Stood up for shadowing - rant

[StephanieZ]

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This is going to be rant-y because I'm a bad mood. I went into the hospital tonight to shadow a doctor who works on the floor where I work as a tech. We set this up last week. I was to meet him on the floor at 9. If he was late, I was to have the charge nurse or secretary page him to remind him. I was there at 9 on the dot. I waited. 9:15 rolls around, and he's not there. Understandable, he probably forgot. I page him and wait. At 9:45 he calls back and tells the secretary he is doing admits and will come get me before he sees his first patient. That's fine with me. I don't mind waiting for him as long as I know he hasn't forgotten about me. So I wait. And wait. Til one in the morning rolls around. I had only planned to stay until 3 because I have work in the morning, so by this time I just leave because even if he does show up, I know that he will likely have to sit and do an hour or so of charting like he usually does at that time of night when he comes to our floor. I am just so frustrated, because this is only about the third time this has happened where I've made an appointment for shadowing doctors and they never show up, or show up late only to tell me that this isn't a good time, can we reschedule? Is this normal 😕 I am so desperate to pop my shadowing cherry, I would wait all night if I thought they would eventually get around to me. I don't know what to do anymore.

 

[BruinBear13]

Definitely not normal and just plain rude. I have never had this kind of experience shadowing. I'd suggest finding another doctor to shadow, as this one unfortunately either doesn't seem to care or is way too busy...

 

[StephanieZ]

Definitely not normal and just plain rude. I have never had this kind of experience shadowing. I'd suggest finding another doctor to shadow, as this one unfortunately either doesn't seem to care or is way too busy...

Thanks for the support, it's definitely upsetting because I was very excited to shadow this particular doctor as the nurses have told me he is very intelligent and likes to teach and educate. Oh well. I managed to catch some zzz's on the waiting room couch and told myself it was practice for residency I mean, best I get used to being ignored and disregatded because its a steep climb up that totem pole and I'll be at the bottom for awhile. I'll look at it as a chancr to develop thick skin.

 

[ericksonj15]

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[LizzyM]

What I don't understand is why you aren't with him when he's doing "admits". Isn't the point of shadowing to watch the doctor do his work? Are you prohibited from shadowing in areas of the facility other than where you work as a tech? Why not page him and go to where he is in the building?

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

Its rude but he probably forgot. You might have paged him again at 1030 to check on his status. Find another doctor.

 

[StephanieZ]

That sucks to hear you've had such a bad experience shadowing. With respect to the bolded, try to remember "if you're 5 minutes early, you're 5 minutes late. Perhaps if you show up a little early next time instead of right on time you'll catch him before he gets busy.

Thing is I work on this floor at night and I know for a fact that he's never there that early. We had arranged to meet on the floor for convenience, but he doesn't usually get to our floor until after midnight. Maybe I could ask if there's a better place I could meet him.

What I don't understand is why you aren't with him when he's doing "admits". Isn't the point of shadowing to watch the doctor do his work? Are you prohibited from shadowing in areas of the facility other than where you work as a tech? Why not page him and go to where he is in the building?

I would love to watch him do admits, or paperwork, or whatever. I think all of the doctors I've asked to shadow have wanted me to wait until they have time to make the experience instructional, but I wish they would just let me follow them around from the moment they get to work until they leave. I'm pretty sure I can shadow them anywhere they go, they've just always told me to meet them on my floor at X time, and I've just wanted to be accommodating so I've never argued. I feel like I might have to start being a little more assertive, though.

Its rude but he probably forgot. You might have paged him again at 1030 to check on his status. Find another doctor.

I definitely thought about paging him many times, but I always think "No, I don't want to be pushy. He's probably on his way now, just give him a few more minutes..." Like I said above, though, I may have to start getting more proactive.

 

[talinnlove]

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