Questions to Ask PA When Shadowing
Questions to ask a physician assistant during a shadowing day, sorted so you can use the short gaps between patients and save the longer ones for lunch or the end of the shift.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Where should I stand, and when should I stay outside the room?
Why ask it
Ask this in the first five minutes, before anything else. It settles the practical question, shows you understand that patients come first, and makes the PA relax about having you there. Shadowers who never ask tend to spend the day being quietly managed.
Is there anything I should not ask about in front of patients?
Why ask it
Signals that you understand the difference between a corridor and an exam room. It also gets you the local rules, which vary: some PAs are happy to be asked anything once the door closes, others prefer questions saved entirely for breaks.
How did you end up in this specialty?
Why ask it
A safe, short-gap question with a real answer. Most PAs did not plan the specialty they are in, and the story usually involves a rotation, a job market, or a single person who hired them. That path is more representative than any careers advice.
How many patients will you see today?
Why ask it
A number you can hold against what you observe. Watch what the number does to the day: how long each visit gets, how much documentation piles up, whether lunch happens. This is the single best predictor of what the job feels like.
What did you do before PA school?
Why ask it
Answers range from paramedic and medical assistant to careers with no connection to medicine at all. Ask how many patient care hours they had, since the expectation has shifted over time and their route may no longer be available in the same form.
What was that patient's presentation telling you before you examined them?
Why ask it
Best asked immediately after leaving a room, while it is fresh. You are asking about reasoning rather than facts, which is what shadowing can teach and reading cannot. Even a one sentence answer shows you how a clinician sorts the likely from the serious.
How much of what you do requires checking with the physician?
Why ask it
The practical shape of supervision varies enormously by state, specialty, and practice. Ask what actually happens on a normal day rather than what the regulations permit, since the gap between those two is where PA satisfaction usually sits.
What can you not do in this role that you wish you could?
Why ask it
More revealing than asking about scope of practice in the abstract. The answer names a specific limit that comes up weekly, which is exactly what you would want to know before committing to the profession.
How is your relationship with the physician you work with?
Why ask it
PA experience depends heavily on this one relationship. Listen for whether they are consulted, trusted with complexity, and treated as a colleague. A PA describing their supervising physician as someone who signs charts and little else is describing a job you should ask more about.
What part of the day takes more time than you expected when you started?
Why ask it
The answer is almost always documentation, prior authorizations, phone calls, or messages from patients. It is the part of the job nobody shadows for and the main reason people leave particular practices.
What was the hardest thing you had to learn that school did not teach?
Why ask it
Expect answers about delivering bad news, disagreeing with a physician, handling a patient who does not believe them, or managing uncertainty. This is the honest gap between training and practice and it is rarely discussed publicly.
How do you handle a patient who wants to see a doctor instead?
Why ask it
Every PA has this happen and each has a stock response. Listen for whether it still stings, since that tells you something about how the role is regarded in this setting and how much of it you would be signing up for.
What are the hours really, including what you do at home?
Why ask it
Ask about scheduled hours, charting done in the evening, and call. The distinction between a job that ends when the clinic closes and one that follows you home is the largest quality of life difference between PA positions.
How did you learn the things you needed in your first year of practice?
Why ask it
Ask whether there was formal onboarding or whether they were left to it. New graduate support varies widely and is worth knowing about now, because it is the single most common thing new PAs say they wish they had asked about in an interview.
What would you tell me to do in the next two years if I want to be a strong applicant?
Why ask it
Push for specifics: which patient care roles count, how many hours, whether their program cared about the GRE, what a good letter looks like. General encouragement to work hard is what you get if you ask this too vaguely.
Was there anything about this career you regret, or would do differently?
Why ask it
Ask this later in the day, once you have been useful and unobtrusive for several hours. Most PAs will answer honestly, and the answer often concerns specialty choice, debt, or a first job, not the profession itself.
What is a misconception you would correct about PAs?
Why ask it
You will hear something specific about training length, autonomy, or being a step toward medical school. It is worth knowing before an interview, since repeating a common misconception is an easy way to lose ground with a PA on an admissions panel.
How does the money work in this specialty, and does it vary much?
Why ask it
PAs generally answer this if asked plainly rather than coyly. Ask about the range in their specialty and region, whether there is production based pay, and whether the debt from school felt proportionate. It is a legitimate factor in the decision.
Do you see yourself doing this in ten years?
Why ask it
Ask what they would move toward: another specialty, teaching, administration, fewer hours. Because PAs can change specialty without retraining, the answer tells you about the flexibility of the profession as much as their own plans.
Would you be willing to stay in touch, and may I ask you a question later?
Why ask it
Ask before you leave rather than in an email afterwards, and be specific about what you would use it for. Most shadowing relationships end because the student never asked, and a PA who has watched you behave well all day is usually happy to say yes.
Shadowing well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the day
Confirm the practical details in writing
Arrival time, where to park, who to ask for at reception, dress code, and any paperwork or immunization record the site needs. Sites frequently require a confidentiality form, and turning up without it can cost you the morning.
Learn enough vocabulary to follow along
Read about the specialty's common presentations the night before. You are not there to know answers, but understanding roughly what is being discussed means your questions land in the right place and you waste fewer of the short gaps.
Bring a small notebook and use it sparingly
Write down questions as they occur so you can ask them at a sensible moment. Never write anything identifying a patient, and keep the notebook away while you are in a room.
When to ask what
Between rooms, ask one short question
Corridor gaps are thirty seconds. Reasoning questions about the patient just seen fit here, and so do simple factual ones. Anything requiring a story does not.
At lunch or a lull, ask the career questions
Path into the profession, first year of practice, regrets, and advice all need several minutes. Save them rather than starting one at the wrong moment and getting a truncated answer.
At the end, ask for the relationship
The last ten minutes are for thanking them, asking whether you may follow up, and asking who else in the practice would be worth shadowing.
Conduct in the room
- Introduce yourself briefly if invited to, then be still and quiet.
- Leave immediately if a patient hesitates about your presence, without waiting to be asked twice.
- Never touch a patient, a chart, or a screen unless directly instructed.
- Assume everything you see and hear stays inside the building, including on social media afterwards.
- Watch the PA's hands and questions rather than the monitor, since the examination is the part you cannot read about.
How shadowers lose the opportunity
Interrupting during a patient encounter
Even a small clarifying question changes the visit and can undermine the patient's confidence. Hold everything until the door closes behind you.
Treating it as an interview about yourself
A day spent explaining your own qualifications produces no learning and no letter. Ask, watch, and be easy to have around.
Disappearing afterwards
Send a short note within two days naming something specific you learned. This is the difference between one day of observation and a contact who will answer questions for years.