Shadowing a foundation-year doctor: a third-year medical student's perspective

This paper considers the advantages of shadowing foundation-year doctors (FY1) in the third year of medical school, an opportunity the UK's General Medical Council (UKGMC) recommends to be given to final-year students only.

Eighteen students spent 1 day each shadowing an FY1, holding their pager and carrying out their duties under direct supervision. Questionnaires, based on UKGMC expectations of an FY1, were completed assessing students' confidence and experience before and after the shifts. The doctors were interviewed.

The questionnaire response rate was 72 per cent (13/18). The overall increase in student experiences in good clinical care (p<0.001), maintaining good medical practice--teaching and learning (p=0.002), and recognition and management of the acutely ill (p<0.001), were statistically significant. The increase in student confidence in answering the pager (p<0.001), prioritising jobs (p=0.002), venepuncture (p=0.008), writing drug charts (p=0.031), writing in patient notes (p=0.002) and developing management plans (p=0.002) were statistically significant. Qualitative results yielded an overwhelming opinion from students and doctors that it should be made a compulsory part of the third-year curriculum. The doctors found it increased their knowledge and teaching skills.

This study has implications for the future of medical training. If incorporated into the third-year curriculum, compulsory shadowing would give students a structured one-to-one learning experience during which to learn clinically relevant skills. By shadowing a doctor so closely, they will also learn first-hand how to interact professionally with patients and other health care workers, a skill difficult to teach at medical school.