Shadowing or other experience

[Guest smg]

I'm very interested in medicine as a career and would be applying in the next year or two. However, I would like to gain some first-hand experience through either shadowing or some other volunteer activity. I live in Ottawa and am not able to shadow my family doctor, so I'm looking for ways to connect with some local opportunities.

What have others done to find out first-hand about the medical profession? Also, how did you found out about these opportunities? Any advice or other help would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest 0T6]

Heya, here are a few routes i'm aware of...

1) High school co-op (but you said you're in undergrad so no point elaborating)

2) Volunteering at local hospital - ended up being the same one as my co-op so I already had "ins" with a lot of the docs and they had no problem letting me shadow here and there during my volunteer hours. But for someone starting new, start volunteering, if you run into docs on a regular basis, just talk to them, tell them what you're upto, your goals, etc. and most of them would be glad to let you shadow.

3) If you happen to do research with an MD/PhD they might let you shadow them in clinic once in a while

[Guest macdaddyeh]

I already have a bunch of volunteer experience under my belt, but with SARS and the "new normal" in the greater Toronto area it will be brutal to look for hospital or clinic-based experience this summer, which is what I was hoping to do...

 

Any advice or ideas?