Nicole Hooten observing Dr. Deimel, a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician

Author: Nicole HootenMajor: Biomedical Engineering

Originally from Quitman, Arkansas, I entered the Honors College as a freshman and have been following the pre-med track since that time.

I am a lifelong fan of basketball and have remained engaged with athletics by mentoring and coaching elementary girls through a youth basketball program; a leadership position I started in high school and continued with since beginning college.

In addition to academics and pre-med course prep, those who wish to enter medical school must pursue a variety of experiences to confirm they understand the career they are getting into. Going in with eyes wide open, this realistic understanding of a career most certainly includes shadowing.

Though the restrictions imposed during the pandemic made shadowing difficult, including canceling elective surgeries and temporarily closing clinics that served such patients, I was lucky to find a shadowing experience that helped me gain some of the required hours I need to prepare for med school.

Orthopedics was the first specialty I was exposed to as an athlete who experienced sports injuries while in high school. Such experiences sparked my curiosity about sports medicine and led to my interest in learning more through shadowing different orthopedic specialties.

To search for such experiences, I expressed my interest to advisors and professors and discovered there was a potential option for shadowing Dr. George “BJ” Deimel, a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician that specializes in non-operative sports and musculoskeletal medicine at Ozark Orthopedics. Even if you don’t personally know a doctor, someone in your network might. It’s worth asking!

We were introduced through email by one of my advisors. This allowed me to show my interest in his specialty and gave me an opportunity to tell Dr. Deimel a little bit about myself. In the short bio I sent Dr. Deimel, I mentioned my major, extracurriculars, what motivated me to reach out to him, and how long I hoped to shadow Dr. Deimel. After determining what would come out of this shadowing experience, it was time to decide when I would go into the clinic for the first time.

Personally, I feel that expressing your interest in the specialty while presenting yourself as a person is the most important step when cold emailing physicians. They expect you to be a hard-working student but want to get to know you outside of your grades. My advice is to always stay professional and come in with an open mind ready to learn as much as you can about the daily interactions each physician experiences.

Since I began shadowing during the spring 2021 semester, I was only able to go to the Bentonville clinic on Wednesday afternoons. My shadowing experience at the clinic included meeting with patients while following all COVID restrictions and guidelines, including wearing a mask, hand washing, and maintaining social distance.

Part of Dr. Deimel’s focus is to administer non-surgical pain management treatments, and so part of my shadowing experience included watching him give patients in-clinic steroid injections.

Another facet of shadowing was previewing cases with Dr. Deimel. He would present each upcoming case and walk me through the procedure for meeting new patients. Dr. Deimel took the time after each case to dictate the findings and encouraged me to ask any questions I had about each diagnosis and treatment.

When reviewing medical imaging with him, he would identify the problem area and explain his thought process in determining the problem and solution. A common issue we were presented with was spinal stenosis, or narrowing of the spaces within the spine. This often led to patients having back pain and sometimes pain radiating down the nerve endings and was often treated by administering corticosteroid injections.

Every case presented followed the same procedure: read the case file, review any relevant scans, meet the patient, perform any physical exams needed, then diagnose and move forward with a treatment plan. I spent around 40 hours total shadowing in this manner with occasional trigger point injections.

I will continue shadowing now that I have received both vaccinations and restrictions have been lifted, and the experience will expand to include watching epidural steroid injections at the surgical center. I look forward to following Dr. Deimel along to help me learn all aspects of his practice.