Shadowing advice anyone?

[Deanis]

I'm a post-graduate, non-traditional, 30-year-old premed student.

And I'm wanting some shadowing experience. I've talked to two doctors so far and both have said that as far as they know, only medical students are allowed to shadow (this is in Vancouver BC).

Anyone else know anything about this? In particular, is anyone from BC who got some shadowing time in the Vancouver area with some adivice they'd like to share?

Thanks guys/girls.

[Orchid]

Originally Posted by Deanis

And I'm wanting some shadowing experience. I've talked to two doctors so far and both have said that as far as they know, only medical students are allowed to shadow (this is in Vancouver BC).

technically yes some docs will play it by the book

but if you find a right doctor (it's easy with family med) and express strong interest / desire. cover letter, resume, etc they may be willing to let u shadow, even though you are a pre-med

[futuredoc]

I don't think that many medical schools actually view shadowing as something that great. I would consider volunteering to help out at the clinic or a hospital as opposed to just following a doctor around. Quote me if I am mistaken.

[AndyDude]

I agree with futuredoc. Personally, shadowing is and should be for med students since they will need that knowledge first hand. But as a pre-med, I think volunteering is much better option since you will have much more diverse and enriched experience as opposed to shadowing, which IMO is rather too technical for a premed.


Good luck,
AndyDude

[Orchid]

Originally Posted by futuredoc

I don't think that many medical schools actually view shadowing as something that great. I would consider volunteering to help out at the clinic or a hospital as opposed to just following a doctor around. Quote me if I am mistaken.

Originally Posted by AndyDude

I agree with futuredoc. Personally, shadowing is and should be for med students since they will need that knowledge first hand. But as a pre-med, I think volunteering is much better option since you will have much more diverse and enriched experience as opposed to shadowing, which IMO is rather too technical for a premed.


Good luck,
AndyDude

true, that being said, a pre-med who has volunteered in a clinical setting compared to a pre-med who has volunteered in a clinical setting and experienced shadowing with a doc

arguably, but most likely, the second could make for a stronger applicant

[Kyleh]

Also, from personal experience, shadowing a physician provides 'one-on-one' time for advice to be given, etc. This will not happen if just volunteering in a clinic or hospital (most likely). One doctor I shadowed sat on the admissions committee at UofT so he had lots to say.

[Adversary]

Although I am not in this field, my program gave me the opportunity to spend 2 years with medical colleagues so I know a few of them. I asked them and they told me there are 2 issues at hand. One is patient privacy. Despite being medical students, patients are still routinely asked if a medical student can be involved. In the eyes of the patient, this may be acceptable especially at a teaching hospital. However, if you put yourself in the patient's shoes, how would you feel if John Smith Public wants to know your medical history, etc. Would you be comfortable sharing all your medical issues? Hence, you do not see this as common in North America. I am aware of friends who have gone overseas to not only shadow physicians but accomplish tasks that I don't think are legally allowed here. Hence, overseas might be an option for those who are interested.

Secondly, insurance is another issue. Who will cover you and is liable for any accidents that should occur? What if something happens to you? What if you accidentally caused an accident? Hence, this is yet another obstacle in making this opportunity popular.

With that being said, I do know a few medical colleagues who shadowed in their pre-med days, but most did it through family connections or overseas. Have you tried looking through family and friends for connections?

[leviathan]

I've had the chance to become good friends with a couple of family physicians over the past couple years, and am working for a family physician as well. I imagine one of them would be happy to let me shadow, but I've been debating with whether or not I actually should. As I have a bit of training in health care, I could at least learn some medicine and also have a better idea if Family Medicine is something I want to do down the road. Certainly if I end up going to an international school, it would be good to know that in advance, as that's likely the only specialty I could match into.

However, I don't know if I'd want to put patients in the awkward position of having to either disclose personal information in my presence, or have them feel bad about telling me to leave the room.

Has anyone else felt the same way, and found a way to resolve this dilemma?

[AdamP]

My highschool had a health care co-op where for 3 months we shadowded Nurses, Lab Techs, Social Workers, Pharmacists, and Physicians. The program was actually set up by a physican in our town's ER, anyways I was fortunate enough to shoadow 15-20 physicians from med student to attendant.

Patients and most of the professionals we shadowed were actually pretty receptive, and keep in mind we were high school students...looking back i'm suprised more patients in the ER weren't like get this kid out of here...In the ICU it didn't matter too much because the patients were nearly dead.

The program is still going on 4 years later, which I think speaks to the maturity that high school students can show.

The experience was beneficial to me becuse I was able to compare many different health care fields....also it's a fallacy that you have to shadow at the expence of other volunteer or ec opportunities.


Edit: More thoughts to answer the awkward position question, we never did a family rotation, the closest was ER, and the thing about ER is, once you've wated for 6 hours to see a physician most people are not going to send her away or in anyway challenge them if they walk in with a student, so we benifited from the protection of walking in with a physician. However I would imagine in a family office the issues would be more personal, especially if it was a family clinic in your neighbourhood

[KennethToronto]

Originally Posted by leviathan

Has anyone else felt the same way, and found a way to resolve this dilemma?

I can't add too much to this other than try to find a field where patients might be less sensitive?

I shadowed an ophthalmologists. 99% of the patients could really care less that I was present. This probably would not the case if you were shadowing a urologist or ob/gyn though.