Shadow

[Strudel19]

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Shadowed a D.O. today. The experience seemed pretty ordinary, however he had a 3rd year med student working with him to answer all of the questions I had about a particular school and it was extremely helpful. The doctor allowed the medical student and I to visit the rooms of 3 different patients. I really was just hanging out with the medical student the whole time and it was pretty cool to try to tie in what little medical knowledge I had with the problems that we gathered from the patient.

I was there about 4 hours. The doc then abruptly said something alone the lines of "You can go home now, you're really just shadowing and at this point you get the general idea: we're doctors and we see patients. I'm here to teach the medical student and you're just not there yet." He gave me some advice about keeping my GPA high, doing well on the MCAT and making sure to broaden my education.

This was just family practice and I understand that the physician and medical student clearly had work to do but I don't know what to think about how he sent me off. This was my first shadow and I look forward to shadowing other physicians, but for future reference, but do most doctors invite you to shadow them again or do they assume that you've sucked everything out of the experience in only 4 hours and leave it at that? Definitely not here to whine, I was grateful for the opportunity, I just don't know what to think.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Every doctor is different, and it doesn't sound like he was malicious at all. Instead, just incredibly busy, but I agree with him after shadowing over 90 hours. All you do is see patients, and without medical knowledge, it's no more than that.

 

[Strudel19]

I don't have the medical knowledge of someone out of medical school, but I do have enough knowledge from working closely with doctors in the ER to understand the etiology of many symptoms and try to guess the doctor's path to a diagnosis. I guess I'm hoping that shadowing doctors of different specialities can help me expand my knowledge. I view shadowing as something where you get what you put into it. Is this an expectation that I should get out of my head?

 

[scarecrow90]

I don't have the medical knowledge of someone out of medical school, but I do have enough knowledge from working closely with doctors in the ER to understand the etiology of many symptoms and try to guess the doctor's path to a diagnosis. I guess I'm hoping that shadowing doctors of different specialities can help me expand my knowledge. I view shadowing as something where you get what you put into it. Is this an expectation that I should get out of my head?

Depends. Some doctors are just not the teaching type. I have kept a steady relationship with the DPM that I shadowed back in high school (he now lets me call him by his first name!). The MD and the DO that I've shadowed have both been one time deals. Going to shadow another DO come October. Sometimes you click with the physician and other times you don't. Keep your chin up and move along to the next one! 😉

 

[cliquesh]

I don't have the medical knowledge of someone out of medical school, but I do have enough knowledge from working closely with doctors in the ER to understand the etiology of many symptoms and try to guess the doctor's path to a diagnosis. I guess I'm hoping that shadowing doctors of different specialities can help me expand my knowledge. I view shadowing as something where you get what you put into it. Is this an expectation that I should get out of my head?

3rd med students know nothing and you know less than them. Shadowing isn't really a learning experience. You are not there to learn medicine. It's simply an experience to see if you actually want to be a doctor and, if you're lucky, to give you an idea of what speciality you may want to pursue.

 

[verynice]

Dang man that's rough. I know you probably felt like you were imposing but don't take it too seriously. I have shadowed many doctors and it has been a different experience with each and every doctor. I had one doc who let me shadow her for about 100hrs throughout the summer. Most of the time they are not quite as you described because they were once in our spot. Just keep that in mind when you are calling your next doc to shadow.