Shadow a NP?

[eaglebaseball4]

I have been very interested in urgent care medicine for a long time. I am applying this current cycle, and a local urgent care has agreed to let me shadow the NP. Apparently, in this practice the doctor does not see patients, rather is only present in the office when needed. Would it be okay to shadow a NP for a day or two? I really just want to gain the experience of the urgent care practice, but I am by no means interested in nursing. Advice?

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[StressfulMD]

I would honestly think shadowing an NP would be a colossal waste of time.

You are applying to medical school. Therefore, you are to shadow medical doctors.

If you can, contact your local hospital for opportunities. Better yet, if you have a primary care doctor, shadow him!

 

[eaglebaseball4]

I would honestly think shadowing an NP would be a colossal waste of time.

You are applying to medical school. Therefore, you are to shadow medical doctors.

If you can, contact your local hospital for opportunities. Better yet, if you have a primary care doctor, shadow him!

I have already shadowed my primary care physician for around 70 hours. I have contacted my local hospital. I live in a rural area and shadowing is hard to come by. That’s why I stated I simply want to see what the practice is like in an urgent care setting.

 

[StressfulMD]

I have already shadowed my primary care physician for around 70 hours. I have contacted my local hospital. I live in a rural area and shadowing is hard to come by. That’s why I stated I simply want to see what the practice is like in an urgent care setting.

Okay--that makes more sense then.

You can shadow the NP for your own personal benefit only. It will not do you any good on your app, and frankly won't make much sense in the context of everything else (again, because you aren't shadowing an MD, and you aren't applying to nursing school).

 

[gyngyn]

You have enough shadowing (for us). If you want to shadow the NP, do so.

 

[eaglebaseball4]

It has been a while (about 2 years) since I last shadowed any medical professional. I am also shadowing a hospitalist now. Overall, I have about 120 hours across 3 specialties and am just trying to gain experience in new specialties. Thanks for your advice!

 

[Catalystik]

I have been very interested in urgent care medicine for a long time. I am applying this current cycle, and a local urgent care has agreed to let me shadow the NP. Apparently, in this practice the doctor does not see patients, rather is only present in the office when needed. Would it be okay to shadow a NP for a day or two? I really just want to gain the experience of the urgent care practice, but I am by no means interested in nursing. Advice?

Why would it not be OK? You've already applied and the experience will make no difference to your application cycle. You have well above the average physician shadowing already. Go ahead and satisfy your curiosity.

 

[Goro]

I have been very interested in urgent care medicine for a long time. I am applying this current cycle, and a local urgent care has agreed to let me shadow the NP. Apparently, in this practice the doctor does not see patients, rather is only present in the office when needed. Would it be okay to shadow a NP for a day or two? I really just want to gain the experience of the urgent care practice, but I am by no means interested in nursing. Advice?

Please don't do this unless your wish to be an NP.

 

[eaglebaseball4]

Please don't do this unless your wish to be an NP.

Why specifically do you say not to do this? I didn’t figure it would harm my chances at applying to medical school.

 

[Goro]

Why specifically do you say not to do this? I didn’t figure it would harm my chances at applying to medical school.

Do you want people to think that you wish to be an NP?

You wanna be a doctor...shadow a doctor. The goal of shadowing is to see how different doctors approach the practice of medicine, not different health care professionals.

 

[Lawpy]

I have been very interested in urgent care medicine for a long time. I am applying this current cycle, and a local urgent care has agreed to let me shadow the NP. Apparently, in this practice the doctor does not see patients, rather is only present in the office when needed. Would it be okay to shadow a NP for a day or two? I really just want to gain the experience of the urgent care practice, but I am by no means interested in nursing. Advice?

You can do it if you want but I wouldn't mention it in your application or interviews.

 

[RangerBob]

Sounds ok to me. I think we'd all benefit from shadowing others that make up the healthcare team. I shadowed a chaplain a few times, and in residency I watched our PT's, OT's, and SLP's all the time.

I think shadowing a nurse would be better, so that you'd get a better idea of what their day is really like and what they go through. They're the ones at the other end of all the electronic orders we put in, but how often do any med students or physicians stick around to see how those orders get implemented? If a patient has a code brown, you can bet the attending is the first one out the door!

But if you follow an NP around then you can get a bit of an idea how they approach things differently than a physician. You probably won't understand where their fund of knowledge is limited relative to an MD/DO (because yours is even more limited), but you might be able to see some differences in how they approach the patient/provider relationship. Typically they have more time with patients than physicians.

 

[candbgirl]

Go ahead and do it since you seem to really want to but don’t go bragging about it or really even mentioning it. But do find out why the doctor is do uninvolved in this practice.

 

[puahate]

Do it, don't mention it on application, use experience to further solidify "Why medicine".

 

[RNtoMD87]

If you felt like NP was a possible option I would strongly urge you to do so. But since you're sure that you don't want to I don't understand why you would.

Just don't mention it. There's a big rift between nursing and medical.