What would you say is more advantageous for shadowing?

[Jfz]

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Spacing out shadowing over the course of your undergrad years?
Getting a significant amount of shadowing done in just one year (first year for example)

Does this have any impact at all to adcoms? Maybe a better thread title would have been "does it even matter at all"? Because shadowing is only valuable up to a certain point, I don't see why i would wanna continue throughout my undergrad years if a good amount of hours were met within the first year. But I dunno if an adcom will say 'oh you shadowed 4 years ago' in a negative way

 

[Longshanks]

Over the course of your year's most likely.

For example: I did my shadowing on breaks, like Junior year when I had absolutely no spring break plans and it fell on a bad week so I shadowed different IM floors at a hospital I work at, and then this past summer I spent two weeks in the ED doing twelve hours every other day.

We'll see how it works out application wise, but IMHO shadowing isn't that big of a deal. Its something all pre-meds should do a little bit of just to get exposure to see what its like, met some doctors, and see if it really is something they want to do. On the other hand, the more positive and better shadowing experiences, is one where you learn about a specialty you haven't been exposed to before or some how get to participate in some way. During one my shadowings I got to go over discharge instructions with patients, and since its a teaching hospital check out resident seminars or short classes with med/pa students. The substance of the experience is more important than the timing or spacing.

 

[Stratego]

A few schools don't regard shadowing as important, but most like to see it on your application. It need not be extensive and can be done in chunks of time over breaks rather than weekly. If you shadow 2-3 doctors for 1-5 days each, that is fine. IMO, a total of 50 hours would be enough to show that you have an understanding of what a physician does all day. If you continue to gain from the experience, feel free to do more. I don't have an impression that shadowing needs to have been in the year before application.

 

[LizzyM]

The point is this: have you seen what docs do? Not just what they do when they are with you or with your family member in the exam room but how the day is split up between direct patient care in the office or clinic, procedures, paperwork/phonecalls & dictation (or computer input), personal time (e.g. lunch and/or other down time), continuing medical education, and teaching, administration & research (if that's part of the mix as it often is for physicians in academic medicine), or managerial tasks (for those who are business owners).

Have you seen how patients interact with doctors? In particular have you seen the emotionally needy, the whiners, the manipulative, the dissatisfied, the uncooperative, and those who physicians finds themselves disliking. Can you see yourself working with that crowd? (Unless you end up in one of the rare fields where you never see patients face-to-face.)

Some things to ponder as you arrange for shadowing... I'm much less interested in the opportunity you had to "learn to read an x-ray" or use an otoscope and more concerned that you know the length of the day and the many things other than warm, fuzzy interactions with grateful patients and the cool, high tech gadgets of the procedure room that go into a physician's routine.

 

[Jfz]

The point is this: have you seen what docs do? Not just what they do when they are with you or with your family member in the exam room but how the day is split up between direct patient care in the office or clinic, procedures, paperwork/phonecalls & dictation (or computer input), personal time (e.g. lunch and/or other down time), continuing medical education, and teaching, administration & research (if that's part of the mix as it often is for physicians in academic medicine), or managerial tasks (for those who are business owners).

Have you seen how patients interact with doctors? In particular have you seen the emotionally needy, the whiners, the manipulative, the dissatisfied, the uncooperative, and those who physicians finds themselves disliking. Can you see yourself working with that crowd? (Unless you end up in one of the rare fields where you never see patients face-to-face.)

Some things to ponder as you arrange for shadowing... I'm much less interested in the opportunity you had to "learn to read an x-ray" or use an otoscope and more concerned that you know the length of the day and the many things other than warm, fuzzy interactions with grateful patients and the cool, high tech gadgets of the procedure room that go into a physician's routine.

Thank you for the great answer 🙂