Anyone else have a numerous amount of doctors say “oh yeah sure you can shadow me, anytime!” and then just never respond when you try to call them back or e-mail them to find out exactly when you can shadow them? I’m kind of wondering if this is a normal problem or not.
I’m half-tempted to just start E-mailing doctors I don’t even know and have never met to ask about shadowing. The reasoning being that doctors who my stepdad knows are giving me that response so I figure if they don’t even know me then maybe I’ll at least get a different (and hopefully better) response.
Hell, after my experience tonight (I won’t go into details here), I guess I should be asking surgeons instead of ER docs anyway but yeah just wondering if anyone else has had this problem?
Shadowing a doctor, especially in a hospital setting, can be tricky. Due to HIPPA (sp?), many hospitals have stringent rules due to the patient’s right of privacy. You may want to inquire if this is the reason.
I currently work in a hospital and a part of the orientation covers this issue, and a confidentiality form may be required.
What I would suggest is that you re-contact one of these doctors and see if you can just meet 1:1…offer to buy them a cup of coffee and ask if you can ask them some questions about their career choice. Maybe after they actually get to meet with you, they may be up having you shadow them.
Just a suggestion!
- Krisss17 Said:
I currently work in a hospital and a part of the orientation covers this issue, and a confidentiality form may be required.
What I would suggest is that you re-contact one of these doctors and see if you can just meet 1:1...offer to buy them a cup of coffee and ask if you can ask them some questions about their career choice. Maybe after they actually get to meet with you, they may be up having you shadow them.
Just a suggestion!
Hey Kriss. I volunteer at a hospital and used to work for Blue Shield so I can pretty much guaranteed that HIPAA, the toxic legal environment of medicine, and the privacy act are all sharing the blame for this dilemma. I think that's pretty much what I am going to do...I don't know if it was on this site or elsewhere but I read that someone just blind-emailed doctors he/she didn't even know and a good number of them were willing to let that person shadow so I'll just try that approach at the local hospital. Hopefully something will pan out...if my interviewer asks why I never shadowed a doctor I don't want to have to say "Let's see /you/ get someone willing to let you shadow them, ain't easy bro."
(not that I would anyway but life isn't fun without sarcasm)
Tim, it sounds like you are focusing on docs working inside hospitals (ER, surgery) - why? I gotta tell you that when I’m doing my inpatient weeks, I wouldn’t be that keen on having a pre-med shadowing me, either. Before everyone gets all indignant let me explain:
By and large, doctors like to teach. It’s one of the reasons we enjoy our jobs. And so if we’ve got extra people on our team, whether they be junior residents, med students or pre-meds, we want to be able to make it a good experience for them. The hectic pace of inpatient medicine can make teaching difficult… I can think of a recent experience where I had an MS-3 with me just for the morning when I had an absolutely ridiculous patient load. I didn’t have the time to teach this guy a thing and I felt terrible about it, apologized a million times, and complained to my powers that be afterwards about how we shouldn’t be assigning MS3s to that particular service.
Outpatient work is also hectic but it is a different kind of pace. Plus the teaching we do for patients can also benefit pre-meds or med students who are hanging around… there’s definitely more of an opportunity to hear what’s on the doctor’s mind in the outpatient service.
I’ve heard of people being turned down for outpatient experiences because of HIPAA but that is bogus - a smokescreen for people who don’t want to bother. You should expect to be asked to sign a waiver, but with that in place everyone is covered.
Regardless of what you think your future specialty might be, I’d suggest you talk to all kinds of doctors in your pursuit of shadowing opportunities. Good luck!
Mary
- Mary Renard Said:
By and large, doctors like to teach. It's one of the reasons we enjoy our jobs. And so if we've got extra people on our team, whether they be junior residents, med students or pre-meds, we want to be able to make it a good experience for them. The hectic pace of inpatient medicine can make teaching difficult... I can think of a recent experience where I had an MS-3 with me just for the morning when I had an absolutely ridiculous patient load. I didn't have the time to teach this guy a thing and I felt terrible about it, apologized a million times, and complained to my powers that be afterwards about how we shouldn't be assigning MS3s to that particular service.
Outpatient work is also hectic but it is a different kind of pace. Plus the teaching we do for patients can also benefit pre-meds or med students who are hanging around... there's definitely more of an opportunity to hear what's on the doctor's mind in the outpatient service.
I've heard of people being turned down for outpatient experiences because of HIPAA but that is bogus - a smokescreen for people who don't want to bother. You should expect to be asked to sign a waiver, but with that in place everyone is covered.
Regardless of what you *think* your future specialty might be, I'd suggest you talk to all kinds of doctors in your pursuit of shadowing opportunities. Good luck!
Mary
Mary, I actually wasn't specifically focusing on hospital docs per say, but when I saw him the other day I asked my family doc and he said that he couldn't do shadowing because of patient privacy and all that so I figured if private practice docs have the privacy problem then I'd ask hospital docs instead. Thanks though, seems like I'm going to need all the luck in the world to get any shadowing time.
Tim,
Check with your pre-med club on campus. Mine maitains a list of doctors that are more than willing to allow folks to shaddow them. They also maintain the waivers and such for students to sign so you only need to fill out one and they fax it wherever you want them to.
Aside from that…this is the really long way around, but you may find it helpful. First, call and talk to the office manager. Explain to them your situation and ask if you can come in and see how the office works, and make sure you let them know you don’t expect to be involved with patients at that time. When you go for this appt. be sure to ask questions about their work, insurance billing, personnel etc…basically you’re building rapport. Tell them you want to hang out for “x” time, and be sure you leave at that time, and before you go ask if it might be possible to set up a 15 minute appointment with a nurse or MA to ask them a few questions about their work. Again, be sure to be interested in what they’re doing and then before you go ask that person if they would mind introducing you to the doctor. More than likely, they will introduce you as, “Tim. He’s considering going to medical school and he’s here seing what goes on behind the scenes” or something to that effect. When you meet the doctor be very brief, they’ve been where you are, and explain that you’d like to shadow them for “x” time just to be sure what you’re getting yourself into and that you’d sign whatever forms necessary to make it happen. You may not get an immediate yes, but now you’ve made friends with two people they trust and when you call back and they go to asking about you, if you’ve made a good impression with others in their office, you may just have a better chance of actually shaddowing the doctor.
- gsansing Said:
Check with your pre-med club on campus. Mine maitains a list of doctors that are more than willing to allow folks to shaddow them. They also maintain the waivers and such for students to sign so you only need to fill out one and they fax it wherever you want them to.
Aside from that...this is the really long way around, but you may find it helpful. First, call and talk to the office manager. Explain to them your situation and ask if you can come in and see how the office works, and make sure you let them know you don't expect to be involved with patients at that time. When you go for this appt. be sure to ask questions about their work, insurance billing, personnel etc...basically you're building rapport. Tell them you want to hang out for "x" time, and be sure you leave at that time, and before you go ask if it might be possible to set up a 15 minute appointment with a nurse or MA to ask them a few questions about their work. Again, be sure to be interested in what they're doing and then before you go ask that person if they would mind introducing you to the doctor. More than likely, they will introduce you as, "Tim. He's considering going to medical school and he's here seing what goes on behind the scenes" or something to that effect. When you meet the doctor be very brief, they've been where you are, and explain that you'd like to shadow them for "x" time just to be sure what you're getting yourself into and that you'd sign whatever forms necessary to make it happen. You may not get an immediate yes, but now you've made friends with two people they trust and when you call back and they go to asking about you, if you've made a good impression with others in their office, you may just have a better chance of actually shaddowing the doctor.
Thanks for the great advice...I actually am just at a two-year college right now so I can't do that since there's no pre-med club here but once I go to Davis I'll definitely look that list up and try to shadow a doctor then.
Tim,
Just as a shot in the dark you might call the pre-med advising folks at UC Davis and ask about shaddowing. They might have some good ideas. Or, they may tell you to wait until you transfer. Where are you at in CA? I live in CO right now, but some of my clients live in CA, mainly in the Bay Area. I might be able to twist their arm into letting you hang out with them for a day or so. What’s interesting is that some docs are really hessitant because of HIPPA and others just don’t care! My mom’s cardiologist for example insisted that I shaddow him. So did her Opthamologist. I didn’t even have to ask. Just dropped a hint that one day I may call on them. My primary care doc, said, “No way! Not with HIPPA the way it is!” Also as with anything else, it could just depend on if they’re having a good day or bad day.
Greg
I’ve tried a few different approaches to finding docs to shadow, and none have yet panned out. Like you, I’ve even had one or two say yes to me, but seem to lose track after that (I’ve followed up with them in what I believe to be a determined but non-annoying way).
It seems like an important thing to do, though - not just from a “get you in to med school” standpoint, but also an “understand what the hell you’re getting yourself into” one - so I’m going to keep working on it. Good luck with yours!
- gsansing Said:
Just as a shot in the dark you might call the pre-med advising folks at UC Davis and ask about shaddowing. They might have some good ideas. Or, they may tell you to wait until you transfer. Where are you at in CA? I live in CO right now, but some of my clients live in CA, mainly in the Bay Area. I might be able to twist their arm into letting you hang out with them for a day or so. What's interesting is that some docs are really hessitant because of HIPPA and others just don't care! My mom's cardiologist for example insisted that I shaddow him. So did her Opthamologist. I didn't even have to ask. Just dropped a hint that one day I may call on them. My primary care doc, said, "No way! Not with HIPPA the way it is!" Also as with anything else, it could just depend on if they're having a good day or bad day.
Greg
I live in northern Cali about two hours north of Sacramento...yeah, that's the main problem, doctors say because of privacy issues (ergo HIPAA) that they just don't want to risk/deal with it. The bay isn't exactly close to where I live but considering I'm having no luck here, hey, it's not like I'd probably need more than a few days shadowing a doc to know what it is exactly they do. I think mainly what I need to do is run down a surgeon because surgery is really where my heart's at so seeing specifically what surgeons do (and watching some cases maybe) would be the best thing for me imo. I thought about emergency medicine for awhile, but since I don't have some innate desire to raise a family (which would be quite hard with surgery due to hours they work), I'm just going to do what I want to.
Tim,
I’ve placed the calls. I haven’t heard back yet, but that’s not uncommon. Sometimes it takes a few weeks to hear back from these folks. Also, in my messages I asked for some referrals to other doctors up in way N. Cali that they think might help you. If I remember right, you’re up by Shasta, right? I grew up down by Merced. I sometimes miss my homeland…but then I visit the bay area…and I don’t miss it.
- gsansing Said:
I've placed the calls. I haven't heard back yet, but that's not uncommon. Sometimes it takes a few weeks to hear back from these folks. Also, in my messages I asked for some referrals to other doctors up in way N. Cali that they think might help you. If I remember right, you're up by Shasta, right? I grew up down by Merced. I sometimes miss my homeland...but then I visit the bay area...and I don't miss it.
Much appreciated Gsan, and yes, Shasta is the county I'm in. I don't think I'd ever miss NorCal either if I judged it by the bay area, that place is way too smoggy and run down for my tastes. Although Shasta county has a way of making you never want to come back here either. What can I say, there's just not too many reasons to live in NorCal outside desperation.
