Can shadowing count as clinical hours?

Some ways of gaining clinical hours include paid-work, volunteering, and shadowing. This guide goes over the amount of hours required for med school and the best options to get clinical experience.

Do shadowing hours count as clinical hours?

Just because you aren't directly providing care doesn't mean that shadowing is a lesser pursuit. Provided you'll get enough time, exposure, and mentorship, physician shadowing does count as clinical experience.

What is the difference between clinical and shadowing?

Shadowing is observing a medical professional at work in the clinic. Clinical Volunteering is giving your unpaid time to support patients and professionals in a clinical setting.

Is 100 hours of shadowing enough for medical school?

If you want to put a number on it, around 100-120 hours is a good ideal range. Shadowing one doctor for one day will be approximately 10 hours, so if you can shadow multiple doctors for a total of 10 days spread over time, (even over a year or so if you start early), then you can easily hit your target.

Does shadowing count for residency?

A shadowing experience is where you are following as an understudy to the preceptor to learn and observe their day-to-day roles and responsibilities. Because you are not involved in hands-on activities or direct patient care, this may not count as US clinical experience.

Clinical Experience vs Shadowing vs Volunteering | OldPreMeds Podcast Ep. 230

What counts as clinical hours?

Clinical experience encompasses any medical-related activity you've participated in where you've interacted with patients and their care. Clinical experience can include volunteering at a hospital, working as an EMT, and many other roles where you work in a medical setting and interact with patients.

Is 200 clinical hours enough for med school?

Generally speaking, having at least 100-150 hours of clinical experience, ideally completed in a consistent schedule over a few months, is considered competitive. It's not enough to simply tick off these hours as an item on your medical school checklist.

Is 120 hours of shadowing good?

However, the school recommends shadowing multiple physicians in multiple medical settings. Generally, a good range of shadowing hours is around 100 to 120. While the lowest shadowing hours considered is 50 hours below.

Is 70 shadowing hours enough?

For shadowing experience alone, aim to have at least 100 or more hours. 100 to 200 hours will show you've taken the time to learn in a medical setting, especially if you also have a variety of other clinical experiences to discuss in the activities section of your application.

Do med schools care about shadowing?

Shadowing experience is often critical for getting into medical school—and for deciding whether that's the right path for you in the first place.

What counts as clinical hours for pre med?

Clinical experience is a broad term but typically entails 1) direct patient exposure (i.e. you can see, hear, touch the patients) and/or 2) clinical volunteering, which is work in a clinical setting without necessarily having direct patient contact (e.g. volunteering at a hospital floor's directory/information desk).

Is shadowing more important than clinical experience?

While shadowing can help you understand what it's like to be a physician, it's very passive. You need clinical experience to learn whether you enjoy being around patients. Spending time with and caring for patients over months or years will show you the good, bad, and messy parts of medicine.

Does volunteering count as clinical experience?

Generally, your clinical experiences in college will probably include volunteering because you likely don't have the training required for a paid position where you're interacting with patients, but we cannot quantify the amount: how much of your health-related experience is for pay, or through an internship, or ...

Is 40 hours of shadowing enough?

While clinical experiences, including shadowing, are a crucial part of an application, the number of hours each school expects can vary significantly. According to the most recent 2023 survey by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the average shadowing expectation is around 80 hours.

How do I track my shadowing hours?

Be sure to record the name of the professional you are shadowing, their preferred contact information, the date you started and completed the experience, how many hours you shadowed. Also write down what you observed, what you learned about the profession, patients and yourself.

How many hours of shadowing is ideal?

This may vary; some schools require 12–24 hours, while others require more than 75 hours. Generally, the range is between 40 and 100 hours. Shadowing can be arranged in half or full-day stints (typically from four to eight hours). Also, it can be done on single occasions or over multiple days.

Do virtual shadowing hours count?

The Virtual Shadowing will provide a high-quality experience similar to on-site clinical shadowing. The accumulated hours can count towards clinical shadowing hours and meaningful activities on medical school applications.

What is the difference between shadowing and observership?

The main difference between observership and shadowing is the involvement of observer in rotation. In shadowing, observer only follows the day-to-day activities of the attending physician. However, observership is the combination of shadowing and some sort of active participation.

How many doctors should I shadow for med school?

I would definitely go with the plan to shadow one or two physicians over a long course of time, because it will give you a better idea of their daily lives and it will provide a lot of experiences to pull from for future essays and interviews.

How long should I shadow a doctor?

You may only want to spend one day with them, or you may want to shadow a few hours a week for several weeks or months. If you have the time in the summer or over a break, you may want to shadow full time for an entire week. Find out what the doctor is comfortable with or what has worked well in the past.

Does shadowing look good?

Shadowing is useful and certainly looks good in your application. However, this can be combined with other experiences, such as being a medical scribe, a hospital volunteer, working at a community clinic, or working in a clinical research lab, to provide a few examples."

Is 2000 clinical hours good?

Applicants must have no less than one (1) year – equivalent to 2,000 hours – of paid, recent experience. We strongly recommend applying with 4,000 hours (2 years) clinical experience to be more competitive.

Is 500 clinical hours enough for med school?

There is no set amount of time required to obtain clinical experience. All you need is a good quality experience done over a long enough time to demonstrate commitment. It's not very unusual for med students to have over 500 hours under their belt.

Is 800 clinical hours enough for med school?

Many advising departments note that the average number of clinical hours needed is around 100. Keep in mind that in many cases, a specific number is not explicitly stated by med school admissions departments. Doing more than the minimum requirement can improve your chances of getting into med school.

How many hours of shadowing do you need for med school?

Many medical schools in the US have a minimum requirement for shadowing hours. This varies widely, with most experts recommending between 40 and 100 hours of shadowing. This might seem like a lot, but keep in mind that a doctor usually works 10-12 hour days. You want to split your time shadowing up between specialists.