<p>I'm having an insanely difficult time finding a place to shadow a doctor. They don't want hs students. Does anyone have advice on which drs will allow shadowing and whatnot?</p>
<p>Well contact the big hospitals..I could help you out if you told me the major metro city you're closest to.</p>
<p>For example, I'm in Seattle, so I called three (Seattle Children's Hospital, Overlake Hospital, and Harborview Medical Center) and SCH was the only good one. They usually want med students but most make exceptions.</p>
<p>(Plus I did ER)</p>
<p>well....I contacted the major hospitals in my city, but gosh they're all sort of like there's some new privacy thing they just adopted blahblah</p>
<p>You're probably better off talking to individual doctors not in a hospital. That will limit the types of doctors you can shadow, but it's not like you'd get to really scrub in on heart surgery anyways.</p>
<p>Talk to your own doctors if they know anyone who would be interested in having a HSer follow. Talk to your counselors at school. When I found the orthopedic surgeon I shadowed in HS it was through a teacher in the Gifted/Talented program. Sometimes you just get lucky.</p>
<p>I got started w/ job shadowing when I took a 4 hours class for high school students interested in cardiology through an extracurricular program at my school. I thought to myself "It's in the morning on a Saturday and I'm more interested in surgery...but whatever, I'll go do it."</p>
<p>So I did the class, and at the end the doctor teaching it asked if anyone wanted to shadow a cardiologist. And, though I was interested in surgery, it was job shadowing and sounded interesting. So I took the doctor's card and called one of his colleagues to do the job shadowing.</p>
<p>After shadowing the cardiologist for a day, he asked me what I was interested in, and--I was polite about it--I mentioned my interest in surgery.</p>
<p>A week later I was following a cardiothoracic surgeon and got to sit in on 2 surgeries.</p>
<p>The take-home message from this is that even the tiniest little exposure--like an hour long guest speaker lecture, or an extracurricular class-- can help you get your foot in the door.</p>
<p>go to your local physican who has his own clinical office. He would be less lenient on the doctor/ patient policy. My doctor, at times, just lie to the hospital that im a medical student so yah.</p>
<p>i've tried area physicians....including my own. they all refered to the privacy thing or said regardless of what ihad accomplished......they couldnt take me because im under 18 (didnt feel comfortable or something)</p>
<p>It was probably because of a stupid rule called HIPAA</p>
<p>Oh and ask the volunteer coordinator at the hospital they have connections.</p>
<p>due to the hippa policy no "volunteer coordinator" connections will help you and asking your family practitioner will only get u a shadowing spot for perhaps a day. what you should do is find an internship. i did the gene black summer program all of july ( you get to follow all kinds of doctors through the month of july)....i got to scrub in for tuns of surgeries, deliveries, and a lot of other stuff you guys dream of. find an internship program...if you live in south cali i suggest the gene black program.</p>
<p>Actually volunteer coordinators help a lot.....you have no idea what you're talking about.</p>
<p>not here lol</p>
<p>Read this:</p>
<p>I agree with SHS_Spartan...my volunteer coordinator got me a regular shadowing (every Friday 4-7). Ask around big hospitals, not the small clinics.</p>
<p>i guess it depends...the hospital where i was originally asking is a very big upscale private hospital catering to a lot of the rich and famous....so as you might imagine HIPPA regulations were very strict and my volunteer coordinator couldn't help at all</p>
<p>and please dont tell me i ahve no idea what im talking about...ive been through this, just cuz ur expericne is different doesnt mean im wrong</p>
<p>you aren't because i had the same exp as you</p>
<p>Have hope! Ask your friends, guidance councelor, anyone! Big hospitals always ----- about high school students shadowing, so don't worry. Do you know of any smaller hospitals that aren't as busy? they tend to let students shadow docs. Also, if you volunteer @ hospitals, you start meeting ppl, seeing things, etc. </p>
<p>hope this helps</p>