Shadowing a doctor

[platanus]

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Should I just call a random doctors and ask them whether shadowing is possible or not?

How often do doctors agree?

Do I have to have some sort of experience?

Do I get paid?

 

[Robizzle]

hell no u will not get paid. 😀

 

[Mah]

- you can try asking your PCP, or a few docs in private practice. Its harder to get shadowing in a hospital unless you get into a Summer program, b/c they have to justify you being around the physician, which is not allowed in hospitals anymore.

- Most of the docs that I have talked to have always agreed, but I usually had a few chats with them before asking.

- No experience, just don't be passive. Ask questions, try to think of diagnosis, problems, solutions. Basically, keep on talking so the physician doesn't forget about you.

- Again, unless you are in a Summer Program, you don't usually get paid.

Good Luck

 

[shnjb]

Is it really that easy?
You know, as easy as just asking a doc, any doc from say a phone book?

Usually the doctors I have met throughout my life have been rather intimidating and they don't seem like the type of people who would let you shadow them that easily.

 

[vmc303]

Don't do it. It's a waste of time, and you'll just get in the way. Most doctors don't want some useless bystander following them around all day long.

 

[Mah]

Shnjb-

Umm.. yes you need to have talked to them before. Know what they work as and what type of patients they have and then you might explain your status as a pre-med student and what you want. Most of them do agree, that's what my experience has been.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

Don't do it. It's a waste of time, and you'll just get in the way. Most doctors don't want some useless bystander following them around all day long.

If a physician doesn't want a shadow then they decline the request. Those that accept shadows are usually more than happy to have a useless bystander. And seriously, on inpatient rounds one more person in the gagle of residents and medical students doesn't impact the attending at all. In clinic it's more intimate, but if you're getting in the way then you're failing at being a shadow. Shadowing offers experiences that you cannot get by volunteering in the ER or being a tech on the floor. I don't consider any of my shadowing time wasted.

 

[Justus07]

What worked for me was to get in touch with the alumni from my school. If you have an alumni directory of some kind at your institutions, definitely tap into it since that's where you'll find the most success in linking up to a shadowing opportunity.

 

[Med_Leviathan]

try to think of diagnosis, problems, solutions. Basically, keep on talking so the physician doesn't forget about you.

What? Premeds obviously don't know enough medicine to do what you are suggesting.

 

[63768]

find your way in. if you volunteer there, ask a few docs you've been around. if you have a family member, friend, or whatever that knows a doc, ask him. if that doc doesn't want a shadow, ask him if he knows other docs who might. that gets your foot in the door.

just ask. there's nothing wrong with it. it's an understood step towards medical school so some docs especially those in a teaching hospital are more than willing to take on a shadow.

and no, don't think of diagnoses or anything. as a shadow you should be a fly on the wall, unless you are asked a question or told otherwise. as a premed student, you are on the bottom of the totem pole and have no clue what to even say. you may get to talk to them but under no circumstances are you to diagnose and talk to them about their disease. you're not a caregiver. Mah's advice is wrong there. you should however, ask questions (outside the patient room) and be seriously interested in the field. if you happen to be observing surgery, touch nothing. you just stand in your designated spot and don't move or touch anything.

 

[Merissa87]

Yep.. thats what I was doing this morning, making cold phone calls
and NO you will not get paid, its not like your being their assistant or anything.
The office manager told me that it is getting alot harder to be able to shadow MD's because of HIPPA and JHACO. B/c shadowin is kind of like volunteering and theres only so much you can see or do.