Interprofessional Summer Shadowing Program
About the Program
For the fourth consecutive year, CAIPPER hosted the annual Summer Interprofessional Education (IPE) Shadowing Program at UI Health. This initiative was originally piloted in 2022 by a group of medical students—Sakshi Dureja, Ashwini Deshpande, and Elizabeth Troy.
This summer, ten students representing the seven health science colleges participated in the six-week program, which ran from June 23 2025 to August 1 2025. The IPE Shadowing Program is designed to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of the roles and responsibilities of various healthcare professionals across multiple clinical settings at UI Health. Additionally, it affords students the opportunity to engage in meaningful interactions with practitioners outside of their primary profession.
Throughout the program, students observe clinical interactions involving patients and interprofessional healthcare teams to deepen their understanding of:
- The unique contributions of different health professions to patient care;
- Best practices in interprofessional collaboration, teamwork, and patient safety;
- The enablers and barriers to effective interprofessional care
Students shadowed preceptors from a range of professions, including Medicine, Nutrition, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and Social Work.
We would like to sincerely thank all participating preceptors this summer. Their time, dedication, and mentorship are integral to the success of this program, and we deeply appreciate their continued support!
About the Program
- The annual program occurs every summer.
- Shadow up to 6 clinicians over 6 weeks.
- You’ll have a chance to shadow: Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Nutrition, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and Social Work.
- Participate in group debriefs on interprofessional collaboration.
To Apply
The application process for the summer 2026 cohort will open in April/May 2026.
Questions?
Please contact Ami Shah at ashah58@uic.edu
On average, during the last two years, students each shadowed five professions. The below results are based off the students post course assessments (n=11)
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> 90 % Students reported that they agreed agreed that their preceptors promoted mutual respect among the members of the healthcare team.
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> 80 % Students agreed that the onboarding orientation provided a clear overview of the program and that the final debrief group discussion was a valuable use of their time.
IPE Shadowing Participants Experiences
I gained greater empathy for all of the different providers who come together to provide holistic care for their patients. I really appreciated seeing how caring and invested each provider was in caring for their patients and their willingness to listen to other health professionals to determine the best plan of treatment.
Each professional was extremely respectful of one another and took their opinions into account when making patient care decisions. It was really nice to see how open providers were with communication and their ability to rely on specialists in other fields to make the best decisions they could for patients and their families.