What will I learn from shadowing?

[elsenor]

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I will be shadowing a doctor in a large hospital in the near future. I am just wondering what lessons I should expect to learn from shadowing the doctor?

And what have you personally gained from shadowing doctors? Did it excite you more to pursue medicine?

 

[GomersGoToGround]

I will answer one particular question that many students have:

I shadowed and was bored to death; does that mean I'm not going to like medicine?

The answer to that is: Not necessarily.

Of course you might not. But MANY physicians hated shadowing, but love medicine. It's different when you 1) can intellectually keep up and understand what's going on, and 2) actually get to do things.

Others will tackle the first questions, but I think it's vital to keep this in mind, so as not to get discouraged IF you don't enjoy it as much as you hoped you would.

 

[Goro]

You learn what a doctor's day is like, and how different doctor's jobs contrast, like, say, a vascular surgeon, a Ob/Gyn and a dermatologist.

I will be shadowing a doctor in a large hospital in the near future. I am just wondering what lessons I should expect to learn from shadowing the doctor?

And what have you personally gained from shadowing doctors? Did it excite you more to pursue medicine?

 

[LaceyMD]

I would say, don't expect to learn any huge, life-altering lessons from shadowing. Really, the point is to see the ins and outs of the doctor's day - how much time is spent on patient care, how much time is spent prepping to see a patient, how much time is spent charting or dictating, etc. Some doctors may take the time to chat with you or give you tidbits of info in between all of that, but others may be too busy for that, it just depends on the doctor and the day.

 

[sunflower18]

Shadowing several different specialties gives you a sense of what different doctors do, and shows the breadth of practice environment and time allocation between specialties and even different physicians. For example, does the doctor work in the clinic or on wards? Do they have long relationships with the patients, or is every patient encounter brief and one-time-only (such as EM)?

I must say, I absolutely loved shadowing and had a fantastic experience. It completely convinced me to pursue a career as a physician, and gave me some vague ideas of what specialties I might want to pursue (though that is of course subject to change). I hope that your time spent shadowing is informative and helps you decide whether medicine is right for you! 🙂