Shadowing

[Hogfan10]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I am about to start shadowing a few local doctors, hasn't been my first time shadowing but should I try and get hard proof that I did so for my medical school application? Or is it simply enough for me to just tell admission committee or write down the hours I put in?

 

[armybound]

Just keep track of your hours. Nobody is going to try to verify anything.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I am about to start shadowing a few local doctors, hasn't been my first time shadowing but should I try and get hard proof that I did so for my medical school application? Or is it simply enough for me to just tell admission committee or write down the hours I put in?

On your application you basically write whatever you want. I didn't have a physician letter because many people told me they are close to worthless, unless you worked with/for said doctor, but you could ask him/her to include in an LOR how many hours you shadowed if you're nervous about it. But I think that's highly unnecessary.

 

[911 Turbo]

So I can shadow with a friend who is a doctor and say I shadowed 5000 hours??

Huh... why isn't there a verification system lol

 

[SpecterGT260]

On your application you basically write whatever you want. I didn't have a physician letter because many people told me they are close to worthless, unless you worked with/for said doctor, but you could ask him/her to include in an LOR how many hours you shadowed if you're nervous about it. But I think that's highly unnecessary.

I don't agree with this.... most academic letters are essentially worthless because they are all cookie cutter and the adcom already has your grades. The physician letter can speak much more about who you are in a professional setting

 

[tiedyeddog]

So I can shadow with a friend who is a doctor and say I shadowed 5000 hours??

Huh... why isn't there a verification system lol

Yeah, but is that really going to help you? I think the amount of hours spent shadowing gets overblown on SDN. I maybe had 30 hours total, but volunteered in a clinical setting outside of shadowing.

There are what, 40K+ applicants each year? The AAMC doesn't have the sheer resources to verify everything in your activities.

I am sure if you put something absolutely unfeasible medical schools will invesitgate, but I am not sure. You wanna claim the world's youngest noble prize winner and see? Report back. 😉

 

[tiedyeddog]

I don't agree with this.... most academic letters are essentially worthless because they are all cookie cutter and the adcom already has your grades. The physician letter can speak much more about who you are in a professional setting

Like how you stood in a corner quietly, shaking your head up and down like you have chorea in affirming your comprehension of an attending's questions while you secretly(actually, it's not a secret) have no idea what they're talking about?

What exactly is an attending evaluating? How quiet you can be in the patients room and how long you can follow behind from room to room?

 

[blub1212]

Like how you stood in a corner quietly, shaking your head up and down like you have chorea in affirming your comprehension of an attending's questions while you secretly(actually, it's not a secret) have no idea what they're talking about?

What exactly is an attending evaluating? How quiet you can be in the patients room and how long you can follow behind from room to room?

I shadowed a physician who wrote me an awesome LOR. The key is to show them your desire to learn through intelligent questions and your interest in the patient/what the physician is doing through your nonverbals during the exam. Also, if given the opportunity to talk on a personal level between patients, find common ground and bond with them. A physician LOR can really help you out, they most likely will know people and have connections in the medical community that your other letter writers won't have.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Like how you stood in a corner quietly, shaking your head up and down like you have chorea in affirming your comprehension of an attending's questions while you secretly(actually, it's not a secret) have no idea what they're talking about?

What exactly is an attending evaluating? How quiet you can be in the patients room and how long you can follow behind from room to room?

Sounds like you nailed it 😉 I met with the Admissions administrator of my school after my first failed attempt to apply. Turns out they like physician notes 👍 doesn't make this necessarily true for all schools. But I think it would be silly not to get one if you have the chance

 

[xXIDaShizIXx]

I shadowed 100 hours total. 5 different specialties for 20 hours each. Just call up the doctors offices and tell them when you want to shadow and see if they will be willing to help you. About 1/4 of all doctors you call (in my experience) will actually let you shadow so don't give up. Call several, not just one, and don't wait for them to call you back. Don't lie about the hours. Shadowing is to show you what medicine is like, although necessary for the application, it does help and I'm still certain I want to do medicine after seeing 5 different specialties. Besides a committee might not believe you have 5000 hours, because going 24/7 that would be 3/4s of a year lol.

 

[Praefectus]

Like how you stood in a corner quietly, shaking your head up and down like you have chorea in affirming your comprehension of an attending's questions while you secretly(actually, it's not a secret) have no idea what they're talking about?

What exactly is an attending evaluating? How quiet you can be in the patients room and how long you can follow behind from room to room?

That's weird...you just fully described my shadowing experience. Are you spying on me?

 

[tiedyeddog]

I shadowed a physician who wrote me an awesome LOR. The key is to show them your desire to learn through intelligent questions and your interest in the patient/what the physician is doing through your nonverbals during the exam. Also, if given the opportunity to talk on a personal level between patients, find common ground and bond with them. A physician LOR can really help you out, they most likely will know people and have connections in the medical community that your other letter writers won't have.

I don't doubt a physician might have connections. That might be the only thing I really didn't consider above.

A common thing I have heard is that a physician letter you just shadowed (didn't work with on some level or volunteer with) can't evaluate you on any useful metric. Being able to talk to patients and ask "intelligent" questions has little to do with if you'd be a "good" medical student.

I don't see anything wrong with getting a physician letter but, in my case specifically, I chose to get a letter from a nurse that I had volunteered with for over 100 hours instead of getting a letter from a doc I shadowed for a week. The nurse actually got to see how I perform duties, how responsible I was, how I dealt with problems that arose. The doc has no way to evaluate you as a prospective medical student. A high schooler could follow around a doctor and mumble yes or no to his or her questions.

Sounds like you nailed it 😉 I met with the Admissions administrator of my school after my first failed attempt to apply. Turns out they like physician notes 👍 doesn't make this necessarily true for all schools. But I think it would be silly not to get one if you have the chance

I agree it would be silly not to get one if you don't have a better letter to put in it's place. I mean, how often is the doctor you shadow a family friend or your personal doctor? Of course they're going to write you a good letter. Adcoms know this. In my mind the quality of letter writers goes:

Science faculty >or = Research advisor> Non-science faculty > volunteer coordinator or someone who saw you volunteer at something meaningful > Physician who you ONLY shadowed > your grandma (she thinks you'd be a good doc because you know how to use those new fangled apple mephones, that must be important to medicine).

Of course, a LOR writer might write you a crap LOR, who knows. 😉

That's weird...you just fully described my shadowing experience. Are you spying on me?

I have eyes everywhere.....