Shadowing Experience, how much is appropriate to ask per week?

[Medicalbound10]

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Hello All,

I was wondering if you can help find out what is a reasonable shadowing experience to ask from doctor. I have recently switched my foucus to medicine and have just started the long road. I have been working on getting a shadowing experience

I got hooked up with a doctor thru a program and on her e-mail she siad "you may be interested in shadowing for a couple of hours"

would be reasonable to ask to shadow for couple of hours each week for 3 month or so? This would be my first experience and did not know what is typical....

ur feedback is appreciated 🙂

 

[loua0731]

I would just go in and shadow for those few hours first. If it goes well and you like the doc, ask if you could continue (if she doesn't offer).

 

[sonia1177]

Hello All,

I was wondering if you can help find out what is a reasonable shadowing experience to ask from doctor. I have recently switched my foucus to medicine and have just started the long road. I have been working on getting a shadowing experience

I got hooked up with a doctor thru a program and on her e-mail she siad "you may be interested in shadowing for a couple of hours"

would be reasonable to ask to shadow for couple of hours each week for 3 month or so? This would be my first experience and did not know what is typical....

ur feedback is appreciated 🙂

just go and ask to stay longer if you like it. In other words, just start and then see how it goes. And its likely that once you start working with her, if she is unable to accomadate you if the doctor is busy or something then you'll meet and see other doctors and you can ask them.

 

[portlandpixie]

Hello All,

I was wondering if you can help find out what is a reasonable shadowing experience to ask from doctor. I have recently switched my foucus to medicine and have just started the long road. I have been working on getting a shadowing experience

I got hooked up with a doctor thru a program and on her e-mail she siad "you may be interested in shadowing for a couple of hours"

would be reasonable to ask to shadow for couple of hours each week for 3 month or so? This would be my first experience and did not know what is typical....

ur feedback is appreciated 🙂

the only problem with just waiting until after you go in to ask her is that it puts her on the spot. I've been in the same situaion before and, atleast in my opinion, I think it's better to be straight forward and upfront beforehand so that the doc knows what your intentions are and what kind of experience you're looking for. That said, that could turn her away completely as that's happened to me with a few docs. What I would do is tell her beforehand that ultimately you'd like to shadow on a continous basis but since you know she's prob really busy, once for a couple of hours would be fine as well. That's what my approach is and I've been able to snag a couple long term shadowing experiences so far. Also what helps is explaining briefly why you want to shadow long term vs short term. But maybe doing it the other way is fine too. I've never tried it just bc I think it would be putting the doc in an uncomfortable position. But that's just my opinion. Hope that helps!

 

[apumic]

Why do you want to shadow the same doc week after week? Shadowing needn't be a repeated thing. You'll get far more out of it by shadowing different docs in different fields of interest and even at different hospitals and clinics w/ different types of clientele... Seems pretty silly to me to keep following the same doc around week after week!

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Why do you want to shadow the same doc week after week? Shadowing needn't be a repeated thing. You'll get far more out of it by shadowing different docs in different fields of interest and even at different hospitals and clinics w/ different types of clientele... Seems pretty silly to me to keep following the same doc around week after week!

👍

 

[Medicalbound10]

Thank you all for the feedback. it is great to hear that I am not the only one wondering how to go about this...

Anyways, i e-mailed her and she told me that 2-3 hrs would be enough and it is typical. She also told me that I might really be bored in long shadowing experiences ...

i am going to shadow her 2-3 hrs 2 or 3 days and ask if she can connect me to other docs in other fields

I have found it difficult to find docs to shadow so hopefully it all goes well.....

thanks all

 

[deleted202457]

Why do you want to shadow the same doc week after week? Shadowing needn't be a repeated thing. You'll get far more out of it by shadowing different docs in different fields of interest and even at different hospitals and clinics w/ different types of clientele... Seems pretty silly to me to keep following the same doc around week after week!

Yeah I usually stay with each dr about a week or so. The good thing is, once you get to know a dr you can ask them if they know any other drs that may let you shadow them and if he could possibly introduce you to them. That's what I did anyways.

 

[lll1I1lII1lll1I]

Why do you want to shadow the same doc week after week? Shadowing needn't be a repeated thing. You'll get far more out of it by shadowing different docs in different fields of interest and even at different hospitals and clinics w/ different types of clientele... Seems pretty silly to me to keep following the same doc around week after week!

This.

 

[apumic]

Yeah I usually stay with each dr about a week or so. The good thing is, once you get to know a dr you can ask them if they know any other drs that may let you shadow them and if he could possibly introduce you to them. That's what I did anyways.

Way to network.

On a sidenote, I think even a week is pretty (read: excessively) long in most cases. You only need around 50 hrs of shadowing and beyond 100 is pointless. I'd much prefer to find 10 docs and shadow each for one day than 4 docs and shadow each for 3 days (or 2 and shadow each for a week). I'd also prefer not to be that doc... (that has one premed for a week!)

 

[deleted202457]

Way to network.

On a sidenote, I think even a week is pretty (read: excessively) long in most cases. You only need around 50 hrs of shadowing and beyond 100 is pointless. I'd much prefer to find 10 docs and shadow each for one day than 4 docs and shadow each for 3 days (or 2 and shadow each for a week). I'd also prefer not to be that doc... (that has one premed for a week!)

Well I usually stick with a dr about 2-3 hours a day, so it's not like I'm there all day. I'll show up at different times each day so I can see different things (e.g. new patients, revisits, procedures, etc)

The key is be polite and respectful and they'll usually try and help you and even teach you some along the way.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

I did a 2-3 hour shift per week for about 10 weeks with an IM/Peds doc. I experienced a large variety of cases and saw several different kinds of procedures. It was a good experience to see what a PCP does. As far as the specialists go, one shift would be enough. However, if you are interested in surgery, it may be best to go in many times to see a wide variety of surgeries. This would be good for other specialists that do many different procedures.

 

[MaryLennox]

Yeah I usually stay with each dr about a week or so. The good thing is, once you get to know a dr you can ask them if they know any other drs that may let you shadow them and if he could possibly introduce you to them. That's what I did anyways.

agreed. you can only see so much with one doc, but they are usually happy to line you up with another.

as far as the hours go . . . i always tried to spend an entire day when i did it. but it depends on who you're shadowing. it might get boring if they do the same thing all day long. but i shadowed all surgeons (not on purpose, just happened that way) and it's actually a good balance because their time is divided up between clinic and OR, so you get to see both. once i spent a whole week following an attending surgeon around- i know it sounds tedious and it was at times, but overall i thought it was great to see how he spent his time in a typical week. i got to see rounds, clinic, OR, grand rounds. i saw patients in the beginning of the week before surgery, then watched their operations, then saw them in recovery. i really enjoyed it