I am going to shadow a cardiologist soon. I was just wondering what kinds of questions I should ask him in order to get the most out of the experience. Tips are welcome, too. Thanks everyone!
Shadowing a cardiologist?
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Just ask him any question that you are genuinely interested in knowing the answer to. But don't ask him too many things to the point where you would be annoying him.
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This thread is kind of new, but it's worth a read if you haven't read it already:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=992383
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=992383
When I shadowed physicians, usually I just hung back and observed, trying to understand everything I could and then asking questions as they came up. It's going to be pretty basic stuff, at least at first - how do you approach a new patient, what's the process of meeting the patient, coming up with differential, ordering tests, managing case, etc. This will also vary depending on whether it's inpatient or outpatient. I picked more things up as I went along, started asking more specific questions, but I always followed the lead of the person I'm shadowing (i.e. shut up until they talk to me).
In general though, I think as pre-meds we don't know nearly enough to gain more than a superficial insight during shadowing (but still, I would say it's interesting and worth it).
Also, does that HSDN label mean you're in high school? If so, you are waaaaaaay ahead of the game - I hadn't even considered shadowing until well into undergrad. Don't know if I would have even got anything out of it in high school.
In general though, I think as pre-meds we don't know nearly enough to gain more than a superficial insight during shadowing (but still, I would say it's interesting and worth it).
Also, does that HSDN label mean you're in high school? If so, you are waaaaaaay ahead of the game - I hadn't even considered shadowing until well into undergrad. Don't know if I would have even got anything out of it in high school.
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Ask him if his heart is still in it.
G
gmcguitar4
I worked in cardiology for 2 years. I guarantee you won't understand a majority of what they are saying. What I did was watch what was going on and just wrote down stuff I didn't understand and looked it up on my own time. I would then talk to the cardiologist with my basic understanding and ask more questions about the plans they came up with and the reasoning behind it. Or if they can explain EKG's..etc.
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Ask him how much money he makes and how much vacation he gets. Doctors love to know that a pre-meds heart ( 
) is in the right place.
) is in the right place.
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But in all seriousness I would love to know more about the interventional cards vs. cardiothoracic surgery situation. I havent read enough about it but it seems like stents vs. open surgery is still up for debate (now that we have longer term data on survival with stents).
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I shadowed when I was in high school too. It really cemented my passion for medicine and enabled me to get serious about undergrad before I started -- I hit the ground running because I knew already that medicine was really important to me. I'd definitely say go for it 🙂
As for questions... I'd just try and ask some basic questions about being a physician. You can try to understand the physiology of the disease and such, but it's not really necessary at this point. At my first shadowing gig (once or twice a week for ~8 months), the doctors would assign me readings that related to the patients who we were going to see, so that I would be able to know some background before seeing the clinical presentation of the disease. That was actually really helpful and I thought that was a cool experience. You could see if the doctor would have any suggestions for pre-reading if you're interested in something like that.
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