Shadowing your faculty members provides a far richer experience than reading about their jobs. It is an effective form of on-the-job training that allows you to gain comprehensive knowledge about what your faculty members do every day.
New clinical managers should make time to watch their faculty members in action as frontline clinicians in their everyday work. By doing this, managers gain insights they could never have gained otherwise.
Shadowing your physicians helps each side learn how the other thinks. For many new managers, shadowing may be their first opportunity to be on the front lines of care. Many physicians also appreciate the managers’ willingness to see their world. The experience catalyzes better understanding and positive change. You will definitely learn more about your physicians, your clinical units, your clinical mission, and your division overall from 6 hours of immersion compared to 3 years inside the office. You will get to see some of the frustrations that your physicians deal with every day, and the joys of patient care that make them stick around despite these frustrations.
Shadowing your physicians can bridge the gap that exists in many organizations between the daily world of the care providers and the administrators who make decisions that ultimately impact our providers. It allows people to spend time together and listen to each other long enough to avoid discounting and stereotyping.
When administrators can observe the downstream, longer-term effects of their decisions regarding resources, staffing, performance metrics, organizational priorities, and work policies, they can begin to appreciate what research in other industries has already shown: valuing employees, through improving their work experience and other means, makes good business sense and results in better overall performance. And it’s the right thing to do.