Shadowing

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As far as shadowing goes, I think you would need enough to show that you know what you're getting yourself into. I personally shadowed for close to a year for about 2 hours at a time, about every other week. I found that this helped to keep in my mind why I was so excited about medicine in the first place (the daily grind was getting me down).
As far as a journal- I never kept one, but there have been a number of incidents that stand out in my mind as especially memorable.

Good luck🙂
 
Something to have in mind...while I was doing my shadowing I was told by a doctor that was on the board of the medical school I was shadowing at, that it isn't always about the number of hours you shadow. Hours play a big role, but make sure you venture into many different fields of medicine. Don't just shadow in the ER. Do some work in OB/GYN, Pediatrics...etc. This shows that you have tried and get a idea of all aspects of medicine.