Introduction:
Shadowing a physician is an observational experience which includes a student
observing a licensed healthcare provider caring for patients. Shadowing is
commonly done by students before and during medical school, but little is
known about the nature or extent of these extra-curricular observational
experiences.
Objective:
We hypothesized that shadowing experiences were common yet variable. We
investigated the prevalence, nature, and perceived value of medical student
experiences with shadowing physicians (both before and during medical
school).
Methods:
This survey-based study was non-experimental with a cross-sectional
convenience sample of osteopathic medical students about their shadowing
experiences before and during medical school. The survey was sent to all
matriculated osteopathic medical students (OMS1-4) for the 2017 to 2018
academic year from two medical schools: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic
Medicine (PCOM) (1084 total students) and PCOM-Georgia (554 total students).
The final survey instrument included three sections: demographics (6
questions), pre-medical shadowing experiences (21 questions), and medical
student shadowing experiences (24 questions).
Results:
Respondents (357) identified themselves as OMS1 (96), OMS2 (89), OMS3 (73),
OMS4 (95) and other (2, OMS5) with enrollment at PCOM-Philadelphia (242) and
PCOM-Georgia (115). Among survey respondents, 339 (95.5%) reported shadowing
a physician as a pre-medical student, and 110 (30.8%) reported shadowing
(outside of their required clinical rotations) a physician during medical
school. Requirements to participate were inconsistent; fewer than 50% of
shadowing experiences required Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) training, proof of vaccination, or
purified protein derivative (PPD) documentation. In addition to observation,
pre-medical and medical students, respectively, participated in history
taking (44 [13%], 47 [42.7%]), physical examinations (45 [13.3%], 44 [40%])
and procedures (13, [3.8%], 20 [18.2%]) during their shadowing experiences.
Motivations to participate in shadowing varied between pre-medical and
medical student experiences, but both groups mentioned their desire to learn
more about a particular discipline, obtain letters of recommendation, and
gain patient care experience. Students recommended both pre-medical (273
[80.5%]) and medical school (93 [84.5%]) shadowing to future students.
Conclusion:
Shadowing remains a common and important tool for students to learn about
patient care, medicine and careers. The nature of each shadowing experience
and participation requirements are quite variable. Measures to ensure
patient safety, confidentiality, liability and supervision are
inconsistently applied. Promoting guidelines, as well as codes of conduct,
for shadowing could serve as a helpful resource for students, academic
advisors and supervising clinici...