Shadowing hours in a (kind of) post-COVID world

[peppathepig]

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Hi everyone! As COVID guidelines have begun to ease up and hospitals are allowing shadowing to slowly start back up again, how many hours of shadowing are considered sufficient? I've seen suggestions of of 40-100 hours, but this is quite a big range. Additionally, how many hours should one shadow each speciality (and how many specialities)? Thanks! @LizzyM @Goro

 

[SooConfused]

It's really not that big a range at all.

It's 1-2 weeks of full time equivalent shadowing, spread over months or even years. Typically in 2-3 different specialties, including at least one primary care.

So, you're basically looking at 15-30 hours per doctor, for 2 or 3 different doctors, over however long it takes to get there. There is no hard and fast rule, but, this is a decent guideline to get you where you need to be, so you have experiences to reflect on and discuss in your application and interviews, and to give you some real world idea of just what life as a practicing physician is all about.