Shadowing your own (personal) doctor?

[chagall]

OK, this is going to be awkward. It's only for one day, or else I would have tried to get reassigned. I don't know for sure that a doctor I once had is going to be at the place where I'm shadowing, but it seems very likely, and he will likely be the attending. What's worse, I will be observing a procedure he once helped perform on me.

So how would you handle this? I thought it would be OK, but now I'm starting to get worried. Do I act like I don't know him from before and hope he doesn't recognize me (a possibility, though a remote one)? Or try to catch him privately and acknowledge the awkwardness?

Also, when he's pimping me on the procedure and its indications, well...how is that going to work? I guess I just answer the questions like normal...but it just seems like it will be completely bizarre...we will both know that I know the answers because I've been through it myself, but can't acknowledge it?

It's going to be one long day!

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[deleted87716]

OK, this is going to be awkward.

I'm not sure I see what the problem is. I've had a couple of patients, who happened to be medical students, rotate through my office during their training. Nothing awkward about it. I guess the main issue is how you and/or your doctor feel about it. If you feel awkward, then it's awkward.

 

[chagall]

I'm not sure I see what the problem is. I've had a couple of patients, who happened to be medical students, rotate through my office during their training. Nothing awkward about it. I guess the main issue is how you and/or your doctor feel about it. If you feel awkward, then it's awkward.

OK, that's good to hear.

 

[Dr JPH]

Depends on how close you are. My family doc back home wants me to go FP and buy out his practice.

 

[SoCuteMD]

Ack! Calm down!!! I mean, unless this doc performed a pelvic on you while you confessed to having 15 partners in the last 5 nights all without protection I really wouldn't worry. If that was the case, well then I'd probably worry but not for the reasons you are.

The doc will probably take it as a compliment that you are now in medicine, and I wouldn't mention that you were assigned there without any choice because he/she might also think that you asked to be at that site, and that's another great compliment for the doc.

 

[Soup]

I shadowed once with my FP. It was probably the most beneficial shadowing experience that I've had. I was also worried that it might be a little weird, but it wasn't at all weird. She's used to med students (taught for 15+ years at the med school) and I know that she's a good doctor so we already trusted each other and had a productive day. It probably doesn't hurt that she was a major reason that I've entered medicine -- she'd been encouraging me for years and wrote me a very strong letter of recommendation. Don't worry about it.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I did my first rotation of third year with my famiy doctor. It was kind of weird for me at first and actually she was the hardest to please. But I learned a lot over the month and we got along very well. If the doctor says yes to you then you know they are not uncomfortable with you being there. It more your own fears that need taming.

 

[chagall]

Ack! Calm down!!! I mean, unless this doc performed a pelvic on you while you confessed to having 15 partners in the last 5 nights all without protection I really wouldn't worry. If that was the case, well then I'd probably worry but not for the reasons you are.

The doc will probably take it as a compliment that you are now in medicine, and I wouldn't mention that you were assigned there without any choice because he/she might also think that you asked to be at that site, and that's another great compliment for the doc.

It was for one day only, so I guess it didn't matter much in the long run...though I will probably have to have some more professional contact with that part of the hospital later on in rotations.

I know from what I wrote that it sounds like I was overreacting, but I didn't give the necessary details probably, out of embarrassment. No, there was no pelvic exam or talk of multiple sexual partners in my past interactions with him...but this was a psych unit. So I'm not sure how much more detail would be needed there.

I did make it through fine...though one doctor there vaguely recognized me and actually asked what context had he seen me in before. And at least one staff member also recognized me and said, "you look really familiar," to which I said, "hmmm" and moved on! I could tell she eventually figured it out, but fortunately didn't share with the entire room, including a fellow med student.

It is my opinion that psych stuff should be less stigmatized, and ideally I would like to be a part of that, and have a little bit in the past...but as you get farther along in medicine, it seems like there's even more encouragement to hide as much as possible or risk a lot, maybe a career.

On the up side, I felt like the few interactions I had with patients there may have been helpful to them because of the fact that I had been there before (though I also didn't tell them this).