Through my school I am shading an osteopathic physician. The mentorship is only for six visits, but I'd like to keep in contact with him and get a letter of recommendation. Any adivce on what questions to ask? He is focused on alternative medicine and osteopathic manipulation techniques. He appears to be a somewhat anti modern medicine.
-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
Shadowing a DO
Started by PerpetualStudent
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
Ask him how he feels about today's healthcare field. Ask him what he feels is an important contribution of osteopathic medicine. Ask him what drew him to become a DO in the first place and how he feels about his decision. Show some interest in the field.
Also, try to agree with his sentiments while you're at it. 😉
A lot of the questions you'll come up with on the spot. At least that happened with me.
Also, try to agree with his sentiments while you're at it. 😉
A lot of the questions you'll come up with on the spot. At least that happened with me.
I'd have to agree. I occasionally come with a mental list of questions, but almost always play off the situation.
Personally, I'd try to make darn sure that you try to really get to know him. I found that my shadowing experiences and OMM/acupuncture knowledge to be incredibly helpful for my secondaries and interviews. I didn't need a LOR from the person at that point, as soon as I mention OMM or acupuncture during an interview you can see the green light flick on 👍👍👍
I still stay in close contact with the OMM person that I shadowed. I always update her with my interview/acceptance status =)
Best of
Hmm...didn't see that part about the anti-modern medicine. Feel it out and seek others if you get a chance =)
2
213965
If you haven't already established other contacts (DO's) to shadow, or even if you have I would definitely recommend staying on your current path and getting the LOR from him. I can't even tell you how difficult it was to get my DO LOR -- it almost cost me another application cycle. Good luck.
I've shadowed a DO before. All I can say is it's not different from shadowing an MD. You follow him around. He sees patients. People call him "doctor". It isn't unusual to see a DO who outperforms MD's. I shadowed a DO orthopedic surgeon who is dominating in my hometown. The guy does hip replacements in 20 minutes. 😀
