What to Wear, Bring, and Watch on a CRNA Shadow Day

Updated August 2026

Wear clean scrubs in a neutral colour, closed-toe shoes, minimal jewellery, and hair tied back. Bring a pocket notebook, five to ten written questions, snacks, and a silenced phone. Then watch the anesthesia rather than the surgery, across all three phases of the case.

You got the CRNA shadow day scheduled. Now the practical question nobody answers: what do you actually wear, what do you bring, and what should you be watching once you're in the room?

Here's the thing about a shadow day. It's not passive. The applicants who get the most out of it treat it like a clinical rotation, not a tour. And the CRNA you're following may end up writing you a recommendation letter, so first impressions carry further than you'd expect.

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What should you wear to a CRNA shadow day?

Clean, well-fitting scrubs in a neutral color. Many facilities hand you a set when you arrive, but bring your own in case they don't. Skip loud patterns and skip logos from other institutions.

• Closed-toe shoes. Clean sneakers or clogs. Open-toed shoes are not permitted in the OR, full stop.
• Minimal jewelry. Take out dangling earrings, bracelets, and rings. A plain wedding band is fine.
• Hair back. If it touches your shoulders, tie it up. You'll be in a surgical cap anyway.
• Photo ID. Bring your nursing ID if they asked for it, and always carry a government-issued photo ID for check-in.

What should you bring?

Not much. Four things:

• A small notebook and pen. You'll hear drug names, dosing rationales, and clinical reasoning you'll want later. Keep it in your scrub pocket. Don't carry a clipboard or binder into the OR.
• Five to ten questions, written down. Downtime happens, and having questions ready is the difference between a useful conversation and standing there quietly.
• Snacks and water. OR days run long and unpredictable. You may not get a real lunch.
• Your phone on silent, in your pocket. Leave it there unless the CRNA specifically invites you to photograph something educational. Never photograph patients or anything with patient information on it.

What should you watch during a CRNA shadow day?

This is where most people drift. They watch the surgery. You're not there for the surgery, you're there for the anesthesia, and the interesting work happens in three phases.

Before the case

• How does the CRNA work through the chart and history?
• What do they ask the patient in the pre-op interview?
• How do they assess the airway?
• What's the process for setting up the machine and drawing up drugs?

During the case

• What's being used for induction and maintenance, and why those choices for this patient?
• How do they respond when vitals shift?
• What monitors are they watching, and what are the numbers telling them?
• How do they communicate with the surgeon and the rest of the team?

After the case

• How do they manage emergence?
• What does the handoff to PACU actually sound like?
• How do they handle post-op nausea, pain, or an airway problem?

Ask your questions between cases or during quiet stretches, never during induction or emergence. Those are the two moments where the CRNA's full attention is on the patient. If you're not sure whether it's a good time, it isn't.

Does it matter what cases you see?

Less than people think. A day of routine outpatient cases teaches you plenty about how a CRNA works, and you'll see more complete anesthetics start to finish than you would in one long complex case.

What matters more is that you can talk about what you saw. A committee asking about your shadowing experience wants to hear that you understood what was happening and why, not that you watched something rare.

Get your hours signed before you leave

Do this the same day. Chasing a signature from a CRNA you met once, three months later, is a genuinely miserable task, and some programs will not accept undocumented hours at all.

Bring the form with you. Get the date, hours, facility, and the CRNA's signature and credentials before you walk out. Our shadowing log and verification template covers what programs typically want on it.

Our Final Thoughts

Show up in clean scrubs with a notebook and ten questions, watch the anesthesia rather than the surgery, and get your form signed before you leave. That's the whole thing.

And take the notebook seriously. Two years later when an interviewer asks what you observed, the applicants who wrote things down are the ones with a real answer.