How to contact NPs for shadowing

ruralnurs · Apr 25, 2010

when i was looking for preceptors i would find someone through advertisements (yellow pages, google the area for nps, etc.) and send them a nice letter introducing myself (resume, some personal info, contact info for my clinical instructor at my school, and a copy of my syllabus), giving my contact info and saying they can call/email me or i would contact them in a week or so. this would give them a while to think about it and not be blind-sided by a cold call.

i don't know how it would work with "shadowing". as a student there are contracts with the school, need to provide proof of health insurance, ppd, immunizations, cpr and lots of other things as well as signing a hippa form. some places i even had to go through "orientation" like an employee. it can be a big deal for an organization to have a non-employee involved (even as only an observer) in patient care. when i precepted in a state hospital it was a real hoop to jump through.

this may be a lot for someone to do just for you to "shadow" them and something their organization (if they are not self-employed) may not be willing to do. as a student you are covered by your school and ancc gives ceus to nps that precept a student, but for someone to just "shadow" there is not a big incentive.

good luck.

Trauma Columnist · Apr 26, 2010

I think I remember you live in IL. Join the IL Society of APNs - there is a free 6 month trial offer at the moment. Then, you'll have a pretty good list of who is in your area, phone numbers, area of practice,etc. Good luck.

Dixiecup · Apr 27, 2010

I always got the best results by going through the office manager. They usually arrange thing like that.

When I was trying to find places to do clinicals for school, I would get numbers from the yellow pages, then call and ask for the office manager and usually they were very helpful.