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Oh boy, here it comes.First, I will assert, with the utmost confidence, that those of you who claim to have to have witnessed and understand all that you basically could in your 10-30 hours of shadowing are overwhelmingly ignorant to the intricacies/spontaneity of our chosen profession.
you mean, a pre-med doesn't learn everything to know just by shadowing?Even in all my time of shadowing I was learning new procedures, techniques, and treatments. Towards the end of my cardiology rotation-after watching about 120 heart catheterizations- the lead invent-cardiologist gave me several opportunities to actually partake in the procedure through teaching me-hands on- how to thread different wires through the arteries and inflate angioplasty balloons in order to place stents. The type of experience is invaluable.
Of course, it did. This is SDN.Needless, to say this letter carried much weight with adcoms-some top 15 schools.
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......And my stats were not incredible-3.6 GPA 39S on the MCAT.
I can only guess how pleased the stent patients (or the hospital) would be on hearing of your invaluable experience during their surgery. I would suggest that this is simply reckless. There is no legitimate reason for you to be doing this other than poor judgement by both you and the surgeon. The surgeon should definitely get their malpractice insurance coverage raised, along with their premiums. Hope you're not shadowing in my state. There is a proper time for exposure to the practice of medicine and for learning medical techniques, you should stay with the former for now and avoid putting patients at risk.
Maybe because I had zero shadowing hours when I applied last cycle, but I don't quite understand these astronomical numbers that I read some premeds are investing in shadowing. I can see maybe 20 hrs would be helpful, but hundreds?? Isn't there a point of diminishing return? And then I read some get LOR's from a shadowed phys? Does shadowing strengthen your app that much after 20 hrs vs studying more for MCAT, volunteer work, or just relaxing? I don't understand...
r u kidding? u had to wait 120 cases before being in the OR? ouch........
I think I should clarify a bit here imer---you are grossly misunderstanding what I stated in my post-
All the prior caths I had watched were from behind a the glass observation window. Finally, after 120 procedures, the invent brought me into to actually scrub in full on and stand next to him at the operating table. By "partaking hands on" i meant that I was at the table with him as he showed me---NOT ALLOWED ME---the proper method through which to utilize the wires. Further, he let me partake in the process by asking my to identify possible stenoses and blockages.
I agree with you.-- I would never have actually accepted an invitation to thread the caths myself!!! lol
sorry for any confusion-but you can rest at ease that the catheterizations of your loved ones are not being performed by pre meds haha.
Hmm, now I get it - you watched something. Great shadowing experience - invaluable. How could I have been so stupid to think "...gave me several opportunities to actually partake in the procedure... hands-on..." means "to watch". I guess the rest of your post was so adamant that I didn't catch the winky-winky at your embellishment(s). Burp. Carry on.
What was it that made him not trust you to get close until you'd watched 120 procedures?
I asked an adcom member if they would like a letter of update on shadowing that I had done, and she just kind of smilled and said no.
Long term shadowing to me is just a way to get into a volunteering spot. Otherwise, I agree that large amounts are pretty crazy when you could be doing some medical community service and still get lots of shadowing experience.
Some people might disagree that you don't learn as much when you volunteer because you aren't with the doc all the time. It has been my experience that I learn as much from the nurses as from the docs. While the docs might have more knowledge and experience than nurses, to a pre-med that difference is like trying to say that Saturn is close and Pluto is far away from the earth. Our knowledge is pretty basic compared to either. So while it was fun to get doc's pulling me to see something interesting, I had a lot of fun chatting with the nurses too.