Medical shadowing this summer
My son graduates HS in May and has been focused on pre med for a few years, has been selected for several internships around Oakland and beyond. He's been accepted to some great universities (still deciding which one) so he's a serious, accomplished, focused student. I'm a fairly low income mom and he needs to earn money this summer, so he can't do much volunteer work - though he could do a little. He's applying to standard summer camp jobs and so on. But he really wants to shadow ANY medical professionals, or do a very p/t volunteer role in medicine, as well as earn money. We don't really have any doctor friends. If he writes to local doctors, dentists, PTs and etc do you think they'd allow him to shadow? Does anyone have any creative ideas to get him shadowing this summer? He simply needs exposure to almost any aspect of medicine, both for his resume and to learn what he might be interested in, because we have no medical professionals in our family. BTW, 95% of internships either demand 1+ years of college, or that they be in HS. He's in an in-between spot as a graduate. Thank you.
Parent Replies
Is he a decent swimmer? If so he can get first aid and CPR training and pass certification to be a lifeguard, which will certainly provide exposure to some emergency medical situations. Albany Pool is for sure hiring and training. I know there must be more!
You might consider looking into/reaching out to Faces for the Future Coalition to see if there are options there - it’s a very cool program.And it looks like the are hosting a 2 week long summer academy that provides hands-on learning in July for exactly this purpose. facesforthefuture.org
Following up to one poster - thank you for the response and yes, he's a great swimmer and already has Red Cross Lifeguard and CPR certifications, for this very reason. He's really looking for shadowing opportunities to observe different areas of medicine.
Not exactly shadowing and there is some up-front cost: he should train to become an EMT. He could work part time through college/summer break and it really gives him already a lot of experience talking to patients and basic assessments.
Our friend's student did paid summer internship work at a VA hospital even when they were in HS - you may want to check out the Veteran's Administration? He sounds like a great kid! Good luck!
I don't know anything about this program other than it exists. Looks like it may have some potential to provide some clinical care observation. I found it through CHORI, a research arm of Children's Hospital, Oakland.
https://summerstudents.ucsf.edu/about
Hi again. ( I wasn't able to add to my last posting.)
About: https://summerstudents.ucsf.edu/about
It looks like there is also a $3000-$3400 stipend!