The Time I Shadowed an OB/GYN
As I am sitting at home on this rainy December afternoon, I began flipping through my journal and came across my old entry from October about my experience shadowing Dr. G, the OB/GYN. I remember how ecstatic I was about the opportunity, and how much more grateful I was about the timing. I immediately accepted the offer and eagerly insured that I completed all the necessary paperwork and HR requirements so that I would be able to shadow as scheduled. Dr. G had an exciting line up of days that I could experience; Saturday was his delivery day, Wednesday would be an OR (operating room) day, and Thursday was a clinic day. He wanted me to get an idea of the main types of work days he experiences while running his own practice.
On Saturday morning I awoke around 6am to begin getting ready for the day ahead. I knew I had to be at the Women’s and Childrens ward by 8am however I had no idea how long I would be there for. After dressing up in the business casual attire I had purchased the day before, and scarfing down a nice hearty bowl of oatmeal, I was prepared for the day. When I arrived at the Women’s and Childrens ward at 7:40am I walked up to the pink sliding doors and waved my shiny new keycard over the scanner ready to enter a new domain. The door didn’t budge. I went back to the scanner which was about a meter away from the door and tried again. Still nothing. So, being the genius that I am, I ran to the scanner, scanned my key card jumped back in front of the door, as though to assume that the scanner worked at hyper speed and that I had to be standing in front of the door immediately after scanning. But of course, still nothing. So there I was, 20 minutes early and I couldn’t even get into the damn ward. It was then that a women at the main desk peaked her head into the hallway and informed me that I had to scan my card while walking toward the sliding doors (duh). I laughed nervously, gave her my thanks and tried again. Still nothing. I remember trying my best to not allow my anxiety to climb, but as expected it did just that. This then lead me to resort back to leaping from the scanner back to the door. After hearing what I assumed to be the squeaking of my sneakers as I frantically hopped back and forth, the woman at the desk appeared during one of my mid attempts, scanned her card for me, and gave me a smile as she walked back to her desk. Relieved, I thanked her again, walked into the ward and started looking around for a Dr. G, whom by the way I had never seen before. It was 7:50am, and I decided this time to ask a nurse right away rather than wander around aimlessly like someone security would find suspicious. Despite her initial tired expression, the nurse was very kind. She found me a pair of scrubs to change into and gave me a place to wait for Dr. G who had not arrived yet.
A soon as I put those olive green scrubs on, and stood in the washroom looking into the mirror, I couldn’t help but smile. My anxiety had settled and I stood in front of that mirror calm and confident. It was like a flash forward into a possible, hopefully not so distant, future. It felt good.
When Dr. G arrived he shook my hand kindly, and began getting updated from the doctor who was on-call the night before. After writing everything down, and folding the paper into his pockets, he gave me a nod and from that moment on I was his shadow. I followed him everywhere as he ran from one birthing room to the next, as he made his way to the ER for a consult, when he went to check on his post op patient, and when he scrubbed in for surgery. By the end of the day my mind was blown. I stood in on four deliveries (the first of which involved the newborn shooting out like a baseball, leaving even Dr. G startled and amazed), two surgeries (a laparoscopic removal of an ectopic pregnancy and a D&C) and multiple consults. By 7pm Dr. G literally had to tell me to go home before he got pulled into something else.
I remember riding home that day, telling my sister everything. The experience was incredible. The reason I am telling you this is not because I believe it is an experience necessary for every pre-med to have, but because I am very grateful for experiencing it at all. Here I was, a student who had no relevant medical knowledge to offer to Dr. G or his patents, and yet was still standing in on each of his cases. I spent my time sitting with him and his patients, and simply listening and watching the interaction between them. I would hold my questions until we were back in his office, but between the moment I walked into the patients room to when I left, I was basically a mute. So why on earth would any sane patient allow for an awkward mute like student to stand in on their appointment with Dr. G and stare into their vaginas when prompted to? I have absolutely no idea. Nevertheless, I am happy that they did allow it because it allowed my curiosity to devise questions I may have never thought about. It allowed me to talk to Dr. G about everything I saw as opposed to simply sitting in his office completely dumb-founded. Any patient could have easily told Dr. G that they felt uncomfortable with my presence but instead they allowed me to stay and learn. This was likely because of how much they trusted him. It was quite admirable the way he spoke to his patients even through language barriers and disagreements about treatments. He always remained calm, and patient and took the time to explain everything.
In addition to this, Dr. G made me feel like I belonged there in the room with him. Although yes, I probably didn’t belong there, Dr. G never treated me as an inferior. Instead he gave me the chance to speak to him as non-other than a fellow science enthusiast which is something I value in any mentor or teacher. I don’t believe the experience itself swayed my opinions about medicine in any such way, but it was my interaction with Dr. G that made me feel even more determined to not only be a great doctor just like himself, but a great teacher. Anyways, after that initial first day I had two more days of being that awkward mute girl who stood in the corner staring curiously into women’s vaginas, but I must say that both of those days were just as exhilarating and as awkward as the first.
– Vidhya S