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About how many doctors should you shadow before going into med school?

#medical-school #doctor #premed #medicine

Thank you comment icon I think a good option for shadowing during the pandemic that cover a wide array of specialties can be found in virtual shadowing programs like Web Shadowers and Pre-Health Virtual Shadowing. These offer live webinar videos each week and verified hours for students. I recommend checking out their Instagram profiles for more information! Emilee

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Rachel’s Answer

The average hours of shadowing for a competitive applicant are 200 shadowing hours. Hope this helps!
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Shivani’s Answer

Hi Zemira,

Due to COVID these days, many physicians are not accepted students as willingly due to safety precautions (but not all). For your med school application, some schools require a letter of rec from a doctor you have shadowed for a minimum amount of hours (can be anywhere from 20 hours up to 60 hours). In this case, its helpful to shadow 1 doc for a consistent period of time to develop a relationship and get that letter of rec. My advice is it would be wise to target 1 and put your effort into that. However, shadowing a couple more doc in different fields (psych, family med, pediatrics, or another specialty) can be helpful if you experience something you want to put in your personal statement.

Minimum one if you are struggling to get any shadowing experience, but recommended you try to shadow 3 different doctors to get some experience.

Hope this helps
Shivani Kamal
Thank you comment icon Yes, thank you! Zemira
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Maia’s Answer

I would try to at least do the average amount of hours (about 200) in a few different specialties so that you will be able to see how different doctors work. I worked as a medical scribe full time for a year and it really helped to see how rigorous a doctor's day was and it allowed me to form good relationships with the doctors I scribed for. Please let me know if you have any other questions and I hoped this helped!
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Estelle’s Answer

There is not a set number of doctors to shadow. Just have a wide variety of experiences to show your initiative. Try for at least 40 hours of shadowing for application purposes.
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