Shadowing a parent

[waynerooney1994]

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Is it frowned upon if I list on the AMCAS primary that one of the doctors that I have shadowed was my mom?

 

[ifnotnowwren]

How many other doctors are on that list, how much shadowing have you done total, what percent of that was with your mom?

 

[waynerooney1994]

I have four other doctors that I have shadowed for in total around 120 hours. I have a lot of clinical volunteering and I've worked at a hospital for the past year so its not like I need it but if I include it I can easily tack on another 200 shadowing hours. I want to include it because none of the other four doctors are primary care and I have received some advice from one of the moderators on here that primary care shadowing is good.

 

[candbgirl]

You don't need 320 hours of shadowing. You need around 50-60.


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[gyngyn]

Don't list your mom as a shadowing contact.
Cringeworthy.

 

[Tenk]

Uhh don't list parents that's weird. You're good without it.

 

[Foodology]

Not THAT weird! I think it can be very valuable and telling when you have family members in medicine. It could make your experiences more meaningful and inspiring when you're learning directly from someone so close to you. I had an ad-com member ask me if I had any family in medicine because they wanted to know if I had a role model in it.

 

[Luka75]

Not THAT weird! I think it can be very valuable and telling when you have family members in medicine. It could make your experiences more meaningful and inspiring when you're learning directly from someone so close to you. I had an ad-com member ask me if I had any family in medicine because they wanted to know if I had a role model in it.

Mentioning that a parent is a physician is different than adding him/her as a shadowing contact. The former is indeed recommended but the latter would be unnecessary and probably assumed by the Adcom.

 

[Catalystik]

Is it frowned upon if I list on the AMCAS primary that one of the doctors that I have shadowed was my mom?

I think it's fine to shadow a relative, but use an office manager or nurse director, or some other more-objective person as the Contact you list.

I have four other doctors that I have shadowed for in total around 120 hours. I have a lot of clinical volunteering and I've worked at a hospital for the past year so its not like I need it but if I include it I can easily tack on another 200 shadowing hours. I want to include it because none of the other four doctors are primary care and I have received some advice from one of the moderators on here that primary care shadowing is good.

I agree that you already have more than enough shadowing hours. Use the 200 hours you might have spent to add more for some hands-on nonmedical volunteerism, leadership, teaching, etc. instead. Those will have more impact on your application at this point.

 

[LizzyM]

AMCAS has an optional section that almost everyone completes where you list your parents names, indicate if they are alive (Y/N), their county of residence, highest education attained, last school attended, and profession.

One assumes when faced with an application from a physician's offspring, that you have an inside scoop on the demands that medicine makes on a physician's time and some of the struggles and the rewards. Saying specifically that you shadowed doesn't really add much. If you wanted to list the shadowing as one of the three most important experiences and mention that because your mom is in primary care, you chose to shadow specialists to get that perspective, that would be okay.

 

[longhaul3]

Your mom doesn't have any partners in her practice who would let you tag along for a few days?

 

[waynerooney1994]

I do not shadow her (or any other doctor) anymore. It is something I did during college. I am currently doing other clinical and nonclinical volunteering so right now its either I add the hours on my application as a past activity or I do not. I admit it is a little weird adding and the consensus appears to be not to add it so I probably will not.