Shadowing Advice For Ya

[Birdnals]

I'm relatively new to the premed experience but I've gotten some awesome advice from everyone out there. I haven't done much yet but I just wanted to enter my 2 cents in for anyone else new in the process as well.

I've been shadowing a couple of physicians for a few weeks and have gotten to see some pretty awesome things. For anyone else who's shadowing or getting ready to, I have one bit of advice: keep a journal! I initially started doing this as a means of tracking hours. Just a notebook in my car that I write in who I shadowed, for how long, and a brief description of what I did/learned that day. It has turned in to so much more.

A lot of the stuff you see will be fascinating. It takes time to digest completely what you saw. What I've found is that by immediately writing down what I saw after my day, I'm able to get past the awe-struck part and uncover some truly awesome stuff. I've began to really realize why I want to go in to medicine. For example, I got to scrub in on a coronary bypass and valve replacement surgery. Afterwards I was dumbfounded. But when I started writing, small details from my experience came out. I realized the incredible focus it requires to perform such a daunting task. I noticed how much of a leader the surgeon had been and really took control of the situation and conducted her team. I saw how physicians diffuse the stress of pressure cooking situations by joking around and laughing when they get the chance.

I'm rambling but my point is this: write everything down. Wait til you're back in your car/home. You might miss something if you're too busy writing. Plus a little time to digest your day helps out too and removes some of the near sightedness. Observations will emerge that you didn't even know you had. I'm 100% positive these observations will help me in admissions/as a doctor/in life. You simply won't uncover these if you just try to keep track of everything in your head.

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[jesse120]

excellent advice. that's what I did and it definitely helped when I filled out the AMCAS several months later. I've actually kept a journal for a couple years now. It's amazing how useful it is to revisit things from a while ago.

 

[Birdnals]

excellent advice. that's what I did and it definitely helped when I filled out the AMCAS several months later. I've actually kept a journal for a couple years now. It's amazing how useful it is to revisit things from a while ago.

Congrats on your acceptance to Pitt!

Glad to hear from someone who has been through the process confirming my suspicions on the helpfulness of this. Did you find your information to be helpful for anything other than "why do you want to be a doctor?" or during interviews?

Any other shadowing knowledge bombs you could drop on us would be great. Always good to hear from those who have had success on the path many of us wish to travel! Thanks!

 

[jesse120]

Congrats on your acceptance to Pitt!

Glad to hear from someone who has been through the process confirming my suspicions on the helpfulness of this. Did you find your information to be helpful for anything other than "why do you want to be a doctor?" or during interviews?

Any other shadowing knowledge bombs you could drop on us would be great. Always good to hear from those who have had success on the path many of us wish to travel! Thanks!

I shadowed the same primary care doc for almost 100 hours. During that time, I got to know a lot of the patients who came in every week or every other week. One of the things that I enjoyed about that particular shadowing experience was talking with the patients. Between patients, he often did it dictations, and I would spend that time talking with the patient we just saw instead of following him to his office. They would nostalgically recall how their doctor years ago would make house visits, how young doctors these days have terrible bedside manners, how important it is for patients to trust their doctors, etc. I can't stress enough how valuable it was to listen to and understand their perspectives.

When I shadowing a cardiologist and a CT surgeon, I spent a lot more time in the hospital and got to know the nurses, PAs, and other tech guys. Again, their perspective on things were much different. One very nice nurse told me about how she used to work in a teaching hospital, but the residents would treat her badly because she was "just a nurse." She left teaching hospitals for good. One of the PAs that scrubbed in for the CABG I observed (which was awesome, by the way) talked about how he liked his job but kind of wished he could do more.

tl;dr talk with people other than docs while shadowing