so I would not stand out. I have been grossly conservative in my hour estimations with these three because I never wrote it down as I was a fellow in a different field at the time. I do have record of my 4 months at each facility but not how much time was directly under the physician as shadowing. Thoughts?

85 hours of general orthopedics: clinical and surgical observations 2015
47 hours of hand specialized orthopedic surgery 2013
18 hours of general surgery (1 physician): inpatient and surgical observations 2009; 2013
15 hours of inpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation (1 physician) 2009
25 hours of inpatient psychiatrics (1 physician) 2009

 

[Doctor Strange]

Absolutely not.

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[Dandine]

I don't think it's odd, but I'm not sure of the context. Are you planning on getting application contact info (e.g. from the physicians you shadowed for verification) or need a letter of recommendation of some sort, or is it just so you can remain in touch with them later?

In any case I doubt it's necessary to remind them, but it's not a bad idea. If anything, the people you shadowed would be able to verify your experiences if they had to.

 

[gyngyn]

Shadowing is for you. There is no reason to remind them.

 

[CockerelOnTop]

Thank you for the input! I do not plan to get letters from any of these people, it was more for verification purposes should admissions call to verify I didn't make things up. I am 100% certain at least 1 of them would have no clue who I was if asked my name, but I could email him and remind him the context and he would remember. It is a teaching hospital so I imagine there are so many people in and out. I will forgo the emails. Thank you for the guidance.

 

[Ismet]

They won't be called to be verified.

 

[DRsmartypants]

There is no reason to remind them, if you made a good enough impression they will email you once in a rare while to meet up for lunch or have a conversation or for you to come by and shadow more. I know I made a really good impression on a neurosurgeon when I was undergrad(partially because I took several neuroscience courses and I knew a lot about medicine, well a lot for a pre-med) and we met up for lunch a few times, and he let me shadow a couple more times, he even started to teach me to do a neuro exam and how to identify lesions. We had a really good relationship, don't pressure them. If you are fun and knowledgable they will probably like you and want to meet again, otherwise no. It is hard to make an impression, especially in academic programs. Do your best but don't bother. The only reason you should contact them again if they do not contact you is for more shadowing(but you are walking a thin line because you don't want to piss them off and you never know when something will bite you in the ass in the future).

P.S. It's probalby not a huge deal, but you seem very surgery and ortho focused, medical schools generally like to see a variety, so at an interview they may ask why you didn't shadow IM or more "cereberal" specialties.