<p>How do you obtain shadowing experience?
In my area, I can see several people volunteering at a local hospitcal, but I rarely see those who do shadowing.
Please tell me the steps you would have to take to obtain shadowing position.
Thanks.</p>
<p>well I would contact the hospital or a doctors office and ask a doctor if you could shadow him/her.
It is easy for me thank God. More then half of the doctors at the hospital are from Pakistan so they are like family even though we are not related so it would be ok. Not to mention I work at the hospital so I know almost all the doctors who work during day time. </p>
<p>Good Luck. I would seriously just pick up a phone book and call some doctors offices or go down to your ER, and ask one of them if you can follow them around.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, pakbabydoll. Is that how most people obtain a shadowing position?</p>
<p>It would be better to contact a physician you know (either a family friend or your physician) rather than just cold calling strangers.</p>
<p>One more question: How many total hours/years of shadowing experience are typical of accepted applicants? Does it matter when you start it? I'm going to be a sophomore in Fall.</p>
<p>um, sorry if this is a stupid question, but: If you do hospital volunteering or something, is it really all that necessary to do shadowing? I know they both yield different benefits, but time is precious and I guess they're similar enough...</p>
<p>I figured he did not know any physicians thats why he asked this questions. thats why I answered it like that. Cmon if you did not know any physicians then how would you go about it?
oh you can ask your family Doctor.</p>
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Cmon if you did not know any physicians then how would you go about it?
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Do you have to ask only the physicians you know? Can't you just randomly approach any physicians at your local hospital?</p>
<p>ysk, cold calling is not as efficient as asking a physician with whom you have ANY familiarity (parent of a friend, friend of your cousin, anything) . Cold calling may very well result in numerous opportunities, but it also may be very frustrating. Having that intro thread , however tenuous it may be, makes it easier. That's all the posters were saying. And once you have doc "A" (and represent yourself well by your actions in shadowing him/her) , they can steer you to doc "B" and so on.</p>
<p>Should one shadow the same physician for lets say 2 yrs or more? Or should one switch after a while to see how another physician works and observe other physicians in other medical fields?</p>
<p>2 years?! You're trying to find out about medicine, not marry the man.</p>
<p>LOL, norcalguy. </p>
<p>2 years? That would be another type of relationship. That would be stalking. ;)</p>
<p>To answer the Q, a week or a couple of weeks then switch might be best. Try to see a lot of different things. That's what my D did, although she did do a bit more time in the opthalmologist's office doing tech type work.</p>
<p>But don't you need the guy's recommendation for like med school and stuff. The reason that I ask is because my college has a med school on campus so I would want to like follow a doctor around. I guess I am comparing shadowing to research because research lab hopping is not recommended. So do you guys recommend changing physicians to shadow, yearly, each semester, or every 2-3 months?</p>
<p>Getting a shadowing LOR would be a very bad idea indeed.</p>
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Getting a shadowing LOR would be a very bad idea indeed.
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</p>
<p>Sorry for the ignorance, Isn't something of the sort required for application to certain schools?</p>
<p>If ppl who you shadow can't write you LORs, then who can? Only profs & lab mentors?</p>
<p>Ducky Dodger: bluedevilmike is just saying that a LOR from a physician would be inappropriate.</p>
<p>blazinyan300: I heard that LORs from people other than profs or lab mentors are pretty weak for med school application.</p>
<p>So basically you never have to list how you shadow, you just say I have shadowing experience in this place when I shadowed a .... (like a cardiologist or radiologist). Shadowing seems really lax then if you really don't need to prove yourself like one needs to do in research. Is the # of hrs that one does important also? Say if I do 5 hrs. weekly, is that bad?</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that it's a terrible idea to get an LOR from a physician you shadow, I just don't think someone you follow around for a few days can make an informed recommendation about your viability as a doctor. And, no, no allopathic medical schools require a LOR from a physician. </p>
<p>You'll "prove" your shadowing experience by answering the interview question, "So, what have you learned from your shadowing experience?" It's not about the number of hours; it's about how many questions you ask, how much you pay attention in those hours. I personally think that the return you get for your shadowing hours decreases dramatically after one week of shadowing.</p>
<p>norcalguy: "I personally think that the return you get for your shadowing hours decreases dramatically after one week of shadowing."</p>
<p>Is the reason that you say this b/c the procedures become monotonous and repetitive? So you recommend having shadowing experience, but where one shadows different doctors. Then once one has shadowing nearly all medical professions of interest, that person can pick one and have solid proof during a med school interview, if they ask what med profession do you want? Is this correct? If so, then why can't this same logic be applied to ppl who want to pursue MD/PhD's? I do understand that shadowing and research aren't the same and you need to devote more time to research, but are you implying that a person should be in the same lab for all 4 yrs? If that is the case, then how can one explore different research fields before med school and/or grad school? Sorry for shifting the conversation into a different direction, but this is something that has been bugging me.</p>