Junior doctors’ experience of interprofessional shadowing in a palliative care setting

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional shadowing, whereby medical students take on the role of another profession, is an effective interprofessional education (IPE) method to promote interprofessional teamwork. Palliative care is an ideal setting for IPE as multidisciplinary teams work together to deliver holistic patient care. This brief report explores junior doctors’ experiences in shadowing nurses to provide care to patients in a hospice setting in New Zealand. We conducted semi-structured interviews with six participants to find out the impact that this shadowing experience had on their professional development and feasibility of incorporating this activity into the undergraduate medical curriculum. Inductive thematic analysis revealed that shadowing a nurse for two days increased participants’ awareness of the nursing role and gave them the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with their patients, both of which made participants actively reflect on the value of IPE and the way they practice medicine. Participants considered the palliative care setting as conducive to IPE and saw the value of incorporating interprofessional shadowing into the undergraduate medical curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional education
• shadowing
• palliative care setting
• junior doctors
• nurses

Declaration of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Auckland Summer Research Scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Yan Chen

Yan Chen is a Lecturer at the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, the University of Auckland.

Lauren Whearty

Lauren Whearty is a medical student at the University of Auckland.

Diane Winstanley

Diane Winstanley is a Palliative Medicine Specialist at Mercy Hospice Auckland and a Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Department of Medicine, the University of Auckland.

Dean Fourie

Dean Fourie is a Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine at Mercy Hospice Auckland and a Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Department of Medicine, the University of Auckland.

Marie Rose

Marie Rose is a Senior Medical Officer at Mercy Hospice Auckland.

Marcus A. Henning

Marcus A. Henning is an Associate Professor and the Postgraduate Academic Advisor at the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, the University of Auckland.