Shadowing

[Double A]

I've been reading up in this forum for a couple of weeks now and many people have hundreds of hours shadowing physicians. Now, does this usually occur through some sort of program or do you actually contact a doctor and ask to follow him/her for X amount of hours? I'm currently in the process of setting up a day or two to go in and shadow a couple of doctors my mom works with, but I would only get to spend around 5 hours with each doctor. Do I need to do this with numerous physicians to acquire a decent number of shadowing hours or do I need to look for a doctor that is willing to let me shadow for a prolonged period of time? I looked around for related threads, but figured it would be more helpful to post my own. Sorry if this has been beat to death.

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[missdoctor]

Yeah initially I wasn't sure how to get started with shadowing either, but eventually I found some good opportunities. If you volunteer at a hospital alot or work at a doctor's office, you can open doors for shadowing. I've found that some doctors are more available than others to deal with students shadowing them, so it's really just a matter of finding the more willing ones. Most doctors know what you're looking for, after all, they had to do the same thing once upon a time. So I guess if you're persistent about it you'll be able to get those hours in. I know friends who found doctors that let them come in nearly 8 hours a day most days of the week.
Hope that helped!

 

[Double A]

That does help, thank you. So I can basically go about it any way as long as I'm getting in the hours somehow... and of course learning something...

 

[cavalier329]

I go in to shadow every week for about 5-8 hours for the past 2 years. The department actually sent me a christmas card haha.

Gotta find the right doctors I suppose.

 

[Double A]

Lol wow that's a nice setup you got going. How did that get started?

 

[cavalier329]

The chief of surgery told the chair of this dept. that I was a good kid when I met him hahaha.

 

[Double A]

I mean, were you a volunteer at this hospital for a while beforehand or what?

 

[dhbighit]

You don't have to have hundreds of hours shadowing. Sure, it helps, and yes I did an internship that allowed me to shadow for about 30-40 hours a week for a few months. However, I am in the minority of those who applied with me by having that many shadowing hours.

Most people shadow a few different doctors AND/OR got a job as a E.R. Tech or a OR tech. These are excellent experiences that count just the same as shadowing and in my experience I learned more and got paid!

Most NORMAL people probably have around 30-50 hours of shadowing. That is only a few different doctors over the course of a year or so.

Medical schools just want to see that you are dedicated enough to seek out such opportunites and that you know what you are getting yourself into and can handle the daily "happenings" in the medical field.

I would suggest volunteering and trying to find a job in a DIFFERENT area of the hospital so you see and can talk about different aspects of medicine.

You will be fine, maybe you will land an awesome job in the OR, maybe not, but honestly as long as you have a few volunteering and shadowing experiences to list and talk about you will be fine.