Who should i shadow?

[redhead512]

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I have pretty much always wanted to be a doctor and i now have connections to a hospital and was told that i could shadow a doctor. i was given pretty much free reign as far as my choice and i'm supposed to tell them what i'm interested in and they will arrange who i shadow by what i tell them.

well, i'm interested in obstetrics...but i have a feeling that might be kind of awkward to shadow. other than that i have no real preference.

so my question to all of you lovely ladies and gentlemen is this: what area of medicine do you think would give me the best experience? this would be my first intro to medicine and i want to pick something that would be a positive experience and that would be able to show me a basic "day in the life of".

thank you!

 

[uclakid]

I have pretty much always wanted to be a doctor and i now have connections to a hospital and was told that i could shadow a doctor. i was given pretty much free reign as far as my choice and i'm supposed to tell them what i'm interested in and they will arrange who i shadow by what i tell them.

well, i'm interested in obstetrics...but i have a feeling that might be kind of awkward to shadow. other than that i have no real preference.

so my question to all of you lovely ladies and gentlemen is this: what area of medicine do you think would give me the best experience? this would be my first intro to medicine and i want to pick something that would be a positive experience and that would be able to show me a basic "day in the life of".

thank you!

shadow a family doc or an internist.

 

[deleted316655]

Maybe it would be better to start with someone you know so that you will get the hang of shadowing. I would then ask the person you shadowed if he/she had any advice about who/what kind of doctor to shadow. It really depends on your interests and what you want to learn more about.

 

[FutureCTDoc]

Shadow ophto, especially if you find someone in vitreo-retinal or corneal refractive. It's a procedural specialty, interesting and you may be allowed to view some cases.

 

[aRnonymous]

I agree, shadow a family doctor or internist. Another good idea is to shadow a surgeon. A lot of people are queasy about blood and guts, but a bunch of shadowing in the OR will help you get over that IMO

 

[Rendar5]

I would recommend a doctor who sees a huge variety of patients so you can be exposed to as much of medicine as possible.

Family doctors and Emergency doctors have the largest variety possible since they get to see men and women, kids and adults, surgical and medical cases.

General surgeons are also good, realizing this is a completely different world than internal medicine and realizing that even family and emergency doctors don't spend time in the operating room despite dealing with surgical type cases.

 

[redhead512]

Thank you so much for all of your help! I wasn't really expecting anyone to respond to my question, and I really appreciate the advice you guys gave me!

I think as of right now I am leaning towards family medicine so that I can get a general view of different cases and patients and choose from there where I want to go next.

I do have one more question though: Lately i've been thinking about neonatology. Is that something that they would let me shadow? I know that the infants are very vulnerable and so i was just curious.

Thanks again!

 

[Fishin316]

General practice is good because you can generally understand what they are doing and talking about.

If you can, shadowing a medical student is really good as well (best to shadow MS3 or MS4). It really gives you a picture of what you will be going through.

 

[huskerdye]

You're too young to be thinking about a specialty right now, so shadow whatever is interesting to you and just see how it goes..

I've shadowed a family doc with ob and had a great time. It wasn't awkward at all and I'm a guy. Trust me, the lady is far too pissed off to really care that somebody is shadowing with you. Now if I were too just shadow an Ob/Gyn, I might be a little less willing.

Shadowing surgery and emergency medicine have been my favorites so far. But, you can honestly shadow whatever, it really doesn't matter.. I would start off with a family doc with OB and then go from there.

 

[TrumaJunkie]

I just did an internship in emergency medicine (I'm a senior in high school) and loved it! You'll get a taste of ortho, dental, everything and the physician's hours are more flexible.

My advice to you is make sure the hospital trains you right. My internship was supposed to be a year but I just lost everything I worked on for months because the hospital messed up.

 

[Richardh]

good luck redhead512🙂