RN of 2.5 years...do I still need to shadow?

[kinipela]

Just wondering so I can start if I need to.

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[NursepractitionertoM.D.]

From what I have seen searching other posts, it depends on where you work as an RN (i.e. Nursing home, medical/surgical, intensive care) that dictates if shadowing is necessary.

 

[deleted651092]

That's up to you. I'm still going to shadow because my experience working as an RN didn't (still doesn't) give me enough exposure to what physicians do all day and it's very limited to certain specialties.

 

[clairephillips]

I agree with the above poster. 20 hours would probably be enough, just so you can make it clear on your app that you know what you're getting into.

 

[kinipela]

That's up to you. I'm still going to shadow because my experience working as an RN didn't (still doesn't) give me enough exposure to what physicians do all day and it's very limited to certain specialties.

I get what you mean. I used to work at a community hospital where there were only attendings and they did their rounds at random times on their own. I now work in one of the nation's best children's hospital and it is also a teaching hospital so I participate in rounds daily with the residents, fellow and attending.

I was thinking about just shadowing one of the physicians I work with in clinic since I already know what they do in a hospital setting. I just wasn't sure how many hours I should do. 20 sounds good though!

 

[Gurby]

Definitely necessary, IMO. I didn't think I would need to do any shadowing, but the shadowing I've done has actually been pretty eye opening. You likely have a good idea of a couple of areas of medicine, so go explore other areas that you are less familiar with. Shadow a primary care in an outpatient setting if your experience is mostly hospital based, shadow a surgeon or in the ED if most of your experience is in floor nursing, etc.

 

[alpinism]

Yes. Absolutely.

 

[prettyNURSEtoMD]

I shadowed a plastic surgeon on a few cases

 

[jl lin]

This is so varying dependent upon your experiences, but @ only 2.5 years in, exposures have had to be limited. Plus, there is no way you could follow around a lot of docs for various specialties, right?

So, people have told me that I didn't need to shadow, but since my end goal is primary care, and since I have worked a looooong time (don't want to say how long. _) in peds/adult critical care, I think shadowing PCPs is a nice idea for me. Most of my experience/exposure is in hospital and in the units or recovery, etc.

This is so individual. Surely it can't hurt to shadow physicians within varying fields. I am kind of lucky in the sense of exposure, b/c I have been a close witness to the loads of work, stress, and dumping that goes on in the field--those going through IM or critical care and fellowships, or surgeons, etc. Whether good or bad, that suckage of the BS won't be a shocker to me.

I think compressing voluminous amounts of information is going to be an interesting challenge for MS, especially b/c I will want to keep working at least a few shifts per month. This is a we-will-see kind of thing. But I think a lot of people have their own devices to try to deal with that.

I say shadow, especially with a physician in a area that you may be interested and that is more on the foreign side of what you normally work.

Good luck.

 

[2Pints]

I posted a similar question last year. My main question was if 200 shadowing hours would mean anything if they from 8 years ago but was told I should get more recent shadowing experience. Shadowing a physician is a lot different from working with them as an RN in the hospital or some other clinical setting, in my opinion. Yeah, sure, I get a good idea of what the physician is doing but over the course of a 12 hour shift I might have a handful of interactions.

I would have hated for that to be a reason for an admissions committee to see me as not taking this career change seriously. Especially, when in the grand scheme of things 50 hours is nothing. Heck, I'm even currently reaching out to some residents in a field I'm interested in just because I want some exposure before medical school and I'm already accepted.

 

[ridethecliche]

That's up to you. I'm still going to shadow because my experience working as an RN didn't (still doesn't) give me enough exposure to what physicians do all day and it's very limited to certain specialties.

Yeah, it totally depends on how the teams are structured. In some hospitals the nurses have absolutely no idea what the day of a doctor looks like.

I get what you mean. I used to work at a community hospital where there were only attendings and they did their rounds at random times on their own. I now work in one of the nation's best children's hospital and it is also a teaching hospital so I participate in rounds daily with the residents, fellow and attending.

I was thinking about just shadowing one of the physicians I work with in clinic since I already know what they do in a hospital setting. I just wasn't sure how many hours I should do. 20 sounds good though!

Rounds are different I think.

I'd try shadowing a few times and see if it's what you think it is. If it's not, do more and in different areas/specialties.

 

[Shjanzey]

Yes shadow. Don't give them any reason to say no. Always err on the side of caution. Cross your t's, dot your i's. Did I forget any other metaphors?

 

[kinipela]

Thanks everyone! I'm definitely going to set up some shadowing within the next couple of weeks!

 

[childofmercy]

What if you're with the doctor pretty much all shift? I had a placement where I was always working with the doctor...the only time I wasn't with him was when he was doing paper work in his office. Just want to make sure I'm not covering any bases!

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Just wondering so I can start if I need to.

I shadowed an internal medicine doc/private practice family doc. I did about 80 hours of shadowing even tho I have 6 years of experience as a nurse. I don't think you need much shadowing as the nursing experience definitely counts for a lot. But if you are gonna say you want to do something you don't have experience in then shadowing will help the cause.

So yes, do some shadowing, especially if you think you might be interested in a setting you don't have experience in.

 

[Lady Violette]

Shadow a physician that specializes in an area that you are interested in working in when you are a doctor. It will give you something to talk about in the interview.

 

[Goro]

Can you answer the question of "Do you know what a doctor's day is like?"

Can you differentiate between the work done by a Primary Care doc and X (X = any other specialty)?

How about between a DO and an MD?

Just wondering so I can start if I need to.

 

[Straw Hat]

Can you answer the question of "Do you know what a doctor's day is like?"

Can you differentiate between the work done by a Primary Care doc and X (X = any other specialty)?

How about between a DO and an MD?

Could you expand on a good explanation for this? Because the way I see it in reality there is hardly a difference except in history and the definitions/terms used to describe each. But when you get into the clinical environment they're totally interchangeable with hardly any noticeable difference. From what I've seen working in the hospital personality and personal beliefs/morals seem to be the main factor in how an MD or DO approaches a patient and practices medicine in general. When it comes to medicine and I look at DO and MD physicians I've met they all share similar characteristics and views on a scale with varying degrees. Some MD/DOs are more holistic than others, some focus more on prevention, and so on. But at the end of the day they're all basically doing the same thing but with varying degrees of approach.

I dunno. I feel like I will have a hard time trying to explain the difference without having a canned answer like viewing the person as a whole rather than treating symptoms alone and that the body works in unison and each part influences the other, etc. Maybe it's the nurse in me but this seems like something both sides would agree on. Nursing has a similar mantra. Oh we are holistic and have a much more human approach to the patient. But in clinical practice those canned beliefs sort of melt away and you simply do what you do to help in whatever way is comfortable for you. Then you can get into OMM but in this day and age I don't think that's the deciding factor when it comes to differences between the two.

I'm sure there are plenty of posts for me to sift through on the site and maybe even posted by you but I was just reacting to your post and interested in hearing a response if you have the time. Thanks.

 

[Goro]

You answered your question, and mine!!!

Could you expand on a good explanation for this? Because the way I see it in reality there is hardly a difference except in history and the definitions/terms used to describe each. But when you get into the clinical environment they're totally interchangeable with hardly any noticeable difference. From what I've seen working in the hospital personality and personal beliefs/morals seem to be the main factor in how an MD or DO approaches a patient and practices medicine in general. When it comes to medicine and I look at DO and MD physicians I've met they all share similar characteristics and views on a scale with varying degrees. Some MD/DOs are more holistic than others, some focus more on prevention, and so on. But at the end of the day they're all basically doing the same thing but with varying degrees of approach.

I dunno. I feel like I will have a hard time trying to explain the difference without having a canned answer like viewing the person as a whole rather than treating symptoms alone and that the body works in unison and each part influences the other, etc. Maybe it's the nurse in me but this seems like something both sides would agree on. Nursing has a similar mantra. Oh we are holistic and have a much more human approach to the patient. But in clinical practice those canned beliefs sort of melt away and you simply do what you do to help in whatever way is comfortable for you. Then you can get into OMM but in this day and age I don't think that's the deciding factor when it comes to differences between the two.

I'm sure there are plenty of posts for me to sift through on the site and maybe even posted by you but I was just reacting to your post and interested in hearing a response if you have the time. Thanks.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Could you expand on a good explanation for this? Because the way I see it in reality there is hardly a difference except in history and the definitions/terms used to describe each. But when you get into the clinical environment they're totally interchangeable with hardly any noticeable difference. From what I've seen working in the hospital personality and personal beliefs/morals seem to be the main factor in how an MD or DO approaches a patient and practices medicine in general. When it comes to medicine and I look at DO and MD physicians I've met they all share similar characteristics and views on a scale with varying degrees. Some MD/DOs are more holistic than others, some focus more on prevention, and so on. But at the end of the day they're all basically doing the same thing but with varying degrees of approach.

I dunno. I feel like I will have a hard time trying to explain the difference without having a canned answer like viewing the person as a whole rather than treating symptoms alone and that the body works in unison and each part influences the other, etc. Maybe it's the nurse in me but this seems like something both sides would agree on. Nursing has a similar mantra. Oh we are holistic and have a much more human approach to the patient. But in clinical practice those canned beliefs sort of melt away and you simply do what you do to help in whatever way is comfortable for you. Then you can get into OMM but in this day and age I don't think that's the deciding factor when it comes to differences between the two.

I'm sure there are plenty of posts for me to sift through on the site and maybe even posted by you but I was just reacting to your post and interested in hearing a response if you have the time. Thanks.

This is the wrong answer tho, take it from experience (mine) if you say that in reality it is more based on the physician than the degree, you get a , even tho its true. I think the best answer has to do with personal experience with DOs. For instance, a why DO answer that was well received for me was when I commented on the DO's I work with being very personable and I mentioned two specific doctors who I really like. I also talked about that being a general trend in the DO's I meet vs. maybe not such a general trend in MD. Lemme put it this way. It is not uncommon to find a 'difficult' MD, but it is rather uncommon to find a 'difficult' DO in my experience, and I do think who the schools select does play a part in that (i.e. the DO focus towards clinicians and primary care vs. MD focus on research and specialties). These tend to attract different types of people, and I do notice a difference.

Also another thing that was super well received is when I told an interviewer that I feel like DO's are more tight knit than MD's. And then I asked if she felt that way also. Now granted, my interviewer was an OMM instructor, but she loved that question/answer. But the point was that I took my personal experiences and tried to make them generalize about the type of people who tend to go DO versus MD. Hope this helps you. This question was almost as hard for me as why MD instead of NP, they loved to hound me on that one.

 

[Straw Hat]

This is the wrong answer tho, take it from experience (mine) if you say that in reality it is more based on the physician than the degree, you get a , even tho its true. I think the best answer has to do with personal experience with DOs. For instance, a why DO answer that was well received for me was when I commented on the DO's I work with being very personable and I mentioned two specific doctors who I really like. I also talked about that being a general trend in the DO's I meet vs. maybe not such a general trend in MD. Lemme put it this way. It is not uncommon to find a 'difficult' MD, but it is rather uncommon to find a 'difficult' DO in my experience, and I do think who the schools select does play a part in that (i.e. the DO focus towards clinicians and primary care vs. MD focus on research and specialties). These tend to attract different types of people, and I do notice a difference.

Also another thing that was super well received is when I told an interviewer that I feel like DO's are more tight knit than MD's. And then I asked if she felt that way also. Now granted, my interviewer was an OMM instructor, but she loved that question/answer. But the point was that I took my personal experiences and tried to make them generalize about the type of people who tend to go DO versus MD. Hope this helps you. This question was almost as hard for me as why MD instead of NP, they loved to hound me on that one.

I knew my DO answer was wrong and it wouldn't exactly be what I'd say but that's just how I've seen things based on my experiences so far. I believe I can pull together a good answer after some thought and probably tie in something similar to what you said. In fact, the personalities (clinician and primary care vs research and specialties) is a really good thought imo. I appreciate the input. The why MD/DO instead of NP will be another fun one I'm expecting to hear a lot.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

I knew my DO answer was wrong and it wouldn't exactly be what I'd say but that's just how I've seen things based on my experiences so far. I believe I can pull together a good answer after some thought and probably tie in something similar to what you said. In fact, the personalities (clinician and primary care vs research and specialties) is a really good thought imo. I appreciate the input. The why MD/DO instead of NP will be another fun one I'm expecting to hear a lot.

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