MSU Undergraduate and High School Students

You should dress business casual unless you are advised otherwise. Please do not wear lotions, perfumes, or colognes.

Some clothing items that are considered business casual:

• Slacks and skirts

• Blouses, sweaters, collared shirts

• Cardigans and blazers

• Dresses and jumpsuits

• Ballet flats, loafers, chelsea boots, oxfords, low heeled shoes

The following clothing items that are NOT considered business casual:

• Shorts

• Jeans

• Crop tops

• Tennis shoes, sneakers, crocs, flip flops

• Hoodies

Offices have the right to turn you away if you are not dressed appropriately when you arrive for your shadowing experience.

The Lansing CAD office can help arrange shadowing experiences for the following people:

• MSU CHM students
• MSU undergraduate students
• High school students

We can not arrange shadowing experiences for graduate students, MSU alumni, or students at other institutions. Please see “Other Ways To Request Shadowing” below for other options

Students are permitted to request shadowing experiences through our office twice per semester. Each experience can be scheduled for a maximum of 4 hours, so you can schedule a maximum of 8 hours through our office per semester.

Please note that UMH-Sparrow Hospital has a maximum per student shadowing limit of 5 half days (maximum of 4 hours for each experience).

Individual offices and preceptors may also enforce their own limits.

Semester dates are determined by the MSU CHM Academic Calendar. The start date for each semester is when tracking begins for that semester. This means shadowing scheduled during winter break would count towards your Fall semester limit, not Spring.

If contact information was not provided in your confirmation email, our office cannot give it to you, but we are happy to pass along your message

1. Request through the shadowing form
2. Submit your application packet and supplementing documents
3. Wait to hear from our office
4. Attend your experience

Request through the shadowing form

Whether you are requesting your first or your fifth experience, all MSU CHM shadowing requests must go through this form.

Please note that you can only have one pending shadowing request at a time.

A note on providing availability:
It is important to provide accurate and reliable availability when requesting your experience, and to update our office as soon as possible should your availability change. It is not a bad idea to block out some time on your calendar so you remember the availability you provided. 

Rescheduling experiences not only creates extra work for our office, but it inconveniences and frustrates the preceptors and office staff who we coordinate with. Because of this, rescheduling or canceling your experience will generally count as one of your two experiences for the semester. See “What If I Need To Cancel or Reschedule?” below for more information on this policy.

Submit your application packet and supplementing documents

Once your request is received, someone from our office will reach out to start the application process. The application (and supplementing documents) must be submitted every time you request to shadow. It is not a bad idea to store all of your shadowing documents in one folder so you can easily access them if you plan on shadowing more than once. You can typically expect to hear from our office within one week of submitting your request. From there, our office waits for you to return the required paperwork. We do not begin the scheduling process until we have all of the paperwork on file. Ensure that you provide all of the necessary documents to prevent delays in processing your request.

Wait to hear from our office

Once we receive your request and verify that you are in good standing, we will begin reaching out to your requested specialty/preceptor for scheduling. Shadowing can take a few weeks to schedule, and our office provides updates as they are available. We receive a very high volume of requests so a good rule of thumb is to wait about 2-3 weeks before following up. Usually, if you haven’t heard back after a week or so, it’s because we are still working on it and don’t have any updates yet.

Once we have confirmed a date and time for your experience, you will receive a confirmation email from our office which outlines where and when to report. We usually provide information on the preceptor as well, but sometimes we do not know who the preceptor will be beforehand.

Attend your experience

Shadowing is a privilege and involves patients and many other people who arrange and provide the experience. It is critically important to appear at the agreed upon time and date, to wear appropriate attire (see dress code below), and to notify the expected parties if anything should delay your timely arrival.

You will receive an application packet with this information after our office receives your request. Our office does not reach out to begin the scheduling process until all of your paperwork has been submitted.

Undergraduate and high school students must submit the following documentation. Some of these things can take time to obtain if you do not have them already, so it is a good idea to make sure you meet these requirements before submitting your request.

• Enrollment verification letter (MSU undergrads only)
  • Must show enrollment for the semester in which you are requesting to shadow
• MSU Ability Training Compliance Bloodborne Pathogen Awareness training certificate
• MSU Ability Training Compliance HIPAA Privacy Overview training certificate
• Statement of personal health coverage
• Confidentiality agreement
• Observer application
• Immunization records for the following
  • Hepatitis B
  • Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR)
  • Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (TDAP)
    • Required every 10 years
  • Varicella
  • Influenza
    • Required beginning in November each year. Must be administered in or after August of the current year to be considered up to date
• Proof of negative TB test in the past 12 months
  • We do not fund this test and cannot accept the TB vaccine as documentation for this
  • This test can be performed at most pharmacies and urgent cares
• Parental approval letter if you will be under 18 at the time of shadowing.

You must submit this paperwork each time you request to shadow. So if you anticipate that you will be submitting multiple requests, it is a good idea to store all of your documents in a file for quick access.