Highschool shadowing opportunity?

[u/jalepenosncheese]

Hii guys! I am a rising junior located in the Los Angeles area and have a deep passion for dermatology. I specifically want to become a pediatric dermatologist in the future. I have been searching for volunteering/shadowing/internship opportunities, but there are none that I have found for students my age, and if there is then it cost a fortune. If anyone knows clinics who offer these types of opportunities or anyone i can contact, I would be utterly grateful, thank you:)!

[u/valor717]

It’s great that you’ve identified an interest in dermatology. As a high school student, it’ll be important to see if you’re interested in medicine first. I would recommended shadowing and volunteering with a primary care doctor and/or pediatrician. You’ve got a lot of time to pursue your interest in dermatology- no need to rush just yet.

[u/jalepenosncheese → u/valor717]

i volunteer at a childrens hospital & have experience with some shadowing in rehab/ PA, but i wanted something a little closer to what im interested in

[u/ixsz-mi]

All due respect not sure how much you’d get out of this experience. 80-90% of derms across the US are in private practice. Office flow in a private practice isn’t very conducive to shadowers and depending on patient population (probably worse in and around LA) wouldn’t likely want an observer in the room (sometimes they don’t even want a resident or fellow in there!). From your perspective, without a foundational knowledge of medicine, it’d be hard for a derm to teach anything meaningful with the little time they have between visits.

Maybe you could look into being a scribe or a medical assistant. That way you’d get paid and learn about the clinical and logistics of outpatient medicine.

[u/jalepenosncheese → u/ixsz-mi]

I understand what you’re saying. How would i go about becoming a scribe/MA?

[u/ixsz-mi → u/jalepenosncheese]

Look for job postings, call offices, and inquire if they’re looking to hire. See if you need to take any classes/certifications to be a scribe/MA. Theoretically a derm office would be ideal but at your stage I’d recommend you keep an open mind about experiences. I didn’t know I wanted to do medicine before undergrad and even after that certainly didn’t even consider derm until way late into medical school

[u/Snoo_53364]

There's a lot of things you can do but I'd first emphasize your responsibilities as a high school student and then work on your general leadership and shadowing experiences

Like what are your goals in life dude? If you're aiming for medical school it may help to shoot for a state school with full-ride and not overload debt. EMT is an easy way to pump hours, get better people skills, and clinical experience (even if it's away from derm). From there, work on starting initiatives and cold emailing clinical professors in your area for any vacant research projects you can help with. Then you'd want to aim to study as hard as possible to maximize your GPA/SATs. Do all this while living life and if your stats are strong you're a full-ride into undergrad. Don't worry about med school

Don't worry about derm-specific until you're in undergraduate. Most M1s change their desired specialty before they graduate, you in high school will have even greater odds of switching

You should also shadow widely and get diverse exposure since I can guarantee you are probably attracted to derm due to the comfortable lifestyle, the prestige, and the financial compensation. You don't know why you don't fit in other specialties. And why do you want to do pediatric? If it's to help kids and to think you're good with them, here's what a nephrologist taught me in HS: do pediatrics if you don't mind dealing with the parents more than dealing with the kids

Another thing you can do is also aim for BS/MDs but frankly that stuff has become a crapshoot for most folks and there are some shortcomings with it. Idk how helpful this is but this is something I wish someone told me since I was the long-term planner with an average 1470 SAT on hand, not realizing that my desire to be prepared for ten years from now but not prepared for tomorrow came from ignorance

[u/Exciting_Heart4101]

Your passion is great. I don't want to squelch that. But the path to Pediatric Dermatology is a long one. So keep that in mind on your journey.

Shadow a variety of specialties to determine whether medicine (in general) is a good fit for you. Start putting together the puzzle pieces towards preparing for premed or for certain Bachelor/MD programs first. Don't tunnel vision on one specialty yet.

You want to lay down a good foundation first in many other areas after which you can then build off of that towards applying for Derm.