The shadowing experience: valuing the link between faculty practice and student learning

Nurse faculty members, engaged in active, clinical practice roles, can enhance student learning through a shadowing experience. A shadowing, or observational, experience was designed by the writer to enhance undergraduate student learning, contribute to student socialization to the profession, and assist students to develop career goals. The shadowing experience linked an undergraduate student with the faculty member in a learning partnership in an advanced practice clinical setting. Fifteen undergraduate nursing students participated in a pilot shadowing experience with a faculty member in her private practice. Both the students and faculty reported that the experience was mutually rewarding. Students reported they were able to learn new information, apply theory from the classroom, and develop interest in graduate school. The shadowing experience provided the faculty member with an opportunity to show the value of her clinical practice within a traditional academic environment. The value of the shadowing experience for the faculty member can be enhanced by formal mechanisms that support faculty clinical practice work.