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- Aug 1, 2015
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I've shadowed a lot, watched multiple surgeries and shadowed family medicine physicians and internal medicine particularly. I will go over how I went about doing it and hopefully you can learn a thing or two from my post. I volunteered at a hospital for a long time, I started introducing myself to the doctors a couple times and informed them I had the aspirations of becoming a doctor. After talking a few times, I asked what if they had students shadow them before.. The most typical answer was, yes. One of them didn't, but I still decided to ask anyways if they felt okay with the idea. I started shadowing an internal medicine dr. who was very interesting and his interpersonal skills were excellent. I felt like my personal skills were excellent, but I tried to pick up on what the doctors did and (not mimic) because that's not the right word... But, try to copy their demeanour and professionalism. At some point I branched out and before I knew it I had some emails, a few phone numbers; and was able to shadow several doctors. From this, I went on to ask some of them about surgery and suggested I was interested in this area particularly to see if it was something I could handle. Surprisingly enough all of them had the same recommendation. He was a general surgeon who practised in the same hospital, however; he didn't have any fellowships. I approached him after I got a brief description from some of the other physicians, we hit it off with a conversation and in the same conversation I asked him if I could shadow him sometime. He gave me his phone number, and his email and told me his procedure days at Thursday's. On Friday's is when he did his surgical work. I started out by watching some colonoscopies and some EDG's? (I think that's what they are called)... That went very well, so I contacted him first thing the next Monday morning to setup a shadowing session in the OR. He told me he would have to get permission from the OR director and the OR manager. I received an email a few days later and signed up. I had no clue what to expect, I was 17 at the time... I observed him do several lap colies (laparoscopic colosectomies? I believe? Then he had an open hernia repair, which was very invasive and I got to see a lot more than I had thought I would see. That surgery itself was 5.5 hours and made for a pretty long day. I haven't done many of them since because I have been pursuing my EMS career at the moment.
A couple tips:
1.) Look professional, polo and a nice pair of pants with a belt. Just don't overkill it, of course make sure your hygiene is on par too.
2.) Do what the doctor says and don't argue, I never had a problem with this but he did have to tell me to move once, of course I didn't hesitate.
3.) Pay attention, your in an operating room. God forbid, please don't be on your phone.
4.) Ask questions (depending on the physician) many of them like questions from students but not all.
5.) Don't get anywhere near the scrub table.
6.) Make sure to thank anyone for any questions you have, who knows; you could be working along side them someday.
7.) Don't talk too much, no one likes that.
This could honestly go on and on. I'm sure some people will think my whole story was unnecessary but I think it's important to see the process of what I went through. Some people may have completely different opinions or stories, but I hope having one to compare to helps.
A couple tips:
1.) Look professional, polo and a nice pair of pants with a belt. Just don't overkill it, of course make sure your hygiene is on par too.
2.) Do what the doctor says and don't argue, I never had a problem with this but he did have to tell me to move once, of course I didn't hesitate.
3.) Pay attention, your in an operating room. God forbid, please don't be on your phone.
4.) Ask questions (depending on the physician) many of them like questions from students but not all.
5.) Don't get anywhere near the scrub table.
6.) Make sure to thank anyone for any questions you have, who knows; you could be working along side them someday.
7.) Don't talk too much, no one likes that.
This could honestly go on and on. I'm sure some people will think my whole story was unnecessary but I think it's important to see the process of what I went through. Some people may have completely different opinions or stories, but I hope having one to compare to helps.
