Shadowing Questions

[drgriff1]

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I recently found a doctor that agreed to let me shadow, one day at a clinic and another in surgery. What is a typical day shadowing like? What kind of questions should I be prepared to answer? I have a list of questions to ask but what do you feel are some of the most important questions to ask? Any tips to help the day run smoothly and really get the most out of it would be appreciated. Thanks for any help.

 

[RySerr21]

I recently found a doctor that agreed to let me shadow, one day at a clinic and another in surgery. What is a typical day shadowing like? What kind of questions should I be prepared to answer? I have a list of questions to ask but what do you feel are some of the most important questions to ask? Any tips to help the day run smoothly and really get the most out of it would be appreciated. Thanks for any help.

a typical day in clinic is just following the doc around, going into patient visits (sometimes the patients dont want a pre med student so you might have to wait outside) and really just listening to what is going on, observing the doctor patient interaction. after the visit, some paperwork for the doc and time for Q and A! oooooooo and if you are lucky, you will be there through lunch and sometimes for whatever reason someone will go out and by the entire office subway or something and you get lunch for free! only if you are lucky tho, haha

as far as surgery, it depends what kind of surgery. when i shadowed an orhtopedic surgeon it was basically all arthroscopic, so no big incisions are blood or anyting like that. and i basicaly just stood and watched what he did and looked at the screen. he was really good about telling me what he was doing, b/c i had no idea what the hell i was looking it. i saw one surgery that wasn't arthroscopic, it was a fibular revision, and that was pretty cool. i just stood right behind him (literaly) and watched everything he did. be sure to be careful b/c the doc and everyone else in the room will be super anal about not touching anything on or around the tray with the blue napkin. you can't even breathe in that direction for fear of contaminating the sterile tools ready to be used. after the surgery we just talked about what he did and any other quesitons...

rule 1: bring a book...just in case. i shadowed a doc for an entire summer and between patients he was good about talking to me about the patient or anything else or letting me ask questinos..but he still had to do paperwork and stuff. that kind of left me standing there. you can either bring a book to read or i dunno...something to entertain yourself. I brought my anatomy book and it was good b/c i'd look at it then he'd quiz me on it later and apply what i was readin to the patients wed see

As far as being prepared to answer questions, i'm not really sure what you mean. typical questions like where you go to school or i dunno. i wouldnt expect him/her to ask you anything to thought provoking like what are the 4 signs of strep...

If the doc is a DO I always like talking about osteopathic medicine, why he/she chose the field, etc. I asked about OMM and whether or not the doc uses it..why or why not? Its good to ask questions that you always hear people argue about on here b/c the docs would know best, you know? like is there really a disadvnatage to getting into a competetive residency as a DO...stuff like that.

dress appropriately. i always had to wear dress clothes and a tie but i'd check before you arrive just to make sure. i guess if you are going itno surgery it wont really matter cuz ull change into scrubs

just enjoy your time and pay attention when with a patient! he might ask what you thought about it afterwards and if he just saw a patient for a cold and you start talking about a broken wrist, it might be kinda awkward asking for a LOR..... 😛

 

[Bacchus]

Screw Subway. One doctor I shadowed pimped the drug reps for lunch and it didn't cause an increase in scripts for whatever drug the rep was pushing. If they're going to bite the hook, you might as well reel them in.

 

[aliDO]

wow, I feel so lucky the the DO I've been shadowing rocks!!! He lets me come whenever I want and never makes me feel uncomfortable. The first day, of course, I did not know who he was. I asked the lady who called me about it ( I had written a letter of interest for shadowing him) how I should dress. But, do have some questions to show you are interested. They can be whatever you really have questions about. Don't be shy, this is what the experience is for. As far as what they will ask, it could be anything. My doctor asked lots of stuff but never expected a great answer. He said at my point (a pre-med, semi non-traditional applying this June for 2009) it's OK to say you don't know the answers to questions. You DON'T have to know everything about medicine, or even osteopathic medicine to make somebody think positively about yourself. Just act interested and willing to learn.

 

[Bacchus]

I shadowed a FP for a summer and she was surprised how much we're learning in undergrad. It wasn't like that when she went to undergrad (supposedly), and she even went to a decent school: Scranton (no jokes about the Office, please.)

 

[superfan56]

my DO i shadow/ed was my old FP doc I had a while back. He's pretty chill. Really business oriented. Introduces me as a rotating student as to not weird out the patients. we attend seminars at the hospital for free lunches and go back to the practice to do OMM.

 

[DadAndPreDOinMO]

I shadowed an intensivist/hospitalist (IM) DO last summer and he asked me lots of questions. He 'pimped' me sometimes before passing the question on to the med students and occasionally if the student didn't know the answer he would ask me. I actually knew some of the phys questions that the student didn't!! You probably wont get that type of stuff on a 2 day shadow experience. Just be relaxed and ask questions if you have them.

 

[Snake Doctor]

Approximately how long should I wait to contact and setup shadowing if I am interested in doing so during the summer? 4-6 weeks in advance (so end of May?)?

Thanks!

 

[RySerr21]

Approximately how long should I wait to contact and setup shadowing if I am interested in doing so during the summer? 4-6 weeks in advance (so end of May?)?

Thanks!

i started summer in mid may and i sent out my letters and stuff before spring break (early march) just to give ample time.

 

[RySerr21]

I shadowed an intensivist/hospitalist (IM) DO last summer and he asked me lots of questions. He 'pimped' me sometimes before passing the question on to the med students and occasionally if the student didn't know the answer he would ask me. I actually knew some of the phys questions that the student didn't!! You probably wont get that type of stuff on a 2 day shadow experience. Just be relaxed and ask questions if you have them.

i just heard the term of being "pimped" last week. when the doctor said it i was like, "huh?" haha. kinda funny

 

[DadAndPreDOinMO]

i just heard the term of being "pimped" last week. when the doctor said it i was like, "huh?" haha. kinda funny

Yeah, the first time I heard it I was like pimped, really, huh. The student said I've got to go study up on xyz over lunch. I said why. She says because Dr. X is going to pimp me on it after lunch.
An interesting way to say I'm going to pick your brain!!

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

I have shadowed several doctors (most MD since that is what I want to pursue but one was DO)

With my FP we just went to patient rooms all day- she would look at the chart and either tell me or point out key info about what I needed to know- there were a couple patients she saw privately for emotional reasons but no one else said no to me being there- at the end of the day she helped me write down a list of where she would apply is she were me, we talked about my EC's and then we left at that we would talk later about future times...the process has repeated a few times.

My other experience was two weeks in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. Each day I was with a different physician to learn a different part of the clinic. I will outline each experience so you get a good idea of what I experienced

1- General Hematology- the doctor would sit down with me before each patient explain the disease, draw pictures, and ask me very basic questions (no pressure but engaging) then we went to the patient and I watched (no patient interaction with him besides being in the room)

2- Neuro-oncolog- doctor would tell me a lil history, show me MRI, took me to radiology and let me go with her to patients. Did have to tell someone their chance of survival was really small.

3- General oncology with Fellow- the fellow would give me a "challenge" to research (ex. please find the two major forms of anemia hint: micro and macro and explain them morphologically and clinically to me) after I did my research and presented what I had learned to her she would give me the chart let me read through it then see the patient- I really liked the approach because I laid a foundation and used chart to build walls and then completed it with meeting the patient

4- Hemophilia and Thrombosis- this was the doctor who set me up with all the others and she was amazing. She would tell me all about the cases then we would go to the patient. She let me listen to heart/lung/bowels and taught me how to do ears/throats. She also on a seperate day took me to her research lab and showed me what she was doing with Hemophilia A and Factor VIII. She also took me to dinner so I could talk with her and ask questions- she was so down to earth and friendly- she was a contact of a family member of the family I nanny for.

6- A First Year General Fellow- she just had me follow her around and I watched her both outpatient and inpatient. She taught me some about charting and told me how boring all the paperwork was.

So that is kinda a summary of my experiences. I also shadowed a couple other doctors during my time just going to see 1 or 2 patients with them. The doctors where I was at were all faculty members with a medical school so they were great about engaging me and because my ID badge messed up and said Medical Student I did get some tough questions but once I explained the mistake no one expected me to know the advanced stuff.

Also, I was invited to all doctor meetings (I think around 4 a week) which was fun and nice to see how the physicians work together.

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

Approximately how long should I wait to contact and setup shadowing if I am interested in doing so during the summer? 4-6 weeks in advance (so end of May?)?

Thanks!

Depends on what you want to shadow and how much paperwork is involved- my personal doctor took all of a week or two to let me in.

The hospital I started paperwork in July and I was able to be processed and through the system (boy what a system!) by December to do January shadowing. And without major help from the doctor who set me up it would have NEVER happened!