My Shadowing Experience Essay

Strolling through the mall in search of an optometrist office I visited two years ago, I ran into a doctor by the name of Courtney Thompson. She was wearing green scrubs and white tennis shoes along with a warm smile. She spoke with a pleasant tone as she politely asked, “How can I help you today?” It took me by surprise that attention was directed towards me. I inquisitively responded, “I am looking for an optometrist office to speak with a doctor in regards to shadowing.” Her face lit up like a rocket as she replied, “I’ll be glad to assist you.” She quickly pulled me aside and shared with me her journey to becoming an optometrist. It was quite interesting because we shared a similar path. We are not the typical people who grew up wanting to be an optometrist. I actually spent my entire life and two years of undergrad wanting to be a medical doctor. Curiously, I decided to explore other primary care fields before making a final decision about my career. I did not perceive the change form medical school to optometry school to be a downfall, but a motivation for me to encourage others to explore different areas to be sure of their career path. This is when my love for helping people improve their vision was birth. Although optometry is the field I recently choose, my medical encounters have given me clinical exposure and patient interactions that will prepare me for a career in optometry. …show more content…
I always looked forward to spending holidays from school in a clinic. However, the long hours of standing was something I dreaded. Overtime, I found shadowing for eight hours a day to be a breeze. What made my shadowing experience so exciting was the joy of interacting with pediatric and geriatric patients. I remember my first experience working with children was teaching at Noah’s Ark Daycare Center. The most challenging task was getting everyone to sit on the carpet and actively listen to instructions. I over came these obstacles by speaking with a calm tone and using big, colored objects to gain their attention. Seeing positive results from this method, I use this technique to communicate and interact with children at the clinic. It brought me great joy seeing that I was able to focus a child’s attention and accomplish the tasks at hand. On the other hand, interacting with geriatric patients taught me patience and diligence. Haven to listen to ten-minute stories before charting symptoms was dreadful. However, I began to remind myself that I was there to help the patient in anyway that I could and not neglect their emotional stress that is possibly a factor to their illness. Learning how to communicate and work through challenging tasks will help me with assisting patients with vision care. With optometry being a primary care field, collaborating and presentation skills are needed to succeed. Tutoring is something I have a strong passion for. I had the experience of being tutored in middle school and later received the highest grade point average in all my Algebra courses. Excelling in this course sparked my interest to reach out to students in my community who found this subject challenging. It is a humbling experience for me to set aside my agenda and share my knowledge with others. To meet the needs of students, I work around extracurricular activities and cancel my activities with friends to make sure students receive quality tutoring. In addition, I work roughly ten