Shadowing Doctor....

[Dr. Geoff]

Dear SDNers,
How would I go about getting to shadow a doctor? Should I call a hospital and ask? How did you guys go about doing this? Did you know someone? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Jeff

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[nezlab99]

I just found a specialty I was interested in and called a local practice. I have done this twice and both times the doctors were flattered and it went very well. If you can, ask around though to see if anyone can suggest their doctor or just a doctor they work with or are aquainted with.

 

[MUN2005]

I have not done it myself, but I know a couple of people who shadowed in the ED. They just went to the chief of trauma/EM and expressed thier interest. It may be to your advantage to tell him / her that you are a pre-medical student (I'm assuming) and you wish to find out more about the career.

 

[MUN2005]

BTW, there is another post on this topic down a bit on the board with some interesting comments. Check it out.

 

[Dr. Scandinavia]

Hi Geoff,

I went to USC county hospital, where they had a preceptorship progam. Basically you shadowed the residents there. You had to commit to 100 hrs of service, and we were given a 6 hrs time slot every week. Hope this helps.

 

[Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]]

when you shaddow a MD what do you do though? Do you just follow the doc?

 

[peabody]

I shadowed an academic peds nephrologist for about 4 years. It was a great experience! I did it pretty much full time during the summer, occassional afternoons, and school breaks. We had clinic three days a week, and I would just sit in on all the visits and go on rounds with him and the residents/med students, and observe the biopsies. The other days were administrative/research/lecture and I would help out around the office, help organize some of his presentations or edit some of his papers/case reports in the works, and go to his lectures. I also sat in on the IRB meetings. I highly recommend it - its great if you can find someone you can establish a long term association with, as well.

 

[Dr. Scandinavia]

RNA ladder,
As a volunteer you don't have any legal rights (or privilege) to be involved in patient care. So you can only follow doctors around. But you also have a great opportunity to see patient care first hand. I tried to ask as many questions as I could, and I was able to touch the patients to observe certain symptoms of illnesses. In addition I got a better understanding of why certain labtests are ordered in specific cases, and how to interpret them.

 

[deva]

Your school may have a program set up already - one that will match you with a physician to shadow. I did this at my school (Cornell). The doctors (and other professionals, actually) are all ones who went to Cornell and want to help out current students. The shadowing occurs over winter break. Try to find out if your school does something like this.