Phrasalak_Shadowing_Audio_Recording

The MET Scholar Program is an accelerated program for pre-med students that requires them to meet all the requirements and submit their medical school application in just two years. One of these requirements is a minimum of 100 hours of shadowing in different specialties. Shadowing can be stressful and time-consuming, but it allows students to gain valuable experience in the clinical environment. Students in the program often discuss their shadowing experiences and share updates with each other. Shadowing is a unique requirement for pre-med students and is highly recommended to show passion in the medical field. It is a word commonly used in the pre-health community but may be misunderstood by people outside of it. Shadowing helps students determine their interest in medicine and provides opportunities for learning and networking. Although it can be stressful, there are also positive experiences, such as witnessing surgeries, that bring joy to students. I am a part of MET Scholar Program. This program is accelerated for pre-med students. Students in Medical Scholars Program only have two years to meet all the requirements and to be ready to submit the application to medical school at the end of their second year of undergraduate, which would be Fall 2025 for me, instead of having four years to prepare all of the requirements that MET school needs. The program requires minimum of 100 hours of shadowing in at least five different specialties that the student in the program needs to have in their application. Many people in this program often get frustrated when thinking about shadowing opportunities since it is highly recommended by medical schools for students to have experience in a clinical environment. I was introduced to the idea of shadowing during my senior year of high school through a program called STL-CAPS, which stands for St. Louis Center of Advanced and Professional Studies. At that time, the majority of my friends in this program were also as confused as me when our teacher mentioned shadowing for the first time. I remember the day my teacher assigned us to research finding a medical professional that I am interested in shadowing with. My friends and I turned to look at each other desperately in the eye and let our eyes speak for us. The context was something like, what in the world is going on? It is interesting to see that my friends and I are sharing the same pain at the same time in the same situation. These emotions are often shared with my friends who are in the same program, whether within CAPS or the people in my major. The topic of shadowing is often to be brought up during lunch and or study groups. Once shadowing is mentioned, everyone automatically tunes in to listen. This is a moment that I like the most in this community because not only do I get to share my experience, but I also get to learn more about other people's experiences. My community is influenced by my major and program due to the same course requirements, such as chemistry and biology, along with other activities that we are required to do to meet the standards of the program. Many of my friends are pre-med and they are in med scholars. In the first semester of my first year, fall 2023, I met my friends through med scholar class called Kira Personalis I. Since we are in multiple classes together, we progressively form a small group to study and hang out. We would get tired of studying for hours and get distracted by conversation. One of the conversation topics that we often shared is our shadowing updates. Each of our experiences is unique from person to person. The experiences that we share are a mixture of good and bad things. For example, it was something as exciting as I get to lend my hand in a surgery, to something as boring as all I did was sit and stare at computers. Also, I noticed that I tend to share these types of comments and thoughts that are related to the medical field with other pre-med friend groups instead of my other friend groups who are in business or art majors. Based on what I remembered from my conversation with friends, the reason that shadowing is stressful is because of the idea that we have to reach out to people that we don't know to be in a familiar place and it is time consuming. Shadowing is something that pre-med students share as a unique requirement in the program we are a part of. Many people are familiar with the idea of job shadowing. Shadowing mainly refers to two different meanings. Shadowing could mean shadowing as a cast over shadow from our body due to the light source. Another way people use this vocabulary is to describe the action of following or observing someone closely on what type of activity that person does as if they are a shadow of that person. As a part of pre-health community, the word that people in my community use in their conversation is shadowing in the sense of clinical shadowing. Shadowing is highly recommended for pre-med students as a way to show their passion in the medical field. This means that all pre-med students will truly understand the pain and emotions from shadowing. To gain this type of experience, students have to research and reach out to the medical professionals on their own or some may already have connections in their family. My connection is my aunt who is a nurse practitioner. Shadowing is commonly used in the form of questions from students to students in a pre-health community or from students to medical professionals. When I use this word, it is usually presented in the form of questions to others and I also use it as a way to catch up with my pre-health friends. For example, when pre-health students meet, they tend to ask questions like Do you have any place to shadow? How many hours have you shadowed this week? And or how did you get in this shadowing opportunity? These types of questions are often mentioned in the way pre-med students are introduced and get to know each other. Interestingly, when people mention shadowing, it will come with a stressed tone and a sense of debriefing from students to students. Although shadowing is more spoken, it could also be used in the written form of emails that students send to medical professionals to request shadowing opportunities. Shadowing is a word that is not commonly used in other communities. When mentioning shadowing to people from different communities, they are still able to understand the idea of shadowing, but it is commonly mistaken for job shadowing. They may need clarification on shadowing and internship and might not be able to follow the right direction in the conversation. For example, I have a friend who is majoring in graphic communication and I mentioned shadowing during the conversation. He would look at me confused, then I would have to explain the word and put it in context for him to understand and keep up with the conversation. Therefore, the pre-health community is partially exclusive from others due to the word choice that is commonly for them but not to other people. The language in my community shows the commitment and passion of pre-med students who are highly determined to pursue the medical field. My friends and I are very committed to the opportunities we are given to gain knowledge and experience. Shadowing is an opportunity for pre-med students to figure out their career interest in medicine. There was a moment in my study group when we were studying chemistry, which probably is the strongest and toughest beast first-year STEM students have to go through. My friends and I were pushed to our limits to the point we reconsidered our future. At that time, each of us started to take turns and share the reason why we picked pre-med. The reasons for each of my friends' passions are all unique and all of them are inspired by their childhood. These students are very committed to their dreams even though the path that they have chosen is rough and long. They show their passion by striving to learn and hunt for opportunities. Shadowing is one of those opportunities that pre-med students have to find. My journey towards shadowing started with a school assignment. For this assignment, I had to research a list of medical professionals that I wanted to shadow. Then I formed an email to send out to them with the help of my teacher. Later, when I got familiarized with the idea of shadowing, I got excited. I was excited to get to see an actual day in the life of a real doctor. The excitement even gets higher when I know that I will get to shadow the specialty I like. This type of excitement changed when I had to start networking by myself. Networking on shadowing brings me closer to my community. Networking on shadowing brings me closer to my community with my friends, especially when we share connections that we have with each other. I chose this word to represent my community because this word always comes to my mind constantly and multiple times a week. Also, I feel that as long as I am still a medical student, I will be hearing and using this term. Often when I think of this word, it is not a pleasant feeling because shadowing stresses me out and causes me to feel that I'm running behind. On the other hand, I have had a good experience with my previous shadowing experience. In my senior year of high school, I shadowed a surgeon in the operating room. He was performing gastric bypass. The surgeon allowed me to stand really close to the operating table, which helped me to see clearer. I was amazed by his knowledge and his skills. I would share this experience with my friend every time I get to talk about my favorite moment of shadowing, which is one of the few good thoughts of shadowing that brings me joy.