Shadowing: Depth or breadth?

[jmk]

What's your opinion on shadowing: go for depth in one setting, or breadth in many? 

 

-Are you aiming for X amount of time (in months, or a year) in a setting? 

-or X amount of hours in one setting? 

-are you shadowing from a start point to when apps are due to show dedication? 

 

  

[jmk]

My opinion: My work/volunteerism has all been in pediatrics, and I am currently on my first shadowing expedition, which is for a pediatric SLP in a private clinic. 

I hope to obtain 200hrs/12 months worth of shadowing to show my peds dedication. 

 

Meanwhile, I would also like to shadow 30-50hrs in other settings to gain experience. So far I have come up with adult rehab, SNF, and potentially hospital.

 

Thus: I am aiming to show depth in one setting, but would like to pick up some breadth along the way. 

[macklin_b]

I would aim for depth in the area you would like to pursue. Because I'm open to working with any population, I chose a pediatric therapy clinic for volunteering to observe kids, and Kaiser Permanente to observe mostly adults. I would like to shadow at a school or SNF as well just to get a feel for all the different settings.

As far as apps go, I volunteered for at least one year at both places so I could put that on my apps. I think showing at least 100+ hours at one or two places was better than 25 hours at four different settings, but that's just me. It's hard to aim for both breadth and depth, but if you have the time, then go for it! I think the plan you currently have sounds pretty solid.

[hopefulslp2b]

From my experience I did a little bit of both. I completed an internship at an early intervention agency 250 hours, then volunteered and shadowed at a couple of different clinics 50 hours.