Interprofessional Summer Shadowing Program

The application process for the summer 2026 cohort has closed.

Shadowing is a common educational learning experience but in the annual Summer Interprofessional Education (IPE) Shadowing Program at UI Health, there is deliberate attention to the shadowing of different health professionals leading to a deeper understanding of:

    • The unique and complementary 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.

As part of the summer shadowing program, students will participate in an orientation session and follow-up debrief sessions, providing opportunities to ask questions, set expectations, and reflect on their observations on interprofessional collaboration across health professions.

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! Clinicians who are willing to serve as preceptors can indicate their interest at any time by reaching out to Ami Shah at ashah58@uic.edu.

  • > 90 % Students reported that they agreed that their preceptors promoted mutual respect among the members of the healthcare team.

  • > 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.

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.

Physical Therapy Student

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.

Health Information Management Student