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 addition to my clinical shadowing, I have been involved in community service work during my college days in the Big Brother Program in Providence, Rhode Island.

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

possible.

As an athlete I not only developed a strong sense of teamwork, but a strong sense of focus on achieving my goals. Athletically speaking, I frequently had to accept defeat and motivate myself to try harder at the next opportunity. I fully expect that health care work with an underserved population with limited resources will often be frustrating but I will use my long term orientation to keep my focus on the goal of providing exceptional primary health care services.

Over the past two years I have been developing my clinical skills as a certified nursing assistant at both a rehabilitation and hospital setting. In this capacity I have seen the difficulties that patients face due to the lack of insurance and poor quality of healthcare which often results in the worsening of chronic conditions.

Finally, I volunteered at two soup kitchens that provided services to homeless and economically disadvantaged residents of the New Brunswick area. As a result of this experience I gained a greater awareness of the social medical and economically challenges faced by the underserved populations of an urban area.