To the Editor: Despite approximately 8000 child and adolescent psychiatrists in the USA, the number may meet only 30% of the country’s pediatric mental health needs by 2020 [1, 2]. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has employed various strategies to address this issue without much success [1]. One possible approach is to expose students to the child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) field early in their education. Here, we provide a description of a structured CAP shadowing program offered to Johns Hopkins University (JHU) undergraduate students interested in attending medical school and assessed the short-term impact that this program had on their career interests.

A year-long medical practicum is offered through the JHU Pre-Professional Advising Office [3]. Students apply to the practicum and match with physicians at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI), in Baltimore, MD, based on their interest and feasibility. Students complete all relevant trainings and other requirements prior to enrollment. The practicum is structured to allow 60–80 contact hours per semester, and the students receive up to 2 pass/fail credits upon completion of the practicum. One of the authors founded and established a CAP medical practicum in 2011 to enable undergraduate students at JHU to shadow and conduct research in developmental child neuropsychiatry at Kennedy Krieger Institute, JHMI. Dr. Budimirovic, a full-time faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, serves as the practicum director. To strengthen this educational experience, he established objectives that upon completion of the practicum, the student will (1) show a working knowledge of how to use the Diagnostic and Statistical