It’s going to be impossible to convince someone to let you shadow right now. No office is going to want to risk either bringing someone in that could get covid (and therefore be a liability), or else potentially bring covid into the facility. “Virtual” shadowing is a no go because of privacy and information security concerns. In some places, provider hours have been considerably cut back and folks have been furloughed or laid off. In others, it’s so busy that they don’t want anyone tagging along and slowing them down or bumping into something. Shadowing is the opposite of social distancing. Tough luck. I quit letting anyone nonessential be around me 2/3rds of the way through February. I don’t see that changing for quite some time. Maybe never. Shadowing is crap anyway.
Go get into healthcare and you’ll see what you need to see firsthand as part of your job. A PAs first in-depth exposure to healthcare shouldn’t be the first day of PA school, but that’s how it is now. I understand that’s well established now as the norm, but it doesn’t mean that I’ll help enable that. I’m an NP, but I get regular requests from pre PAs and pre NPs to shadow. I don’t take anyone to shadow who doesn’t have real, paid health care experience. I don’t even take newer nurses to train during their clinicals, and decline anybody who isn’t actively working as a psyche nurse. I’ve told several folks to call me back after they get 18 months of psyche under their belt.
