Khadija Sesay knows what it’s like to spend a long day thinking about blood pressure, medications, vital signs and everything else that comes with nursing school.
But this summer, the South Philadelphia native got a lesson that doesn’t always show up in a textbook. She learned that sometimes you have to put the medical chart aside and find out what’s really going on with the person sitting in front of you.
Sesay, a junior nursing major at Neumann University, was one of 21 students selected for the Independence Blue Cross Foundation’s Nursing Internship Program. She spent 10 weeks at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, working in primary care, getting a look at a side of nursing that is different from the hospital clinical that has become part of her regular routine.
It turned out to be exactly the experience she was looking for.
Sesay worked 37.5 hours a week at $20 an hour under the supervision of a professional nurse. Much of her time was spent working on a hypertension prevention program, where she made outreach calls, recorded patients’ vital signs, discussed medication side effects and helped patients find ways to manage high blood pressure.
She also got plenty of practical experience.
“I also got experience with electronic health records, took a deep dive into the outpatient database and became familiar with a lot of medications that we learned about in class,” Sesay said.
She even conducted her own study, looking at 30 patients from 45 to 65 years old to measure the effectiveness of hypertension prevention strategies. She presented her findings Aug. 6 at an IBX recognition ceremony.
But for Sesay, the most important part of the summer wasn’t a spreadsheet, a medical record or a research poster. It was getting to know people.
Primary care gave her more time to talk with patients than she typically has during clinical rotations, where nurses can be caring for several people at once.
That one-on-one interaction made a difference.
“Primary care is super important,” she said. “The internship showed me how to build relationships with patients and how important trust is. It gave me the confidence to talk to patients like they’re actual people we sit with on the bus or meet at the grocery store.”
One patient conversation especially stuck with her.
Sesay and another nurse were talking with a woman who had high blood pressure when the woman revealed that she was about to lose her home.
The nurses realized the housing crisis was a major source of stress for the woman and shifted gears. They advocated for her and eventually connected her with an agency that could provide assistance.
“This internship influenced me as a nursing student because it made me realize that I don’t want to care for patients just when they’re experiencing a health crisis,” she said. “I want to intervene earlier, and this summer gave me a chance to see what my future as a nurse might look like.”
That’s the idea behind the IBX Foundation’s internship program, which is designed to give undergraduate nursing students a chance to explore roles outside the traditional hospital setting.
For Sesay, it also offered a glimpse at the kind of nurse she wants to be.
“It’s really important for students to see all aspects of nursing and to assess the patient as more than just the condition,” she said. ••
