Shadowing = number vs hours

[jae9970]

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hey,

whenever i ask physicians for an opportunity to shadow, it is almost assumed that the shadowing is for one day. For example, i asked Dr. Alpha if I could shadow him, and he replied, "sure, you could come in one day and spend the entire afternoon with me in the clinic"

Also, in one clinic that i shadowed, i was told that since there isn't much of a variety in patient and condition types, i could see pretty much the majority of what doctors experience in only a few hours

Then again, i see many people who have 100, 200 hours of shadowing..

would it be better to shadow many different departments little by little?

 

[somethingpositi]

hey,

whenever i ask physicians for an opportunity to shadow, it is almost assumed that the shadowing is for one day. For example, i asked Dr. Alpha if I could shadow him, and he replied, "sure, you could come in one day and spend the entire afternoon with me in the clinic"

Also, in one clinic that i shadowed, i was told that since there isn't much of a variety in patient and condition types, i could see pretty much the majority of what doctors experience in only a few hours

Then again, i see many people who have 100, 200 hours of shadowing..

would it be better to shadow many different departments little by little?

I don't see a point to shadowing physicians for hundreds of hours, especially at my pre-med level where I don't understand the nuances of medicine yet. I'm shadowing a bunch of different specialists to get a feel for their work, so that eventually I'll know what I want to specialize in.

 

[WildcatMD2]

I have a friend who's a student interviewer at a med school and he says that generally that they want to see that a) you are doing some shadowing and have some clincial experience and b) quality and getting something out of it is more important that the number of hours itself.

 

[postbacker]

hey,

whenever i ask physicians for an opportunity to shadow, it is almost assumed that the shadowing is for one day. For example, i asked Dr. Alpha if I could shadow him, and he replied, "sure, you could come in one day and spend the entire afternoon with me in the clinic"

Also, in one clinic that i shadowed, i was told that since there isn't much of a variety in patient and condition types, i could see pretty much the majority of what doctors experience in only a few hours

Then again, i see many people who have 100, 200 hours of shadowing..

would it be better to shadow many different departments little by little?

That is what I think - and I think the 200+ hours shadowing numbers reported on SDN are kind of ridiculous, too, especially when they are with just one doc or one type of doc...it makes a lot more sense to pile up those kinds of numbers with clinical/volunteer experiences...and to get exposed to more docs and practice areas rather than fewer on shadowing...

 

[MossPoh]

Hours pile up fast though. I shadowed an ER doc 3 times and have over 36 hours form that....there was some serious dead time in the ER. If that was the case I meandered over to another area like the ICU and what not. Really..I have over 150 hours and feel like I have skimmed the surface. It depends on the speciality I suppose. 150 hours of radiology would be killer...ER not so much because while you'll have 50 abdominal or chest pains in a day..there will almost always be something new. Do what you have time for...I went form just trailing around to being able to reduce a fracture and dislocated shoulder, search for a pulse with the doppler, listen to and compare heart sounds between a valve replacement, LVAD, and normal chest....all sorts of stuff. I do mine in full stents though. Hour a day would be tough. I prefer to go if I have a week off and treat it liek a full time job. Go into the OR with the surgeon from 7 a.m. till 6 at night and what not. For every 5 hernia or gallbladders I see, I see something new and interesting at this rate. The only thing that felt repetitive were the stress tests and colonoscopy for me....and lookng at radiology images since you don't have the base knowledge to understand how to search fo rthe stuff.

I guess to me the 200+ hours really isn't that much. I spent 2 weeks of summer all day everyday and got almost that much. Do that twice and you are well above 200 ...Then you go back to your normal, quasi-fake volunteering. I love how people rarely volunteer because they WANT to..they do it with something partly interesting because it looks good on the application. I'm the same way.

 

[spanamit]

I think some people (myself included) enjoy shadowing various kinds of doctors. So if you spend 3-4 days with a doctor and you shadow 6-7 specialists, you can easily rake up more than 200 hours.

What you have to consider is the importance of the shadowing to you. If one is just doing it to have a certain amount of hours, in my opinion that's a waste of time. However, if you are interested in seeing the diversity of medical practice then the above plan would make sense.

 

[154241]

I was lucky and got into a shadowing internship. I followed a different specialty each week, all week, for six weeks and wound up with more than 200 hours. It's not necessarily true that you'll get a feel for the practice in one afternoon. For example, the infectious diseases guy had typical inpatient wound care stuff, but also patients at the local AIDS and TB clinics a few days a week. Two very different experiences. I think there's a big difference in seeing outpatient vs inpatient vs surgery, and you should get a feel for all of them as much as possible. And watching doctors through the whole week meant I saw more than just patient appointments--arguing with insurance companies, coordinating with patients' other doctors, and other stuff that filled out the "day in the life" experience for me. I have a much better feel for the different lifestyles of various specialties as a result, and I think I can talk about it somewhat knowledgeably in interviews. So I would recommend as many different specialties as possible, and don't assume that you will see everything in a day.

 

[TheRealMD]

More areas is more important than number of hours. Without doing anything medically useful, I think most people would get bored following the same person around hours on end for months. Sure, it can be done, but I don't know how much you really get out of it.

However, the more important thing you get out of shadowing is contacts. Doctors talk amongst themselves, and if you want to shadow a different speciality in a hospital, it's a lot easier to ask a physician to find a friend that will be willing to help you out than go on a wild goose chase. 👍

 

[artaxerxes]

I shadowed the same internist for 3 weeks now, about 4hrsx3/week=36hr, its actually somewhat less than that

he seems to not mind me being around, and hasn't really told me when it should end... but I'm sure a month is usually the upper limit on these things.

 

[gujuDoc]

I don't see a point to shadowing physicians for hundreds of hours, especially at my pre-med level where I don't understand the nuances of medicine yet. I'm shadowing a bunch of different specialists to get a feel for their work, so that eventually I'll know what I want to specialize in.

Well this depends on a few things.....

I've done what you did and shadowed a diversity of types of doctors, however, there is one exceptioon when I think that shadowing a doctor for hundreds of hours makes a difference.

That one exception is the case in which a doctor allows you to help and assist with basic things like taking heights and weights, blood pressures, and so forth. I know quite a few people who were allowed to assist in things while shadowing. I personally never did get to do that but I've heard of people doing it and if you are being interactive I think it is different then if you are a passive observer.

 

[inaminute]

200 hours? Who's that? Pinocchio?

 

[Igor4sugry]

Its more about the experience rather than the hours. People on the medical school admission committee know that it is not that easy to follow a doctor around forever.

 

[inaminute]

Its more about the experience rather than the hours. People on the medical school admission committee know that it is not that easy to follow a doctor around forever.

So true. They are sneaky and tend to climb out the windows of the men's room after a few minutes of being followed.

 

[gleneagles3]

call me crazy, but when I become a doctor I am going to be more than willing to help out students that want to shadow me. I imagine feeling proud at the opportunity to show a student my world. It seems that most doctors forgot how they started I guess?

 

[Nasem]

I think its silly to do alot of hours shadowing different specialties....
Thats why medical schools do medical rotations, so you can get a feel for what specialty you want to get into.... its too early to make that decision right now (before you even get accepted to medical school)

The whole reason why people shadow is to see if they WANT to become doctors in the first place.

I know shadowing helped me a great deal.... All the past year or so, I wanted to become a dentist(shadowed my sister for many many hours), then I shadowed an MD for about 40-50 hrs over a period of about 4-5 weeks, and all things turned around, all of a sudden, I enjoyed Internal medicine more than dentistry. now Im pre-med 🙂

 

[jae9970]

call me crazy, but when I become a doctor I am going to be more than willing to help out students that want to shadow me. I imagine feeling proud at the opportunity to show a student my world. It seems that most doctors forgot how they started I guess?

i wont call you crazy. The physicians I have contacted so far don't seem to mind shadowing at all... you just have to show interest by actually showing up at their office and ask, instead of phone calls and e-mails.

 

[gujuDoc]

I think its silly to do alot of hours shadowing different specialties....
Thats why medical schools do medical rotations, so you can get a feel for what specialty you want to get into.... its too early to make that decision right now (before you even get accepted to medical school)

The whole reason why people shadow is to see if they WANT to become doctors in the first place.

I know shadowing helped me a great deal.... All the past year or so, I wanted to become a dentist(shadowed my sister for many many hours), then I shadowed an MD for about 40-50 hrs over a period of about 4-5 weeks, and all things turned around, all of a sudden, I enjoyed Internal medicine more than dentistry. now Im pre-med 🙂

Its not to see what specialty they'd like but to get perspective of medicine from different physicians and see if this is the right career path for them.

 

[gujuDoc]

200 hours? Who's that? Pinocchio?

I've seen people with MD apps who have had 200 hours of shadowing.

Technically if you include the 3 week program I was back when I was in highschool, I'd probably have accummulated nearly 120 hours of shadowing. But it wasn't all with one doctor or the same time frame. I had 3 weeks of shadowing from there plus on and off shadowing through college of different physicians.

 

[Stversko]

You guys are lucky to have availability to doctors that are willing to let pre-meds shadow them. I contacted many doctors by e-mail in my hospital and many have not replied, or declined. Even my phone calls are being neglected.

I dont have a family doctor, or any one doctor i am close enough to.

any ideas how to overcome this situation?

 

[inaminute]

You guys are lucky to have availability to doctors that are willing to let pre-meds shadow them. I contacted many doctors by e-mail in my hospital and many have not replied, or declined. Even my phone calls are being neglected.

I dont have a family doctor, or any one doctor i am close enough to.

any ideas how to overcome this situation?

Take a shower, put on decent clothing and go to see them in person.

 

[gleneagles3]

You guys are lucky to have availability to doctors that are willing to let pre-meds shadow them. I contacted many doctors by e-mail in my hospital and many have not replied, or declined. Even my phone calls are being neglected.

I dont have a family doctor, or any one doctor i am close enough to.

any ideas how to overcome this situation?

This is exactly what I am talking about. I have had plenty of shadowing experience because I have been lucky and had known the doctors well enough that they had no problem with it. But why cant doctors go out of their way "slighty" to help someone that is interested in their occupation. I hope someday that I have a student that contacts me to shadow him. I will be thinking, whats this kids motivation to contact me for help. Not to mention, what if he is discussing his potential career on an online student doctor forum! talk about desire to become a physician!

 

[littlealex]

My school have these programs for shadowing. You get 3 credits for the shadowing for a semester, and the physicians typically give you articles to read every week and require to you write a paper in the end. It is about 10 hours of shadowing a week for a semester. That is easily 120 hours of shadowing.

 

[hanjg]

I know I'm very lucky but I am shadowing 3 differents doctors this summer. So far I've had 2 weeks with a opthamologist, a week with a cardiologist, and this week with a plastic surgeon. They all vary with how they do things but it has all been great. I have seen several surgical procedures and been in countless examinations. I've been getting from 24-40 hours a week and I have 3 more weeks to go.

One thing I am learning is that I DON"T like the business part of medicine that much. A great deal of some doctors' time is spent taking care of the business so that they can then take care of patients. I understand the reality "If you are not in business , you can't help anybody." but I think I'll be happier in a larger practice where somebody else is responsible for most of that.

Another thing is that I really don't mind the actual surgery. It doesn't seem to bother me at all. It's more interesting than gross.

These may not seem to be much but I feel even more sure of my commitment to become a physician.

The physicians I have contacted so far don't seem to mind shadowing at all... you just have to show interest by actually showing up at their office and ask, instead of phone calls and e-mails.

I agree with this . Start with any doctors you have seen in the last few years. That at least gets you in the building.

 

[Nasem]

my friend did something different...
He volunteered at a hospital and became close to one of the doctors there, then he asked if he can go and do like 50 hrs of shadowing with him (over a period of 4-6 weeks I think) and doctor was totally OK with it

 

[shantster]

One thing I am learning is that I DON"T like the business part of medicine that much. A great deal of some doctors' time is spent taking care of the business so that they can then take care of patients. I understand the reality "If you are not in business , you can't help anybody." but I think I'll be happier in a larger practice where somebody else is responsible for most of that.

There's so many pros and cons with that though, and when I shadowed (an oncologist who was in a group and my allergist who worked alone) I heard both sides. My allergist started his own practice to get away from the group he was in because the doctor who assumed the senior position after the other one passed away screwed him over by having him do more of the work for less of the pay.

 

[blargh]

200 hours? Who's that? Pinocchio?

i definitely have over 200 hours. it's possible... i've shadowed for over 4 years now, with significant amounts of time spent in certain specialties (with the same docs).