<p>I know this question has been many countless times before, but I still don't know the best way of going about the idea of shadowing. I am currently a junior in highschool and would love to get some experience in the medical field, for it is currently my dream to attend medical school. I would also like volunteer experience and would love to do this at a hospital. The only problem is I don't know the best way in going about this. I have heard that people email or contact the hospital. I have tried to talk to my family doctor who had checked of how one would go about shadowing, but have said it is hard due to patient confidentiality. </p>
<p>Help, tips, suggestions, other threads. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>-Pacamed-</p>
<p>Are you in an area with an academic/teaching hospital? That is, is there a university around that has a medical school? If so, shadowing at those places is going to be a lot easier because patients are used to having “extra” people around (medical students, residents, fellows, nursing students, social work students…). I’ve always shadowed in academic hospitals and have never run into issues of patient confidentiality.</p>
<p>In terms of getting in touch with doctors, emailing them usually works–I would recommend emailing way more than you intend to shadow. Just send a polite note–about how you’re a local kid, you’re interested in medicine, you want to get involved, but you don’t know how…maybe he or she could help? If he or she can’t help, can they point you in the right direction? Aim for maybe…2 short paragraphs (that way, the busy doc will likely read the whole thing). I’ve had the best luck using this method at teaching hospitals, and found email addresses on university hospital websites.</p>
<p>You could also get started with volunteering, and from that weasel your way into shadowing the docs there–I have friends who were successful with that method. Try calling a few local hospitals to see how you’d go about volunteering. Usually it involves filling out a form, a short interview, a day of orientation, and them unceremoniously giving you a horribly colored oversized golf shirt that says “XXXXX Hospital Volunteer.” Once you get to know the various clinics, it probably would be fine to ask to shadow too.</p>
<p>You could also ask your fam doc what to do next if he said shadowing him wouldn’t work. You might ask him where else you could try, if he has any colleagues that would let you, or if he has any other ideas of ways to get involved that wouldn’t compromise patient confidentiality. The trick is to be persistent without being pushy–show him that you’re serious, and that you really care, and he just might find a way to let you spend a few afternoons with him. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Hey, I don’t want to be rude but I feel like the questions I have would go most appropriately in this thread.</p>
<ol>
<li>What is the youngest age you should be if you want to volunteer at a hospital? I am 15 (16 in the summer) and would most likely volunteer at the children’s hospital where my dad works. I don’t want to be awkward because I’m too young.</li>
</ol>
<p>ps. my dad tells me that volunteers mostly just do paperwork, do you think it is still worth it?</p>
<ol>
<li>If I volunteered at hospitals this summer would it count when I am applying to med schools or not because I am still young?</li>
</ol>
<p>premed4, I’d just call that hospital and ask. I don’t think it would be a huge problem in terms of you being too near their age, but the hospital might have an age requirement for volunteers–for example, the children’s hospital in my city (St Louis) allows high school kids to volunteer but they must be at least 17. </p>
<p>Hard to tell if it’ll be “worth it” if all you’re doing is paperwork, but if you’re motivated and outgoing then maybe you’ll be able to pick up extra roles/responsibilities as time goes on. </p>
<p>And finally, nothing you do in high school will count toward medical school. You might say it’s because you’re too young, but really it’ll probably be because you’ll have done too many great things in college to even consider putting high school stuff on your application. You might mention it in an essay or a personal statement though, perhaps to the effect of “I’ve been volunteering at blah blah since I was 15, and it’s really taught me…”</p>
<p>I just went to the hospital a mile awat from my house and was able to pick up an application to volunteer. The hospital required that their volunteers be at least 16 and work at least 4 hours a week. I think what you do really depends on the department and even the shifts. I know after I turned in my application I meet with the head of volunteers and she looked up the spaces available at the times I wanted to work. She then asked me which of the available departments I would want to work with. I volunteered with a nurses unit on the Medical Cardiology Unit for 2 years before I went to college. I started out and everyone thought I was just there to get hours in for a manditory graduation requirement (which my school didn’t have). After a while I earned their respects and was able to do more. One of the nurses really liked me and even allowed me to shadow her. Because of hospital guidelines there wasn’t much I could do, but I really enjoyed it. I often times just passed waters, put things on patients charts or transported pateints around the hospital, but sometimes I would be allowed to observe minor procedures. I am really looking forward to getting back into volunteering at a hospital because it was a really rewarding experience.</p>
<p>I also did some shadowing while in high school. The main doctor I shadowed was an orthopedic surgeon who did one of the surgeries on my knee. I got to talking with him about how I was interested in medicine and eventually just asked him if I would be able to shadow him. I would contact his administrative coordinator when I was on breaks and would shadow his clinic hours. It started off as half days and eventually he allowed me to sit in on a few surgeries (after filling out necessary forms and such). He was an extremely nice doctor and plan to try and contact him while I am home again in the summer. I also shadowed a few other orthopedic surgeons (I really was interested in orthopaedics while in high shcool) that I contacted different ways. One was my grandmas surgeon who preforms some computer assisted surgeries (one of the only ones in the region). She kept talking about me and eventually I had to talk her to one of her appointments and asked him. My mom is a physical therapist and contacted another surgeon that she often worked with. He was a DO and extremely nice, however I only shadowed him once. Other doctors I have been to (family doctor, dermatologist, and neurologist) have also discovered my interest in medicine and said that if I ever needed hours, that I should feel free to contact them.
I think shadowing can often be about connections, but emailing doctors in the area would probably work equally well, as long as you emailed more than you wanted to shadow.</p>
<p>While the volunteering and shadowing in high school won’t be used on my medical school applications (when the time comes) I really found it rewarding. My advisor also mentioned saying something along the lines of what kristin said in my personal statement. I would say go for it. If you get a lot of hours in, it would probably be worth looking into bs/md programs as well.</p>
<p>Sorry this got really long. :)</p>
<p>Thanks a lot KutlessRock, I think I will probably try to volunteer this summer but I probably won’t apply to a BS/MD program just because none of the colleges I want to go to have them and also I go to a prep school so I probably wouldn’t be in the top 3% which a lot of them require.</p>
<p>Is it easiest to volunteer/shadow in the summer? I have other ECs, but could possibly volunteer on weekends. Thanks for answering questions everyone, this forum seems to get responses quickly, which I appreciate.</p>
<p>The hospital I volunteered at want the volunteers to work at least four hours a week. I worked for 4 hours one fridays for four hours during the school year. I know people who did 4 hours on saturdays and other days of the week as well. I think I would be easy to do a few hours a week during the school year and during the summer you could volunteer more hours, shadow doctors, or do other things. In the summers in high school I went on mission trips, worked, went on vacation, was a teacher at my churchs VBS, did a little bit of shadowing and just hung out with friends, all while still doing a little bit volunteering on a continuous basis at the hospital. I think it depends on your schedule. Unless you are trying to get serious hours for a bs/md program, I wouldn’t totally give your summers away now and just start out slow.</p>
<p>Depends, I thought it was easier to shadow during the school year because I had more months available…like I said, i went the route of a few doctors but lots of hours–so just building it into my schedule was easiest. I found it easier to commit to say…3 hours every Tuesday (and plan for it) than to find a few full days in a row available, which is what i would have wanted to do over the summer since only 3 months were available. Then again, if you choose to shadow lots of doctors for a short time each, then you might have an easier time finding open days (not looking for a big commitment) in the summer. All in all, it doesn’t seem like one method will be easier for all students–you just have to figure out what works for you!</p>
<p>It is not easy at all to get to shadow / volunteer. Volunteering programs get filled now, some have huge waiting lists. Contact ALL hospitals / clinics in your area, contact people in charge of volunteering programs, ask for details. The best bet on shadowing is ask family friends, parents of your friends, anybody / everybody. You might have some % of success if you try a lot. One place / one doc. will not do, simply not enough, and there is no best way or magic about it. Remember, you are not to choose, they will choose, when and where and them you will decide if it is possible with your schedule.</p>