Laws for Shadowing

[WTTL]

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A Physician let me shadow him, but he is not familiar with the laws regarding student shadowing and patient confidentiality.

Do I need to sign a form? What can't I do? I'm in California.

 

[Ursa]

A Physician let me shadow him, but he is not familiar with the laws regarding student shadowing and patient confidentiality.

Do I need to sign a form? What can't I do? I'm in California.

AFAIK, you just need verbal consent of each patient.

 

[mvenus929]

Different practices run differently. One hospital I tried to shadow in required that I have workers comp insurance through my school... just to follow around a doc and not touch any patients. Another required I sign a form saying I agreed not to disclose any patient information, etc. Another didn't require anything.

However, in terms of patient confidentiality, don't talk about a specific patient, ever. If you saw 5 patients, mix up their ages and genders and whatnot, or give one person multiple problems, etc. That's the rule in medicine, and you should get used to it now.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

If you saw 5 patients, mix up their ages and genders and whatnot, or give one person multiple problems, etc. That's the rule in medicine, and you should get used to it now.

I've never mixed up ages or genders when de-identifying patients, but I suppose it would be really interesting to hear about a 5 year old boy with crazy fibroids in his uterus. 🙂

OP, nothing specific: verbal consent from each patient is sufficient (and necessary), anything beyond that is liability mitigation from the place you are shadowing (well we told her not to talk about patients outside the clinic and she signed the form saying she understood, so you can't sue us...this is all on her!).

 

[mvenus929]

I've never mixed up ages or genders when de-identifying patients, but I suppose it would be really interesting to hear about a 5 year old boy with crazy fibroids in his uterus. 🙂.

Not necessarily with each other, but if you see a 35-year old woman with GERD, you can make the patient a 40-year old without really changing the science behind the history. Also, if you're in a pediatrics practice, and you see a 8-year old boy with the flu and a 6 year old girl with asthma, you could similarly mix them up without really changing the history.