Hi all Milwaukee area OPM alums, are you out there? Are you swamped with patients, sleepless in residency? I’m looking for you! 
I am putting feelers out there as I’m looking for some shadowing opportunities in the area and I would love, love, love to find a local OPM Alum doc to shadow. It would help ease me into the whole, “Yes, I’m premed. Yes, it’s a second career. Yes, I’m a mom. Yes, I’m 35” song and dance. I have become far more open about revealing my premed status, but I still have a hard time with medical professionals. I’ve only talked to one of my own docs about it (he just passed away in May). I even sometimes hesitate with the nurses at my volunteer position though most of them know now and are excited and supportive. I think shadowing a doc with a nontrad history would be a great way to ease into it, though.
I do have an appt with my premed advisor coming up and plan to ask her for general shadowing references, but figured it would not hurt to post something here, too.
We should have a mentoring/shadowing network on here by region. It could really help OPMS connect with OPM alums in their community. I know regional groups haven’t appeared to be successful but perhaps we could come up with something.
Shannon,
I’m not from Wisconsin, but I have a suggestion - go to any nearby university medical centers’ Web sites, and look at the physician profiles. They usually list dates of their degrees. If there is a gap between undergraduate and medical school, then they are, by definition, an OPM! They might not think of themselves as such, or be on this forum, but that’s one way of going about looking for local OPMs. I’ve done this myself. Hope it helps in your search!
- Lorien
Thanks for chiming in, Lorien. I’ve actually done some looking around on hospital websites for dates of graduation, etc. A lot of sites don’t even list ug work or school attended or when attended unfortunately. Plus, it’s not fool proof. I’m a good example, having never gotten my ug degree (working on it now) so while most OPMS are post-Bacc or second degree seekers, there are some of us working on that first degree yet, too. So, my stats will show a typical transistion from undergrad to med school. Now if they threw in high school graduation dates that would show a nice gap!
Thanks again for the thoughts. I’m hoping my premed advisor will have some excellent non trad docs on her list!
We’ll see!