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Best Time To Start Shadowing


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I am going into my first year of medicine, and I am wondering what the best time to start shadowing and exploring my career options is. Also, is shadowing mostly just to get a sense of what I would want to specialize in, or do people also shadow to develop connections, get references and experience?

 

Start whenever you have time. Observerships in medical school can be really whatever you want it to be really, depending on who you're following. Some people use it to explore different specialties, others use it for experience, others use it for connections. It's not a place to get references because you're far too early in training with far too little responsibility to allow for a good reference, but if you used shadowing to develop some connections, it could conceivably make getting references easier later on. 

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I would favour the former, since it may be premature to start working on the latter without a clear idea of where you want to go.

 

That's what I favoured as well, but there were some of the gunners who did more in-depth, long-term observerships pretty early on (maybe not right away, but in 1st year for sure).

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Maybe coordinate your shadowing with lectures. For example if you find CHF lecture interesting do some cardio ward shadowing. Helpful in establishing connections at your home school. Remember what you see shadowing is a limited view of the specialty, so life as a resident or staff is probably more complicated.

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  • 1 month later...

I am going into my first year of medicine, and I am wondering what the best time to start shadowing and exploring my career options is. Also, is shadowing mostly just to get a sense of what I would want to specialize in, or do people also shadow to develop connections, get references and experience?

For me, I shadow during my summer break after 1st year. It gave me the opportunity to learn and practice clinical skills. It also gives me an idea of the kind of work that the specialty is involved in. Of course, as I met new people and superiors, these are potential referees and new connections. But, it does not really matter that much (yet) as I am still very early into my medical school. What is more important to me is that these shadowing experiences kept me interested, supported my learning and whetted my appetite for clinical years.

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