Shadowing Help

[Ash of S Mart]

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For those of you who have shadowed or know about shadowing. How long do you typically shadow? An hour, a few hours, half a day, a few days? Any suggestions? I am going to be visiting a couple pharmacies next week to see if I can shadow, and I don't know what people usually do.

 

[will7678]

I just shadowed a pharmacist in the hospital that I work at for half a day. I am not sure what is standard in retail stores when they allow someone to shadow but that seemed to be the standard for what the hospital I work at does.

 

[Ash of S Mart]

What did you do while shadowing, just purely sit back and watch? How much shadowing are you going to do before you apply? Anyone know what the average is for someone who is just shadowing, and not working as a tech or anything? Are there other options besides shadowing or pharm tech to get experience? Thanks For The Help

 

[will7678]

I am not going to have much time to do much more shadowing than that since I work full time and go to school full time. However I do work in health care so I am hoping that will count for something. When I was there the pharmacist took me on a tour of the pharmacy and showed me the different computer systems that they use as opposed to the ones that I use up on the floor. Other than that I mostly just sat back and watched and talked with him about his experiences in pharmacy and his thoughts on the field in general. Overall a good time but I can't see much value in doing a ton of shadowing since you can't do anything but sit and watch. Now getting a job in pharmacy would really add to your application. Too bad I can't afford the pay cut to do pharm tech 🙁
As far as other options for exposure I would think that pharm tech would be the best but I think that any job that exposes you to patients and allows you to interact with them in some way would be helpful.

 

[art23]

I shadowed from Jan to Jun this year as a licensed pharm tech. every Saturday 9 am to 2 pm
pretty much did everything techs do in addition, i kinda followed the pharmacist around on my free times, made good observation of how he consulted paitents directly/ on the phone, how he supervised the pharm techs, put in the drug orders, made schedules, etc..
hope this helps

art

 

[delano2000]

So far I have done 8 hrs in one day but generally I would say about 4-6 hrs a week should suffice. I think you need about 80+ hrs. This may vary with schools.

 

[Passion4Sci]

I didn't even see this until now!

Hey Ash.

I shadow routinely, both a staff pharmacist (borrrriiiiiing) and a clinical pharmacist (exciiiitttiiiiing) on a semi-weekly basis. Next week I'm shadowing her for warfarin clinic, that should be a lot of fun!

There is no "set" shadow time, as you can gather by the responses you've gotten thus far. I have a really entrenched position as a volunteer in my hospital, and I have managed to shadow pretty much every clin.pharm in the hospital that would have me. But, other volunteers only went once or twice for 2-4 hours or so. It really is personal preference, how well you interface with the pharmacists, etc, that will determine how much, if it all, you shadow.

What do you do whenyou shadow? Well, it really isn't calling shadowing for nothing Basically the drill is, you don't exist. The pharmacist will probably introduce you if applicable as a pharmacy volunteer or whatever, and from there on out, you're silent as a mouse, a fly on the wall, or, if you will, the pharmacist's shadow. You don't make faces, you don't go "sssss" under your breath... nothing. You stand there and learn.

Might sound boring, but you can learn a LOT, and the experience will pay dividends in spades when it comes interview time and maybe even handy with LoRs/application!