Joey Wahler (Host): Today we're getting to know
Certified Family Nurse Practitioner Kafila Jaipuri, who sees patients for
comprehensive primary care at the Kirby Primary Care practice in East Memphis.

 This is One-on-One
with Regional One Health, your inside look at how we're building healthier
tomorrows for our patients and our community. Join us as we get to know some of
the individuals who help provide life-saving, life-changing care for our
community. Thanks for listening. I'm Joey Wahler. Hi Kafila. Thanks for joining
us.

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: Thank you for
having me today.

Host: Great to have you. So first, where are you from
originally and what would you say most inspired you to go into the medical
field in the first place?

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: So I'm basically
from India and I always wanted to be a part of healthcare industry. I wanted to
be in medical field since I was a teenager. And that's how I started my career,
to start with as a foods and nutrition specialist. Specifically, I was a
dietician, but after getting married and coming to USA, I was exploring my
options in my field here in USA and that's when I came across the healthcare
profession.

Later I got my degrees from India credentialed here, and was
able to pursue an accelerated one year BSN program. When I started working my
first job in a primary care setting as a nurse, I saw how the you know, the
patients develop a relationship with their doctors here over time and they
start considering them their protectors, their whole and soul caretakers. Their
answers to any and every healthcare needs and how that bond helps the doctor
themselves to take care of the patients. So that relationship and the bonding
that I saw is what inspired me to become a primary care doctor and take care of
the individuals holistically and channel them to right direction as needed.

And that's where I've further enhanced my career into
becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner.

Host: Great. Now I'm going to ask you about that
background that you mentioned in diet and nutrition again in a moment. But
first, let me pick up on what you just mentioned about that relationship, that
bond between patient and medical professional. Why is that so important to both
parties do you think?

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: The thing is like,
you know, it's the primary care doctor basically has to develop that bond and
that relationship with their patients for healthy relationship and the
communication and the conflict resolution skills, these are very important for
the betterment of their health overall.

Developing that strong bond with the patient also helps the doctors,
the NPs, the PAs to develop better understanding and awareness of the
healthcare needs of the individual. And it's not only, you know, the patient's
primary care provider who can help, it's, it's basically them who can help them
provide and understand how to navigate the complex healthcare system,
understanding their insurances, their referral processes, and all those stuff.

Host: Great point. There's a lot of other things
connected to the actual visit to the office, of course, that go along with the
experience for both doctor and patient. For instance, what services overall
would you say you provide doing primary care? Because obviously it's kind of a
mixed bag of a little bit of everything.

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: Right. It's, it's
a, it's a multiple things that we take care of as being a primary care doctor,
like, you know, as the name itself says primary care provider. We establish
care and provide the initial, the primary care to the males and females of
every age of life. We provide them with the tips of maintaining the overall
healthy lifestyle. To prevent the illnesses, we counsel them about the
importance of the preventive care for an optimal health.

If we see, like from the beginning of the childhood, we
provide preventive care to the pediatric population, making the parents aware
of the recommended childhood immunizations and the common childhood illnesses,
educating those people, these parents about the developmental changes and the
challenges to expect as they grow into an adolescence, understanding and
addressing their mental health conditions, their substance abuse concerns, and
all those things. We provide insight into men's and women's health to make them
aware of the routine screening tests, the preventive care recommended for their
age.

Like the regular pap smears, breast exams, mammograms,
prostate checks, colon cancer screenings, and many other screening tests. It is
through these primary care screening tests that we conduct at this, at a
primary care level that is a PCP, that we can catch any cancers or any chronic
diseases in an early stage and refer them to an appropriate team and get them
started on the treatment in a timely manner. We kind of provide them all kind
of immunizations that are recommended for their age to prevent and to manage
infectious diseases like flu, pneumonia, shingles, tetanus, hepatitis, and many
more other infectious diseases.

An important aspect of this age group is also to create
awareness of the importance of sexual health and the safety to avoid the
sexually transmitted diseases. Moving forward, I would say we help the
geriatric patients to age gracefully, preventing and managing the age related
health issues, so that we can minimize their hospitalizations.

We also provide them comprehensive Medicare wellness
physicals, which are required by the insurances. We help them set up with the
home health and the other required facilities so that we will be able to help
them to get their regular healthcare needs as they're aging. We manage chronic
conditions with medications, with lifestyle changes.

We try to do timely lab work, diagnostics, make sure the
patients are getting their refills on their medications, they're being
compliant with their medicines, making sure that they're referred to the specialist
when needed, and they're following with them. Going forward, we talk to the
patients regarding this, this is one of the very important aspect that I would
talk about is their mental health and wellness. Understanding and managing
stress, anxiety, depression, abuse, mood disorders, sleep disorders, and many
other mental health issues. Providing them the different treatment modalities,
medications, therapy, counseling, and then trying to refer them to the
psychiatrist in a timely manner to prevent suicides, which we know is a very
highly prevalent in our society due to lack of the mental health care on time.

Host: So you're really covering just about every base
there is there. probably would have been easier for you to list what you're not
responsible for as opposed to what you are on a daily basis. Right. Let me ask
you this, so when patients come to you, as you just touched on a moment ago.

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: Mm-hmm.

Host: You and those you work with not only provide
your own care, but you mentioned you do referrals. How important is it that if
you're going to a primary care physician over a period of time, and there is
that relationship that you've discussed, you then can provide references so
that if they need specialists, they know they can trust you to make those
recommendations?

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: Yes. So, regarding
the reference, it's a very important part of the primary care because the
primary care initiates the care, initiates something, and when we make a
diagnosis, we start them on the treatment. But then we want to make sure that
there are no complications going on along with those chronic diseases.

Say if they have diabetes, we can start them initially on
the treatment, but then we want to make them sure that, you know, they follow
with the endocrinologist. So that, you know, if their diabetes get out of
control or the diabetes is affecting their heart, or they're affecting their
kidneys and all those things, then they need the appointment with the referral
to those specialists so that they can be taken care of from the holistic point
of view and not just, you know, from a single point of view of a primary care
doctor.

But then the patients start seeing a different specialist so
that every aspect of healthcare is taken care of.

Host: Gotcha. Let me switch gears for a moment. You
mentioned you're from India originally. I know you have a family. Can you tell
us a little bit about your family and your life outside of work, what do you
and your family like to do so you can unwind when you're away from work?

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: So, I'm a very
social person and I, I'm always busy with lots of family and friends gathering
over the weekends. I like running and I involve myself in various half
marathons, 10K races throughout the year. I like doing interior designing for
my house, so I'm always, I have a project in my mind that I'm working on. And I
also am very busy with my 11 year old daughter's, like various activities that
she engages herself in, mainly her like volleyball tournaments, classical
dances, and the Bollywood dances.

Host: So you mentioned earlier as well, that you've
got this background in diet and nutrition. How beneficial is that since, as we
all know, so many health problems are in fact caused by people not eating right
and not getting the right amount of nutrients? Right.

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: So that is one of
my major, I would say counseling that I provide to all my patients when I see
my patients, all my chronic patients, especially like diabetes, high blood
pressure, high cholesterol, all those patients; if you provide insight into the
nutrition, the healthy diet, and create awareness of how the diet can be a key
factor in managing the chronic conditions, I have surprisingly noticed that
when patients are educated regarding those healthy eating habits and they
really understand that the health from the diet point of view, the patients
have started seeing that how they can better manage their chronic conditions
and they really appreciate me counseling them regarding their diet which not I,
I'm not sure which all the providers can do it to that extent than what I can
because of my background being a dietician. And definitely I have seen my
patients love to follow my guidelines and that has helped them in taking care
of their chronic illnesses in a better way, along with the medications, the
treatments they're already taking.

Host: Yeah, that sounds great. Let me ask you,
finally, in summary here, what would you say is the most rewarding thing about
the work that you do? What are you most proud of on a daily basis?

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: The most rewarding
about any PCP would be the satisfaction that you would get from your patients
when they have achieved a desired goal. Say whether it is in achieving a
hemoglobin A1C of less than seven, whether it's a blood pressure management and
achieving the goal of less than 130 over 80.

Making them understand the importance of treatment, making
them compliant with the treatment, making them help them, you know, lose weight
with diet, lifestyle changes, exercise, whatever it takes to help them lose weight.
Able to provide them regular screening tests, able to channel them to the right
direction.

Keeping them out of the ER, keeping them out of the when you
see that patient have achieved those goals that are most rewarding. And
reassuring to ourselves as a provider when the patient comes and appreciates us
and thanks us for the care we provide.

Host: And you can even mix in a little advice every
now and then on running an interior design as well, right.

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: That's true. Yes,
you can add that too.

Host: Jack of all trades, as we mentioned earlier in
our chat. Well, folks, you've now gotten to know Family Nurse Practitioner,
Kafila Jaipuri. Kafila, thanks so much again.

Kafila Jaipuri RN, MSN, CFNP, APN: Thank you for
having me today.

Host: Great to have you. Great to meet you. And
again, Kafila sees patients for annual exams, treatment of illness, and chronic
conditions, and other needs, as she mentioned at Kirby Primary Care in East
Memphis.

For an appointment, please call 901-515-5350. Again,
901-515-5350. Now, if you found this podcast helpful, please do share it on
your social media. And thanks for making One-on-One with Regional One Health,
part of your journey to better health. Join us next time as we introduce you to
another member of the Regional One Health Family. Hoping your health is good
health. I'm Joey Wahler.