Shadowing a Doctor: A Benefit or Harm?

Entering a physician's office for a visit and examination may allow you to be a participant in a medical exercise called "pre-medical shadowing".  This means that, hopefully with your full informed consent,  a college student called a "pre-med student" who has been studying courses to apply to medical school, will be present to learn what the practice of medicine is all about as seen within the office of a doctor in practice. Some medical educators believe that if  these college students "shadow"(watch)  professional physicians at work they will get some insight into the profession before applying to medical school and their education in this regard may be of some value.  Though, as a medical educator and physician myself, I find some value in this "shadowing" I do have some concerns and I expressed my opinion to a medical education website as follows:Does anyone think that "clinical shadowing" by pre-med students will, whatever the benefits from the experience, also instill elements of the "hidden curriculum" taught to 3rd and 4th year students and beyond   even before experiencing the more "humanistic" learning provided 1st and 2nd year students? Or am I becoming overly concerned? The "hidden curriculum" is defined as being the education of these students and residents by experience mature superiors who promote their own view of medical practice in a way different and perhaps more organizational and bureaucratic but perhaps less humanistic from...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs