Blog Post Focus
This blog post will focus on how to get to shadow a physician. Shadowing a physician is very helpful for determining if you want to go to medical school and gives some sense of what sort of doctor you want to be.
Introduction – A Valuable Opportunity
Shadowing a physician is a way to see what being a physician is like. Each shadow experience can reveal another facet of medicine cand can help you elucidate if medicine is or is not a career you want to go into.
Finding an opportunity to shadow a physician may seem daunting at first, but it may be easier than you realize. It all comes down to leveraging connections and simply reaching out.
Leveraging Connections
Leveraging connections means using your established relationships as a means to find shadowing opportunities. If you have an established doctor, reach out to them. Additionally, reach out to any family or friends who may be physicians and see if they are willing to take shadows. Ask advisors and professors if they know physicians who regularly take students for shadowing experiences.
Reaching Out to Hospitals and Clinics
Simply reaching out to clinics and hospitals is a way to get shadowing experience too. Find websites and contact information for hospitals and clinics near you and in the fields you are interested in shadowing. Send emails or call the volunteering center. If you can’t find information on the website for some department that would be involved in shadowing you can simply call the clinic or hospital operator and have them direct you to someone who can assist you in setting up a shadowing experience.
You may not get any responses. That is why you should reach out to several physicians and hospitals. Also, any experiences may take weeks or longer to set up and may require you fill out paperwork, so look ahead in your schedule to find suitable dates for shadowing. It is a good idea to set up several experiences with each provider to have a more longitudinal experience. The experiences may be full days or half days or whatever you can work out with the physician.
Conclusion—Find a Physician to Shadow
Shadowing is an opportunity to get exposure of what being a medical professional is like. Each experience can give you a better idea of whether you want to pursue medicine and if so, what sort of physician you want to be. Spending time with several providers and in different practice settings can paint a clearer picture of the medical system and help you convey on your applications and to your advisors why you want to be a physician and why medicine is a good fit for you.
For further information see the following link by the AAMC https://students-residents.aamc.org/aspiring-docs-fact-sheets-get-experience/shadowing-doctor.
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