Shadowing!

This quarter, one of my biggest achievements was getting some shadowing opportunities. As I continue to explore medical school as a possible future career/academic path for myself, I have been working to try to find opportunities to shadow doctors. I see shadowing as one of the most important ways for me to see if I truly want to be a doctor. However, the process has been long and difficult, and I've struggled a lot to actually connect with doctors who are willing to have me shadow. Our area is very oversaturated with medical students right now, and not a lot of doctors have the ability or capacity to have undergrad shadows. It really is a "you need to know someone" sort of situation, which has been difficult, since I don't know any doctors.

My first shadowing opportunity, which was for a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor, came from a connection from my PI in my lab, and I was able to fortunately get connected through her again, this time to a pediatric Neurologist/Immunologist at Seattle Children's Hospital. Her name is Dr. Juliane Gust, and she is both a researcher and a physician. I was able to go shadow her while she was in the brain tumor clinic at SCH for an afternoon. This was a really illuminating and valuable experience. I got to observe their brain tumor board, where the doctors reviewed cases and discussed treatment plans. I then got to shadow Dr. Gust as she met with several patients of varying degrees of health and stages of treatment. I also got to ask Dr. Gust all kinds of questions about her career path, including what it was like to do a PhD/MD program (something I definitely don't think I'll be pursuing). I absolutely enjoyed this specialty more than the ID, however the most exciting part of the day for me was when I got introduced to and connected with Dr. Kate Debiec, a pediatric and adolescent OBGYN.

OBGYN has been the specialty I've been incredibly interested in, and I've tried over and over to connect with OBGYNs at UW and SCH to shadow, with no luck (I later realized that I'd actually previously reached out to Dr. Debiec, with no response - no hard feelings, I know she's busy). The OBGYN specialty seems exceptionally difficult to break into and get shadowing hours, so it was really kismet that Dr. Debiec happened to be in the tumor clinic when I was there (where she usually doesn't work). Dr. Debiec generously gave me her email and I was able to reach out to her and schedule some days to shadow!

Over the course of the quarter, I got to shadow Dr. Debiec in the pediatric OBGYN clinic three times. These were truly amazing experiences, and they only made me more interested in and excited about the OBGYN specialty. Dr. Debiec was incredibly kind to me, while being quite matter-of-fact and obviously very effective at being a doctor. I feel very lucky that I was able to shadow such an accomplished and extraordinary doctor. She helped me to understand what a career path in OBGYN looks like, how she spends her time as a pediatric/adolescent OBGYN, and what the best parts of her job are. The rest of the team was equally as welcoming and generous to me, and I really loved the environment of the group. There seemed to be a culture of inclusivity, support, and a bit of fun that I had felt lacking in the other specialties. I was able to observe Dr. Debiec as she met with various patients, with gynecological issues ranging from adjusting birth control to vulvar Graft-vs.-Host Disease (where the donor tissue of a stem cell transplant rejects the self tissue, in this case causing vulvar tissue fusion). I learned a lot in a very short time, and it only made me more eager to go back and learn more. I'm particularly interested in observing some procedures, and shadowing on the obstetrics side, since I saw only gynecologic cases (due to her being a pediatric doctor). Overall, shadowing Dr. Debiec was amazing and made me really excited about a potential career as an OBGYN. It's definitely been my favorite shadowing experience so far, and I'm eager to keep pursuing more opportunities within and out of this specialty.