Shadow

[raleighzia]

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How many hours of shadowing is sufficient and in what types of facilities?

 

[bobbio]

I shadowed optometrists at a couple of commercial places, a vison therapy clinic, at a private practice, and at a lasik clinic. I think in total I had about 40 hours of shadowing.
When you say 'sufficient', are you referring to school requirements or getting a better understanding of what an optometrist does?

 

[raleighzia]

Basically requirements... because I know the amount of hours-whether you have actually learned something or not-is what is mainly looked at. I could be wrong.

 

[JennieJoy]

I shadowed 80 hours at one doctors office doing an internship. There were two doctors who practiced there.

 

[physicslover]

I think it also helps to shadow different types of optometrists like commercial vs private, etc., if you can .

 

[Mewcakes]

I shadowed like 60 hours but had like 1000+ hrs of work experience. The amount of experience I had came up in every interview I had, they were usually impressed.

My advice: do as much as you can but make sure the time you spend is meaningful. Don't do like 4 hours at like 5 different modes. Because then how much do you really think you learned? Even if you do only 2 modes but you spent like 30 or 40 hours at each, then I think it would be better than spending very little time in a ton of places.

 

[raleighzia]

Jennie, how long did your internship last and how many hours a day to total 80 hours. Physicslover, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[raleighzia]

Mew, I have worked an an optometrists office for over 5 years. Do they count hours worked or years worked?

 

[Mewcakes]

Oh no, they can comprehend years fine. However I think a certain amount of unpaid shadowing is required. Because as an employee, o course my doctors didn't pay me to sit in the corner and watch, I had to pretest, bill, and frame select. So you don't spend barely any time in the exam room at the same time as the dr. So make sure you do some unpaid time sitting in the corner and watching. 😛.

 

[raleighzia]

Ah ok. I was reading from scco that they said employment and shadow is not the same thing. I have a few hours of shadowing I got when I first started 5 yrs ago. I'm just going to start over though. How do you keep track of your hours? Not that I would be misleading about how many hours I have, but how do they know you are being truthful of the amount of hours spent shadowing?

 

[Mewcakes]

Yes. Theyre definitely different. So make sure you do shadowing on top of working. I guess they don't REALLY know. But if you do good time then the dr can write a letter for you. And when you submit the application you're signing something that says that everything on your application is true and accurate and any false or fabricated information may lead to disqualification as a candidate. And you can bet they'll remember the following year why you didn't get in the year before if that was the reason. Plus if they ask you about your experiences and you barely have anything to say...they might know that way too.

 

[raleighzia]

Hm, thanks Mew.
In the past 2 years of application, I have never put down any shadowing experience and I am just now realizing how important it is. I thought it was just the face that my GPA and OAT scores aren't competitive.

 

[Mewcakes]

Oh no! :-(. What a bummer! Did you have a talk with the schools afterwards to see what would make you a more competetive candidate? It's possible that it was your gpa/oat. But at last now that you know you can work to make your next application more competetive over your last. Optometry schools <3 personal growth.

 

[raleighzia]

Yeah and basically all I got was "better GPA and better OAT score", so it's off to work I go.

 

[Commando303]

My advice: do as much as you can but make sure the time you spend is meaningful. Don't do like 4 hours at like 5 different modes. Because then how much do you really think you learned? Even if you do only 2 modes but you spent like 30 or 40 hours at each, then I think it would be better than spending very little time in a ton of places.

My approach was the opposite: I spent short amounts of time at a number of practices. I felt, sticking to one doctor for a good length, I wasn't learning anything new, whereas a few hours observing various business models taught me the different ways in which optometry can be practiced.

 

[raleighzia]

I like that idea as well Commando. The way both of you guys (you and Mew) approach the motives of your methods as reasonable.