Shadowing ideas

[blueperson]

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I work full-time+ as well as go to school part-time. Do any of you have ideas of where to go to shadow a doc (which I've never done) in the evenings or on weekends? I need to do it to make sure I'm going down the right road.

I'm in the DC area if any of you are in the DC area and have specific recommendations as well.

Thank you!

 

[Handyman2Doc]

I think it would be difficult to find any specialists that would be working in the evenings and weekends, but I don't think it would be all that difficult to find an ED doc that would let you shadow him. All the docs in the ED that I volunteer in are very nice and willing to answer any questions I have and IMO the docs that work the 7pm to 7am shift are the funnest to BS with.

Hope that helps some. g'luck with it.

 

[Reimat]

When people say they shadowed a doc, do they mean once or twice? or on a regular basis?

 

[Blake]

When people say they shadowed a doc, do they mean once or twice? or on a regular basis?

I think they mean once or twice. Hell, even as a medical student doing a 3 weeks ''observation'' rotation in the local hospital (finished today with orthopedic surgery 👍 ), I still had trouble meeting and shadowing some doctors and following them everywhere, let alone a pre-med on his own.

 

[Handyman2Doc]

When people say they shadowed a doc, do they mean once or twice? or on a regular basis?

I think I read a post on SDN not too long ago where someone posted that they shadowed a doctor (not sure what specialty) every Friday for a while. I don't recall for how long though.

 

[DrDarwin]

I think I read a post on SDN not too long ago where someone posted that they shadowed a doctor (not sure what specialty) every Friday for a while. I don't recall for how long though.

I shadowed several different specialists (e.g., a gastroenterologist, radiologist, ENT, Infectious Disease, and an oral surgeon) as well as several different generalists (Internal Medicine and Peds) as part of an interdisciplinary course at my college. The course was for an entire month and allowed me to shadow 40 hrs./wk. each of the four weeks. I am not sure how substantial most shadowing experiences are, but I definitely got a feel for medicine during this time. (I also shadowed some physicians full-time for a week while studying abroad, which my friends father--a physician himself--was able to arrange.) Since most schools don't offer this option, I would suggest contacting anyone you know who works in health care (e.g., a respiratory therapist (RT) or CT/EKG Tech) and ask that person if s/he can set you up with some docs. It might also be interesting to shadow that person. I shadowed my aunt, who is an RT, a couple of times and was able to gain a much different perspective on health care delivery while doing so.

 

[DrHopeless]

Yeah I have one setup in the spring in the area of ER-Trauma, hopefully it will work out with my class schedule and everything else. All I did was to email randomly every doctors and hope for one. It works!!

 

[katiew]

Shadowing is done in while your in undergrad school that way you can put it on your med school application right?