How to ask a physician to shadow them?

How should I go about reaching out to physician’s to shadow them if I have no connection to them personally? Or I have talked with my network of other moms in my area and was given the name of a mom who’s husband just finished residency and is opening his own practice that seems to be an untraditional concept and something that I would greatly be interested in learning more about and seeing the behind the scenes. But, while I am in a local moms with her, it’s so huge that I’ve never met her in person. Do I just look up her husband’s new practice and contact him through this way or should I reach out and get to know the mom first and then after a while bring up the interest in shadowing? Thanks!

Hello! You can do both simultaneously. If you know the Physician’s wife, he’ll probably be more receptive to you shadowing him. And if he’s not quite ready to have a student around ( I can see the opening of a new practice being a hectic and stressful time) maybe he has some colleagues that may be more ready to host a student shadower. The wife probably has great advice about being a mom and dealing with family and school life too, having to help her husband balance everything. Good luck to you on your journey!

Being able to shadow that physician while opening a practice would be great. You would really see the challenges and get a great perspective from someone who just finished the program.



I hope you have found a physician to shadow. If not, I found out that my university has a list of doctor’s that are willing to shadow pre-med students. You pick a few names on the list, then the pre-med advisor contacts the doctors and lets you know if they have an opening. If you aren’t so fortunate to have that you could always call some physicians in your area and ask the front desk if they have shadowing opportunities.



If none of that works out you could always volunteer a bit at a hospital. If you do that I would try to speak with the nurses about who would be best to shadow, they may be able to steer you in the right direction to a physician that would be most willing.

Just ask around. I only asked two people and the second allowed me to see enough surgeries for me to like it. The office visit stuff to me is pathology and pharmacology, which is important, but boring to me. Therefore, try to see how the cutters work and try to write something meaningful about that experience. Writing, “It was So, So, So, amazing, and I mean Ammmmaaaaazing!!” has already been in too many applications to med-school, but some apparently got in anyway.