Should I shadow private practice or in hospital?

[deleted74029]

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For those of you who have shadowed is there any significant difference in shadowing a private practice physician as opposed to one who practices in a hospital? In regards to how much is learned and just the overall experience...

 

[CrepesofWrath]

I'd imagine that hospital shadowing would give you more breadth in terms of the types of cases that you would see, though that would also probably depend on the specialty of the doctor you would be shadowing.

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

I have done both and would have to say there are advantages to both. The hospital was a teaching hospital so the doctors have students regularly and I actually got to do a lot more than in the private office. The draw back was the hospital I went to had a ton of paperwork so it took a long time to get through that.

Private practice I did with my personal physician- I love the dynamic of family practice and the variety of cases I saw (though the hospital was more specialized cases). Also, my doctor and I have gotten closer since I started hanging out at her office and she knows me well enough that I feel very good about the letter of rec I am getting (the hospital has a clause in their shadowing contract that physicians couldn't write a LOR)...

Don't know if it helps but just think about what you might want in the future- i wanted to specialize and still might but family medicine is a lot better than I thought before shadowing! Do both if you have the chance!

 

[AMSMD]

HI!

I did hospital shadowing and really liked,I did internal medicine and surgery. During this time I met a lot of different doctors and did a lot of learning from each one👍👍. But if you have the time do both, it will give you more to talk in your med school interviews and applications.🙂🙂

 

[aggie08]

I've done both.

Hospital is WAY more fun - you see a lot more.

I was with a family phys and we saw a lot of "ack ack I have the flu," "my arm hurts it's probably broken," "my kid needs a circ" and "I need to lose weight."

Soooo....if that sounds exciting - find a family phys PP.

I liked randomness of hospital rounds.