During Covid, there were several virtual shadowing websites (clinicalshadowing.com, for example). How do med school adcoms view this? It is still extremely hard to get shadowing opportunities. My daughter was accepted for a program only to have the program write back this week and say there is a shortage of physician mentors and they can’t accommodate the students. They said the students will get priority next semester. But we are not holding our breath. She is still trying to reach out individually to doctors but this has also not been successful. In the interim, what is everyone’s view of virtual shadowing?
is your daughter in HS or college?
Junior in college
She is the one that says this isn’t a good idea, but I’ve seen kids with this on their LinkedIn page. So I just want people’s opinions and/or personal experience with this.
Can her school pre-health advisors help find opportunities?
She can also get patient facing experience in other ways, some may even be better than shadowing…working as a CNA or EMT, working/volunteering in a healthcare facility (hospital, rehab, long term care, etc). Does she have any of these experiences?
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This program that has postponed her shadowing was with her school. It was an application process and she was one of 50 accepted. But now it’s cancelled this semester. She has solid research experience and has volunteered at an orthopedic hospital for the past year, so we really just need the shadowing. She’s good on those hours- she tells me she needs these shadowing hours if her goal is to apply to med school next year. Will schools look at her app if she does these shadowing hours in the summer? Is it too late? When do med schools open their app to begin the process?
@wayoutwestmom can you help/offer insights?
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Virtual shadowing is worthless and not a substitute for in-person shadowing.
Don’t take my word for it. This question has been posted to SDN multiple times and the med school adcomms posting there are unanimous in their opinion that virtual shadowing lacks any value whatsoever.
The best way to get shadowing is ask at her volunteer site. Doctors who are familiar with her (and her common sense, reliability, discretion w/r/t patient data, etc) are the one most likely to give her permission to shadow. She should mention her desire to shadow to any doctors she interacts with regularly. Also she should mention her shadowing interest to the director of volunteer services at her volunteer site. She can also ask her own primary care physician and ask if they can recommend any of their colleagues who might allow her to shadow.
Networking is critical to getting physician shadowing opportunities.
Another pathway that many pre-meds utilize is working as a medical scribe. That job comes with built-in shadowing.
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As long as she has shadowing done BEFORE she submits her med school app. Except in exceptional circumstances, no shadowing is a disqualification for consideration. She needs to demonstrate she understands the lifestyle she is signing up for.
Med school applications open in May and apps are sent out to schools starting in June. Interviews start being tendered in mid-August. So doing her shadowing next summer is too late.
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Thank you! I appreciate your feedback. She does have lined up some shadowing over Xmas break, so I think she can get in at least 30 hours- hopefully, her school will come through next semester.
Thank you. I will tell her to do that. She is well-liked there and was asked to train other volunteers.
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I hope some of those hours are with primary care physicians.
Although EM, surgery and other procedure oriented specialties are fun to shadow they really don’t reflect the actual day-to-day clinical practice of most doctors. Particularly since most physicians do end up doing primary care.
But if she can get about 50-60 hours of shadowing done before she submits her primary in May-June, she should be good to go.
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It will be ID and psychiatry.
Ouch, ID is very esoteric and a very narrow specialization. Psychiatry is pretty hands off. Neither are primary care.
Primary care is internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, geriatrics and office based GYN (well woman care).
One doctor is double board certified ID and internal medicine. She will also be in a free Spanish clinic ( my daughter is bilingual ).
ID requires double boarding because ID is a subspecialty of internal medicine. But ID docs who only do ID are hunting zebras, not doing routine healthcare.
The Spanish clinic is regular internal medicine.
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Can she spend a lot of time at the Spanish free clinic…which sounds like it might also be for low income folks?
I think internal medicine shadowing at a Spanish free clinic checks off a few good boxes!
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She will likely be doing most of her shadowing at this clinic. This doctor (ID/internal medicine) does this clinic 50% of the time.
I guess another question is- how much time ideally is with different types of doctors? She could do all 30 with this internal medicine Spanish speaking clinic. I just didn’t know if adcoms want to see a variety of specialties.