Dr. Cranquis' Mumbled Gripes

withwhatwehave submitted:

Hey Dr. Cranquis,

I’m a pre-med student really interested in pediatric medicine, especially pediatric gastroenterology. I know I won’t need to choose a specialty until after medical school, but I’ve grown up with Crohn’s Disease so am fairly certain peds gastro is the path I want to pursue. I’ve been accepted as a summer intern in a research lab at the medical center where I’m treated, and the program includes a few days of shadowing here and there. I’ve been told I can request specifically where I’d like to shadow in either the adult or children’s hospital. I have my sights set on pediatric gastro, but I’m a little nervous to request that because I think it might be awkward to interact with my doctor (I’m 19 - so still chilling in peds) in a more “casual” setting. There are several doctors in the practice, but I know I’m bound to run into her. Do you find it awkward when you interact with former or current patients outside of the clinic? Have you ever been shadowed by a pre-med student? Since I’m not sure how it will feel for me, I’m interested in how it feels from the MD perspective.

Thanks!! 

Excellent question! First, let me congratulate you on “jumping the queue” of pending Cranquis-Mails by winning this week’s Guess the Theme contest on the Cranquis Facebook Fan Page, with its valuable prize of a Fast Lane Cranquis-Mail Reply.

Here’s a few of my perspectives on your situation (and similar situations encountered by most people on the journey to-and-through Medicine):

• As a one-time pre-med student, back in the Paleozoic — not much perspective here, since I, uh, didn’t do any medical volunteering or shadowing before applying to med school. Long story, go read my “story of undergrad ” post.

• As a med student and resident who sometimes worked with physicians who knew me from non-medical settings (church, neighbors, friends of my friends) — It always appeared to “Med student Me” that the doctors who knew me from the “outside world” were, when encountered in the clinical/learning setting, strangely able to forget/ignore our relative social standings and past history, and just interact with me as a learner. A few of them would still chit-chat between patients, but most of them would just stay focused on the job, pointing out anything educational that arose and doing their best to give me the chance to maximize my learning time in their presence. Some situations were a tiny bit weird (like the one surgeon who was a holy screaming terror in the OR, but who was always so effusive in his greeting when I’d see him at church… yeah, that was just awkward), but in general, it just worked.
• As a former resident and now full-fledged physician, who has had many students (high school, college/pre-med, nursing school, PA school, and med school), including former patients, shadow me on the job — I’m sure there are some doctors out there who may not feel comfortable transitioning from a “doctor” to a “mentor” role with a former patient, but I’m fine with it! In fact, if a teenager/college student is in my Urgent Care as a patient, and they (or more often, their parent) mentions an interest in medicine/healthcare, I always give them my email address and tell them to come shadow me sometime. I’ve had ~5 students take me up on that in my career outside of residency, and it hasn’t felt the slightest bit weird to me. Granted, none of those 5 patients->shadowers had seen me for a really “private” condition before, but still: to me, a student is a student, someone who needs to be exposed to as much learning as possible in the time they have available, and given explanations in terms that they will understand.

And to expand this topic outside of just a “shadowing” arena: 97% of the time, when I run into a former patient outside of my Urgent Care (usually the grocery store, the mall, or the library), I can’t even remember (a) what their diagnosis was, and sometimes (b) that I’d seen them before as a patient! Heck, I get home from a day at work, and Mrs. Cranquis asks me, “Anything interesting today?” — and unless I had a really unusual case, or I took a moment to jot down a particular anecdote on paper (or Tumblr) during the shift, I can barely recall what happened that same day. It’s as if, once having dictated the patient’s visit into the chart, any patients who don’t have pending labs or follow-up visits hanging over my head are just blurred into the background of my memory.

So in short, I highly doubt that your peds gastro would feel queasy (see what I did there?) about running into you as a shadowing student on the job. And as long as you don’t abuse the situation by probing her with questions about your own personal health (without her permission, anyways), I don’t think it’ll end up being a very big deal to either of you. So get out there, have fun, and don’t forget to wash your hands after the rectal exams, even if you wore gloves — it’s just a psychological thing. :)

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