Internal medicine nurse shadowing program Winnie Chan a, *, 1 , Mary Salib a, 1 , Shelly-Anne Li b , Teresa M. Chan c , John You c , Meghan McBride c , Mohamed Panju c a McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4L8, Canada b University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1P8, Canada c Hamilton General Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, 237 Barton St. E., Hamilton, Ontario, L8P 1H8, Canada article info Article history: Received 24 June 2016 Received in revised form 29 May 2017 Accepted 18 July 2017 abstract Professional identity formation is a fluid process, which evolves throughout one's medical education. Residency is an ideal time for interprofessional education because as junior physicians, they are beginning to develop their professional identity, but it is still early enough in their careers that their attitudes and habits are malleable. We implemented a nurse-shadowing pilot program for internal medicine (IM) residents. IM residents completed a six to 12-h nurse-shadowing experience. Pre- and post-exposure surveys and interviews were used to explore satisfaction, learning, reflective practice, and anticipated change in behaviour. All residents (n ¼ 7) and nurses (n ¼ 7) found the nurse-shadowing experience to be valuable. There was a statistically significant improvement on resident self-reported knowledge of nursing scope of practice. Qualitative analysis of participant interviews identified poten- tial benefits, including reflective practice, attitudinal changes (increased empathy), and recognized specific actionable items to incorporate into their daily practice to improve collaboration and commu- nication. The residents were able to compare and contrast their own roles to those of their nursing colleagues. Nurse-shadowing programs at the residency level provide a valuable interprofessional educational experience. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Format IM residents participated one a six to 12-h nurse-shadowing experience with a registered nurse (RN) providing direct patient care on the general medicine wards at an academic hospital. 2. Target audience Participants included IM residents during their core three-year internal medicine residency training at McMaster University. McMaster is a tertiary care, academic institution and the IM training program has 28 residents per year. A total of seven resi- dents volunteered to participate in our shadowing experience, including four residents in post graduate year one (PGY1) and three in PGY2. 3. Objectives There were two shadowing-experience learning objectives: 1. Generate awareness of professional responsibilities of nursing colleagues; 2. Observe nursing activities including transfer of accountability (i.e. shift handover), documentation, provision of patient care, patient assessments, and interactions with other health care professionals. 4. Activity description Each participating resident shadowed a registered nurse on an IM inpatient ward for six to 12 h. Residents observed nursing ac- tivities including transfer of accountability, documentation, provi- sion of patient care, patient assessments, and interactions with other healthcare disciplines. Residents were asked to observe and not participate in activities beyond their scope of training, such as specimen collection (e.g. blood and urine), administration of * Corresponding author. Present address: Kingston General Hospital, Armstrong Level 3, 76 Stuart Street, Kingston, ON, K7L 2V7, Canada. E-mail address: winnie.chan@medportal.ca (W. Chan). 1 Winnie Chan and Mary Salib are co-first authors. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice journal homepage: http://www.jieponline.com http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2017.07.005 2405-4526/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice 9 (2017) 12e16