Table 3.

Student Descriptors of Roles and Functions of the Shadowed Healthcare Professionals

Shadowed Discipline	General Purpose	Specific Functions	Role Differences
Physical Therapist	“The PT's work with patients from every unit of the hospital, mostly focusing on rehabilitating patient's mobility and motor functioning.”	“PTs are very important in helping patients with postoperative mobility, which includes sitting up, standing up, balance, walking, and gait.”	“While the doctor was involved with the healing of the wound, the physical therapist was involved in helping the patient to learn to walk again.”
Social Worker	“Thus, the social worker provides the crucial link between the patient’s life and their health, allowing the patient to take care of their social needs so that they can then focus on their health concerns.”	The social worker “is greatly involved in the transition to hospice care, which involves extensive conversations with families and location of hospice agencies with the appropriate indigent funding, given that most hospices only have enough resources to financially cover a few new patients at most.”	“While the physician takes care of the hospitalized patient's medical needs- medication, treatment, blood tests- the social worker takes care of the patient's emotional and social needs.”
Nurse	“Nurses deal much more with the day-to- day care of patients, ensuring that all their needs are met.”	“The nurse was responsible for making sure the patient received their medications in a timely manner.”	“Unfortunately, due to the high number of people needing medical care in the hospital, the doctor is not always available to their patients. The nurse fulfills this need for constant care and therefore gets to know the patient better than anyone else in the hospital.”
Patient Educator	“The patient educator helps prepare the patient and their family for how to take of themselves with their new condition after they are discharged.”	“She specifically works with newly diagnosed diabetics and new ostomy patients, educating and demonstrating the techniques they need for survival and overall health once they leave the hospital.”	“As a physician you can prescribe all the medicine you would like to help care for a patient; however, if the patient is unable to properly use this medicine or other treatments, it will be of little use in helping them. The patient educator helped fill in the gaps of patient care to make sure that our plan is an effective one.”
Occupational Therapist	“Occupational therapists, as well as physical therapists, work closely with patients to improve muscle strength and motor skills in order to improve patients' quality of life.”	“Some of the specific services the OT performs include splinting and training the patient to perform [activities of daily living] with the splint, preserve range of motion and prevent contractures in immobilized and non-ambulatory patients, train families and other caregivers to perform range of motion exercises and skin checks, and teach patients strength-building and balance exercises to help give them movement autonomy.”	“Unlike physicians, occupational therapists are not qualified to make a diagnosis. Instead, they provide specific therapy tailored to the diagnosis made by a physician.”
Speech Pathologist	“Speech pathologists also work with patients who have difficulty swallowing.”	“The Speech Pathologist administered liquids of various thicknesses and tested what the patient could swallow without risk of vallecular pooling or aspirating. This procedure is critical to determine what types of foods the patient can consume by mouth.”	“The physician's role truly dealt more with trying to make the patient’s underlying condition better, whereas the speech therapists role dealt more with making the patients comfortable while they were trying to get better.”