Reflection On The Privilege Of Shadowing

What began as mere admiration for my childhood optometrist quickly evolved into a fervent aspiration when I began working as an optometric technician at Eye & Vision Care. Having been myopic since the age of 6, I have always had an interest in the inner workings of the eye and decided to apply to this job, without any concrete career plans in mind.

A medical practice that I have highly considered is general surgery. Both my grandfather and uncle are general surgeons, so the idea of following in their footsteps interested me greatly. Also, the idea of combining science and art, as doctors do, has always fascinated me and called me to this profession since a very young age. Like any doctor, the road to becoming a general surgeon is vigorous. “Surgery is a career for the committed. Much of your life is dictated by the demands of the operating room. The training is long and demanding. But for those who love it, a

I shadowed Dr. Martin Skie at the University of Toledo Medical Center when I started contemplating a career as a physician. He is an orthopedic surgeon and I had the privilege to shadow during several surgeries, and throughout clinical rotations. I spent over fifty hours shadowing him over the course of a month. I also had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Zachary Ginsberg, an intensivist, in Kettering Medical Center’s intensive care unit. I was able to discuss the patients, their conditions, the lab results, imaging studies, medications, procedures, and the science behind the thought process while shadowing for over one hundred hours over several months. Both opportunities provided insight into different specialties and sparked my interest.Since

Optometry is the perfect fit that blends my professional goals, my interests in science, and healthcare with individual strengths of compassion, relational service, and leadership. It is affirming when passion meets purpose, and for me, the optometry profession is just that. My passion in life is to serve others and to improve their health and well-being, while my purpose is to reach my full potential as a medical provider. My inspiration to pursue a career in optometry arises from a combination of my natural strengths, my life experiences, and my triumphs over life’s hardships.

I have shadowed two physicians during my pre-medical years. These experiences have significantly shaped the type of physician I want to be in the future. Not in the sense of a medical specialty, but rather in the sense of demonstrating a clear compassion and understanding for my patients.

Since my summer term freshman year, I have been periodically shadowing Oscar Habhab, MD and Joseph Keenan, DO in the emergency room. Along with gaining more medical knowledge, I continue to shadow them in order to gain a better understanding of the personality required to become a successful physician.

I have also come to realize that this particular practice focuses more on disease and disease prevention juxtaposed to only offering refractions and other optical solutions. This type of practice is what interests me most in the field of optometry. Having extensive experience in the health field, namely the field of pharmacy, I was unsatisfied with the level of patient interaction and patient care a pharmacist can convey toward his/her patients. I understand the field of pharmacy is more complex than that of a local practice and that I may have been in a particular situation, but I wanted to have more of a connection with those in need. Being able to see patients at the clinic progress through treatment is what drew me even closer to the field after I started observing. I know the field of optometry can give me the opportunity to have a direct effect on patients and their ocular health. Which is why I have never wanted anything more for myself then to have the chance to become an

You're receiving this mail because you've signed up to shadow, but before i can schedule and confirm your shadowing date ill need you to send me a document with a picture, schools attended and previous shadowing experiences. I've attached a template on how it should be done, if you have any question please feel free to contact

The first time I was first exposed to the overwhelming benefits of Optometric medicine was when I was 17 years old. It was the summer of 2011 and I was going to be a senior in high school. I decided to shadow my Optometrist, Dr. Lobe, for a senior project. Before shadowing, I knew that the Optometrist was a person I went once a year to get my eyes checked. I loved seeing my eye doctor and getting my eyes dilated, I would go back to school bragging to all my friends and educating them about why my pupils were dilated and the benefits of seeing an Optometrist. During the 40 hours I spent shadowing, my younger sister, Madison, who was 12 at the time, was seeing Dr. Lobe for accommodation problems. She had just started middle school and was doing poorly on the standardized tests in her classes. While on a routine eye exam, Dr. Lobe discovered that she was having difficulties focusing on small print. That summer I spend shadowing, I worked both in the office and at home with Madison. I helped her train and strengthen her eye muscles with the exercises Dr. Lobe prescribed to her.

During the first week of my undergraduate shadowing career I had an experience that dramatically shaped my ideology of what it meant to work in healthcare. I was shadowing a physician at Medina Community Hospice Care as well as the nurse practitioner that worked with him. Most mornings started with the medical team reviewing the patient charts and discussing the events that had happened during the night. It was an atmosphere where the passing of an individual was marked not as a tragedy, but a beautiful occurrence that was characterized by a wide range of emotions. These were truly

I hope to gain more hands-on clinical experience by examining and preparing patients before surgery and monitoring them throughout the recovery process. Some of members of my lab are physician-scientists, and I have shadowed them when they see patients at the hospital. Since all of the physicians I previously shadowed were specialists, I have reached out to a family doctor. I will be shadowing him on weekends in the coming months so I can gain a better understanding of what being a primary care provider entails.

When I began medical school, I wasn't sure which field of medicine I would be most interested in pursuing. Now that I have explored the range of possibilities through preceptorships, research, personal and clinical experiences, I have discovered that ophthalmology contains all of the elements of medical care that I have enjoyed during my training.

I first developed an interest towards optometry due to its intimate interaction between doctor and patient. As a child, there was nothing more I disliked than going to the doctor’s office especially if I thought my eyes were going to get poked and prodded at. But after my first visit to an optometrist, I didn’t mind the doctor getting close to my eyes. The doctor was not only friendly but was reassuring and explained things in a way that I can easily understand. What I thought would be a horrifying examination was made pleasant and tolerable. Although the exam was no longer than half an hour, the experience I had in the exam room sparked my initial interest in pursuing optometry as a professional career.

Coming from a long line of family members who have dedicated their lives to the medical and dental field, I also have chosen to become a medical professional. As far back as I can remember, I have heard stories about

Shadowing has been an incredibly satisfying experience for me. During the months of June- July 2016, I assisted in many medical areas including pediatrics, family medicine, pediatric emergency, obstetrics and gynecology. I have seen many different patients from an infant born with HIV to a teenage girl with severe bed sores who doesn’t want to leave her bed because she feels disabled in her wheelchair. Over the course of 17 hours, I shadowed five doctors, who gave me a personal glance into the day in the life of a physician. During this time, I assisted in taking patients to their rooms, ordering tests, and interacting with patients on a medical basis. Throughout the entire experience, one patient stood out to me. This patient was a regular