This service is part of Student Academic Affairs and Advising and is open to all Mason community members interested in pursuing a graduate degree in the health professions.
Advisees > Volunteering > Shadowing physicians
Students seeking experience in a clinical setting should look into volunteering at hospitals for enough time to show dedication to the medical profession. This means a minimum commitment of
While some students may have done some volunteering in a hospital during their high school years, those students should be encouraged to continue volunteering, perhaps in a different ward or clinic so they are not accustomed to one work setting for health care. If they volunteered in the emergency room, they should consider volunteering elsewhere (for example, an inpatient clinic or an outpatient clinic). At any rate, high school experience should be supplemented with experiences during their college years.
Students will likely need to undergo a criminal background check (which is standard for all hospital workers) and some orientation courses on patients' privacy rights to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA. HIPAA dictates a patient's rights regarding the confidentiality of electronically stored medical and insurance information; a health care setting should be willing to train volunteers to comply with HIPAA regulations.
While students are not required to hand in a report to the Health Professions Advising Office to document their volunteering experience, students are encouraged to keep a personal log (or blog with appropriate privacy setting) of their interactions in the clinic as a volunteer or observer. The student should work on their descriptions of what interactions they had with patients (without disclosing their personal information) and what insight they gained about themselves, the workplace, or the profession. If it is recorded, they will be able to look back and rely on these descriptions when the pre-application and real application process begins.
The Virginia Board of Medicine has a search engine that lists practicing allopathic, osteopathic, or podiatric physicians. All other prehealth students can use the general search engine for current licensees in dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, and other health professions.
The Medical Society of Northern Virginia also keeps a referral list for patients.
The Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association also has a directory of osteopathic physicians with whom you can shadow.