<p>1.) What exactly is shadowing a surgeon?</p>
<p>2.)I am planning on shadowing a surgeon/cardiologisty and volunteering in a hospital everyday for 3 hours in my gap year while taking part-time classes. What kind of things do I need to observe?</p>
<p>I am still eligible of applying as incomign recc. I have a concern. What exactly should the surgeon write in his recommendation for me. He asked that perhaps I provide some topics he should write about. This is more a personal letter than a common app recc so it is very important.</p>
<p>By the way..Does that sound reasonable and valid for a gap year activity?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>To answer your last question, I personally believe that shadowing (which is following a doctor around. Literally, you become his shadow: someone who can't do anything but is there to learn by observing) and volunteering are great ways to spend a gap year. It shows you gave the whole becoming a doctor thing some major thought...I would venture to say more thought than most pre-meds will give before applying. </p>
<p>As for the things you need to observe: did you mean that your were shadowing a cardiothoracic surgeon? That'll be fun. I did that last week for a couple days. Observe SURGERIES. The surgeon will probably be too busy to talk to you (depends on the surgeon) but what I did during my shadowing experience was talk to the nurses when they weren't doing anything and talk to the perfusionists (bypass machine operators). </p>
<p>If you're shadowing at a teaching hospital, talk to the residents. They're generally pretty friendly when they're not busy. They know what it's like to be a student and do a great job of answering questions (in my experience, that is). You could try the age-old question: "If you could do it all over again, would you become a doctor?" Ask about pros/cons of the profession, etc. </p>
<p>Of course, the more anatomy you know, the better off you are, but you don't need to know everything. I knew virtually nothing and did just fine. I also ate lunch w/ the surgeon and we talked about current ethical/fiscal problems in medicine: giving millions in care to someone w/ no insurance, giving chemotherapy to patients even though it only extends a cancer victim's life by an average of three weeks, etc. </p>
<p>As far as your rec. letter, it's always a plus to get the comment "he is really interested, picks up new information quickly, etc." </p>
<p>A note about how you single-handedly kept all the patients in the hospital alive during a power outage by pedaling a bike connected to a generator would probably help too, lol. Have fun :)</p>
<p>thanks a lot. thats was amusing and helpful. Other thoughts?</p>