Shadowing Experience Question

[ccrone]

---

Members do not see this ad.

One thing that's been important to me has been shadowing a variety of physicians across different specialties, different career phases, etc. I also shadowed a number of medical/caring field professionals that aren't doctors. For me, this was a crucial part of getting to the meat of "why medicine" over and above other choices. The result of this has been that I've shadowed around a dozen people, usually about 2 days each.

How do I go about listing this in AMCAS? Do I list the names, positions, and contact info for each of the dozen-ish people, or write a paragraph describing my shadowing experience overall?

Thanks for your feedback. 😀

 

[theseeker4]

One thing that's been important to me has been shadowing a variety of physicians across different specialties, different career phases, etc. I also shadowed a number of medical/caring field professionals that aren't doctors. For me, this was a crucial part of getting to the meat of "why medicine" over and above other choices. The result of this has been that I've shadowed around a dozen people, usually about 2 days each.

How do I go about listing this in AMCAS? Do I list the names, positions, and contact info for each of the dozen-ish people, or write a paragraph describing my shadowing experience overall?

Thanks for your feedback. 😀

Use one activity slot, so pick the most "important" or "influential" doctor you shadowed as the contact. I wouldn't list every single doctor's name, specialty, contact information, etc. I would describe the approximate time you shadowed each specialty (maybe indicating which ones involved more than one doctor), and what you learned from all of your shadowing as a whole. Then address any particular patients/doctors who had a strong impact on your desire to be a doctor in the "most meaningful" description section (assuming you will mark this most meaningful because of your description above.)

 

[theseeker4]

Both. List each name, position, and dates shadowed after a brief description of your experience overall. There was a great response from Catalystik last week on this very topic where a great format was presented. I'll see if I can find it.

Really, when she shadowed a dozen doctors? How would she have room to actually describe anything?

 

[ccrone]

Wow! Thanks for the fantastic information! I'm most appreciative.

I'm so sorry to have missed a recent thread on the topic. My bad. 🙁

 

[Ismet]

I made 1 entry for Shadowing and in the description box, I made a numbered list and listed the following information for each shadowing experience: specialty, the name of the doctor or health professional I was shadowing, the date, the number of hours, and the phone number for the office or department. With 12 shadowing experiences, you will probably have to divide them among 2 entries. Maybe 1 for physicians and 1 for other healthcare professionals?

One of my shadowing experiences was in clinical oncology research, which is primarily run by RNs and overseen by the research physicians. None of the doctors were there when I shadowed, so I followed an RN around for a few hours and felt I learned just as much about that area as I did when shadowing a physician in another specialty. I'm not sure if these shadowing experiences carry any less weight than shadowing a physician, but I thought it was a great experience!