shadowing doctors, scheduling it

[mslee]

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So I finally found a couple of doctors who'll let me shadow!!!!!

I got this email back about how she'll find a time when they're not heavily booked with med students...

And then I realized, oh... I have classes. So I pretty much have all of weekend time but only after 2pm on tues, thurs, and fri available. (I would be skipping regular hospital volunteering on tues and thurs afternoons, too), but that's the most I can do.... is that too restricting? Also, is it typical to ask to shadow a doctor on a weekend?

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

I think that could work- basically it is between you and the physician you are shadowing. I personally just talked to professors and skipped class on a couple days to fit in shadowing.

When I asked for an after 3pm time all the doctor could come up with was a tour of the lab and running an experiment on hemophilia. It was an awesome experience and her taking me out for dinner was great too.

The one weekend I did was really boring though- I did inpatient peds hem/onc and since it is just whoever is on call their job is simply to check patients quickly then spend the rest of the day writing up reports- so unless it is surgery or EM then it might be a waste of time.

I highly encourage talking to the teachers of the classes you have in the morning and trying to arrange to be able to miss and shadow- all my teachers were fabulous about it!

 

[mslee]

I'll have to look into missing classes because well, it's only been 2 days into classes for me, but I'm not sure if any of my profs will be okay with that... a couple of them are like must-attend-class Nazi's (ugh pop quizzes) and others are 90% student discussion seminar-like courses....

But in any case... one of the doctors is asking me now if I would have to fill out any paperwork with the hospital as a shadower.... is that typically a case? I'm assuming they're referring to patient confidentiality forms and stuff? At this particular hospital, I'm not a "trained" volunteer.... I volunteered over a year ago so my orientation/training stuff have probably expired...

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

Where I volunteered it took 6 months of paper work. It was at a hospital that I volunteer at the sister hospital (CHOA has 3 hospitals in Atlanta) so my stuff was on file but there was a whole packet for students. Hopefully your process will be easier but if you have an amazing physicians you can get through it. I honestly don't even know who or what all was filled out- I did around 15 pages and the physician I was with took care of the rest. She was phenomenal!

 

[mslee]

Where I volunteered it took 6 months of paper work.

Wait... 6 months for you to complete the paperwork so that you can shadow this one physician...?

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

Wait... 6 months for you to complete the paperwork so that you can shadow this one physician...?

yes!- but it was actually to shadow several. the hospital system has crazy rules- one is you can pick a 2 week time period and shadow as much as you want in that period but after that you are finished. The other in physicians who work for them can't write LOR. I shadowed in Pediatric Hem/Onc almost every day for the entire 2 weeks and I was with a different doctor each day. That way I could see all the facets since in ATL each doctor is so specialized even in the field. So since my "time is up" the physicians are working to see what we can do to bring me around a lil more often- one of them suggested researching with them so we will see how that goes.

My general physician though just lets me come in as I want (and fits the schedule) I call and give her 2-3 dates at a time and she tells me which ones she works on. She didn't require any paperwork- just reminded me day 1 to remember HIPAA.