Today I shadowed Shannon Clark, a nurse practitioner, at Wake Nephrology. I got to experience a typical day in the life of a nurse practitioner doing nephrology. I got to sit in on check ins with patients and learn the different things Mrs. Clark checks for at each visit. She monitors their weight, diet, potassium levels, phosphorus levels, uric acid, and other things in a patient’s body to help them with their journey with CKD (chronic kidney disease). She showed me the significance of different percentages of creatinine in a patient’s body and how they signal different stages of CKD. When a patient is at the 5 -6% range they are due for dialysis. Dialysis can be administered different ways and at different times of the day. Most people start out doing it in their stomach and at night for 5-6 days a week. However, if you do it in your stomach, you cannot take a bath or swim because of the risk of infection.
It was also cool to see how Mrs. Clark interacted with different doctors and was able to send notes and notify other doctors in other specialities of problems they should look out for with the patient.
Mrs. Clark also let me know that a lot of patients talk to her about all sorts of life-related problems that are not medical related. She said that as patients get older there are less people they can talk to so they enjoy going to see their doctor to chit-chat. She also explained that she enjoys the community feel of her job due to this sort of thing.
Mrs. Clark gave me patient handouts which helped explain some of the things she did and her field of study.
