CRNA Shadowing Form: What to Log and How to Verify It

Updated August 2026

A CRNA shadowing form documents who you shadowed, when, for how long, and in what setting, signed by the CRNA who supervised you. Of the 154 accredited programs in The CRNA Club database, 57 formally require shadowing and 92 do not, with 5 not publishing a policy either way.

That split surprises people. The COA does not mandate shadowing at the accreditation level, so each program decides for itself. Most applicants assume shadowing is universally mandatory. It is not. But the programs that want it tend to want it documented properly, and reconstructing dates from memory eighteen months later is miserable.

What Goes on a CRNA Shadowing Log?

I kept mine in the notes app on my phone, badly, and then spent a Sunday trying to remember whether a particular OR day was in March or April. Do not be me.

Log this the same day, every time:

• Date and hours. Actual start and end times, not "about 8 hours."
• Facility and setting. Main OR, outpatient surgery center, OB, pain clinic, endoscopy. Setting variety matters more than raw hours.
• CRNA name and credentials, plus their contact information if they are willing to give it.
• Cases observed. General, regional, MAC, spinal, epidural. Types, not patient details.
• What you actually learned. Two or three sentences while it is fresh.

That last one is not for the form. It is for you, six months later, when an interviewer asks what surprised you about the OR and you need something better than "how fast it moved."

CRNA Shadowing Verification Form Template

Some programs supply their own form. Use theirs when they do. When they do not, this covers what verification forms typically ask for:

CRNA Shadowing Verification

Observer name: ______________________ RN license #: ______________

Facility: ______________________________________________

Date(s) of observation: _________________________________

Total hours: _______ Setting(s): _______________________

Types of anesthesia observed (circle): general / regional / MAC / spinal / epidural / other

I confirm that the above individual observed my clinical practice on the dates and for the hours listed.

Supervising CRNA name: ________________________________

Credentials and license #: _____________________________

Signature: ____________________________ Date: __________

Contact (email or phone): ______________________________

Print two copies and get both signed on the day. Chasing a signature from a CRNA you met once, four months ago, is a specific kind of awkward.

How Many Shadowing Hours Do You Actually Need?

Programs that require shadowing usually ask for somewhere between 8 and 40 hours, and a surprising number just say "documented shadowing experience" without a number at all.

Here's the thing. Hours are the floor, not the point. Sixteen hours across a main OR, an outpatient center, and an OB floor teaches you more, and interviews better, than forty hours watching the same three cases in one room.

Because the real question in the interview is never "how many hours did you get." It is "what did you see, and did it change your mind about anything."

Requirements vary by program, so check yours rather than aiming at a number you heard on Reddit. Our free School Database lists shadowing policy for every accredited program.

How Do You Find a CRNA to Shadow?

This is the part everyone gets stuck on, and the answer is less mysterious than it feels.

• Start in your own hospital. Anesthesia comes to your unit for intubations, lines, and rapid responses. Ask the CRNA who just tubed your patient. Say you are applying and ask who arranges observation days.
• Go through the OR education coordinator rather than cold-emailing. They handle the paperwork and know who says yes.
• Your state anesthetist association, reachable through the AANA state directory. Most have a members list and many CRNAs are genuinely happy to host.
• Outpatient surgery centers get asked far less than hospitals, so your odds are better and the pace is easier to follow as a beginner.

Expect paperwork. Most facilities want an observer agreement, proof of immunizations, and sometimes a background check. Start four to six weeks before you want to be in a room.

If you are stuck on the asking part, this post on non-traditional paths to shadowing covers what to do when your hospital has no anesthesia department to speak of.

What Should You Do While You Are In There?

Stand where they tell you. Do not touch anything. Ask questions between cases, not during induction.

And bring actual questions. We have a list of the ones worth asking, but the best ones come from watching. Why that drug for that patient. Why they used a laryngeal mask instead of a tube. What they were watching on the monitor right before they adjusted something.

Write it down in the parking lot afterward. Not that night, not tomorrow. The parking lot, while you still remember what surprised you.

Our Final Thoughts

Shadowing is one of the few parts of this application you fully control. No GPA to fix, no exam to retake, no waiting on someone else's letter. You email a coordinator, you fill out the paperwork, you show up.

And it is the part that answers the question every interview eventually asks, which is whether you actually know what you are signing up for. Log it properly the first time so that six months from now, you are writing about what you saw instead of trying to remember when you saw it.