Clinical Shadowing Reflection

Over the last few years, I shadowed a Primary Care Adult Nurse Practitioner whose office is located in the underserved urban area of Irvington, NJ. She also takes care of patients from the surrounding areas of Irvington, Newark, and East Orange, all of which have very large underserved populations including African Americans, Latinos, and patients from the Middle East. During my clinical shadowing, I gained a appreciation for the complexity of treating long term chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, HIV, and hypertension. In many cases these conditions were exacerbated due to poor nutrition, non-compliance, and lack of education about healthy lifestyle choices. I gained a keen understanding of the importance of patient education and the ability to connect patients with community services to help them with their economic and social challenges.

In this role I served as a mentor and engaged in reading activities in urban school systems with minority students. This experience taught me the importance of role models in these communities in order to motivate students to achieve higher goals than they might have thought