Shadow Me Next!

Want a front-row seat to the human side of sexual health and urology? We sit down with Dr. Stephanie “Dr. Z” Zwonitzer, a urology and sexual health nurse practitioner, to explore how candor, education, and empathy turn the most awkward appointments into moments of relief and real progress. From the first conversation to the follow-up high five, Dr. Z shows how evidence-based care—and a little humor—can rebuild confidence, intimacy, and connection.

We trace her path from ICU nurse to doctor of nursing practice and unpack the decision to move from carrying out orders to understanding the why behind them. Along the way, we widen the lens on what urology actually covers: erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, low testosterone, prostate care and BPH, overactive bladder, recurrent UTIs, Peyronie’s disease, pelvic pain, and the genitourinary syndrome of menopause. Dr. Z explains how she tailors treatment across ages and goals, collaborating with surgeons on implants and reconstructive options while championing lifestyle, relationship dynamics, and mental health as part of the plan.

You’ll hear pragmatic strategies for making vulnerable topics feel safe, managing time in a high-volume clinic without losing the human touch, and navigating patient research from Google to AI with respect and clarity. We talk wins that matter—finishing a hike without scouting for bathrooms, restoring erections after years of frustration, and replacing shame with knowledge. Plus, a student-focused segment on tough interview questions and why owning mistakes builds trust and resilience.

If you care about sexual wellness, urology, and whole-person care, this conversation delivers practical insights and a refreshing dose of honesty. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to tell us what sexual health myth you want us to tackle next.

To learn more about Dr. Z: 

Podcast: Between the Sheets

Website: betweenthesheetswithdrz.com

Instagram: @betweenthesheetswithdrz

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Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

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Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

The most powerful moments in medicine often unfold after the diagnosis, in the quiet where plans are made and hope is rebuilt. Join us as we sit down with Dr. Kristen Cain, a physician who is double board certified in OBGYN and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. She traces a winding path from a mismatched residency to a specialty that blends precise science with unmatched patient care. 

We walk through how Dr. Cain leads two clinics while keeping patient education clear and compassionate, from first consults to delivering hard news and reframing the next step. She takes us inside the embryology lab, spotlighting the skilled scientists whose fine motor control and calm focus power modern fertility breakthroughs like preimplantation genetic testing and embryo assessment. 

One powerful moment of this conversation is a simple idea: do only what only you can do, and get help for the rest. Dr. Cain shares how she merged medicine and motherhood by auditing tasks, delegating strategically, and setting boundaries that protect energy for work that matters and family that needs her. She also offers concrete guidance on negotiating job terms early, building supportive teams at home and in clinic, and saying yes with intention.

To learn more about Dr. Cain, connect with her at: 

Website: www.drkristencain.com (Check out her free guide!!)

Instagram: @drkcain

LinkedIn: Kristen Cain MD

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Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

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Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

What if the most important part of your hospital stay happens after you leave? We sit down with a seasoned hospitalist who treats complex conditions on the floor and still argues that health is mostly made at home, at work, and in the community. From refeeding syndrome and new-onset renal failure to the familiar rhythms of CHF and COPD, she shows how the real challenge isn’t just diagnosing accurately, it’s designing a plan that survives insurance hurdles, pharmacy costs, transportation gaps, and the realities of daily life.

We'll step inside the team-based engine of inpatient care: bedside nurses who catch subtle changes, therapists who prevent setbacks with the right equipment and diet choices, and case managers who translate a great medical plan into something you can actually access. We talk plainly about burnout, the limits of what a prescription can fix, and why a policy lens helped convert her frustration into a Harvard degree.

Her career path wasn’t straight. She moved from neuroscience to psychiatry to internal medicine, rejected the ICU after listening to her body’s signals, and found a home in hospital medicine. That honesty becomes practical guidance for students: keep moving forward, define today’s answer, and trust resilience over perfection. We also spotlight her book, Prescription For Admission, a patient-first guide to navigating hospital stays, asking better questions, and preparing for a safe return home.

Finally, we tackle the chaos of health advice on social media. Learn how to decide who deserves your trust, what evidence literacy looks like, and how to align sources with your values without falling for trends. If you care about safer discharges, smarter care plans, and credible information in a noisy world, this conversation will change how you think about the hospital and about health itself. 

To connect with Dr. Monique Nugent: 

LinkedIn: moniquenugent-mdmph/

Instagram: the_happiest_hospitalist

TikTok: Mnugent-happiesthospitalist

Amazon: Prescription for Admission

Podcast: Prescription for Admission

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

A surgeon stands at a national podium, defends operating on children with severe obesity, and gets asked how he sleeps at night. Two decades later, he’s helped shape national guidelines and is building new ways for families to access care. That is what defines our candid conversation with Dr. Evan Nadler, a pioneer in pediatric bariatric surgery and a person who refuses to accept shame as a treatment plan.

We unpack how a field many didn’t know existed emerged from careful trials, relentless follow-up, and tough conversations with colleagues and parents. Dr. Nadler explains why “eat less, move more” is not a strategy but a slogan, how weight and health are not perfectly linked, and what it means to treat childhood obesity as a chronic disease with individualized options: lifestyle support, medications when appropriate, and surgery for the right patients. He shares the moment he paused a thriving surgical career to write a book, launch a telemedicine program, and scale advocacy for the 15 million children who need help now.

Access is the theme  of this story. Long waitlists and long drives leave families stranded, but a remote-first pediatric weight management model lowers barriers and personalizes care. We also talk about age cutoffs, why arbitrary numbers don’t belong in disease treatment, and how clinicians across different specialties can speak about weight with precision and compassion. Dr. Nadler is building training modules for advanced practice providers to close education gaps and equip more teams to act.

This episode is for you if you’ve ever wondered how medicine changes when data meets conviction. 

To connect with Dr. Evan Nadler, please visit: 

YouTube: @ obesityexplained

LinkedIn: Evan Nadler, MD, MBA

Instagram: @obesity_explained

www.obesityexplained.com 

[email protected]

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

What does it take to run toward chaos and know you will like the result? We sit down with Dr. Josh McConkey, an emergency physician, Air Force Reserve commander, and combat veteran, for a candid tour of the ER and the deeper forces that sustain a life in medicine. From managing codes to navigating the “bread and butter” of primary care concerns that flood emergency departments, Dr. McConkey explains how humility, teamwork, and a calm mind matter most.

We dig into his “Weight Behind the Spear” philosophy. It's an ethos born from years with special operations teams and grounded in a simple truth: great performers are built by great communities. Teachers, coaches, mentors, neighbors are the people who shape the leaders we count on when it matters most. Josh shares how volunteering, coaching youth sports, and serving face-to-face are not résumé fluff but the fastest route to real resilience, communication skills, and interview-ready stories that stand out beyond grades. He offers practical advice for pre-health students and clinicians on building confidence under pressure, seeking discomfort on purpose, and finding purpose that lasts.

To connect with Dr. Josh McConkey, find him at any of the following: 

Instagram: @JoshMcConkeyMD

LinkedIn: Josh McConkey, MD

Websites: joshmcconkeyforamerica.com and joshmcconkey.com

Book: Be The Weight Behind the Spear 

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

What if losing your “secure” job became the moment you claimed real freedom? That’s the turning point we explore with PA Fedna Morensi as she traces a winding path from athletic training and dance dreams to orthopedic surgery and a locum lifestyle that funds her time, not her burnout. We dig into the human side of medicine—identity, resilience, and service—while getting specific about the business decisions schools rarely teach.

Fedna breaks down the mechanics of travel PA work: licensing and credentialing timelines, navigating recruiters, spotting restrictive clauses, and balancing higher pay with responsibility. We compare W‑2 stability to 1099 flexibility in plain language, then go a layer deeper on forming an S‑corp, structuring benefits, and turning gross pay into lasting wealth. The conversation balances numbers with meaning: how rural communities gain access when a clinician shows up, how diverse teams sharpen your clinical toolbox, and why six to nine months of focused work can create the space for rest, learning, and life.

You’ll hear candid stories from multi‑specialty ortho, lessons from contracts that didn’t pan out, and a practical framework for evaluating offers—pay, schedule, call, autonomy, and culture. We talk interview strategy (career is part of you, not all of you), the myth of job security versus the reality of skill security, and a mindset shift that treats financial literacy as patient care insurance. For resources, Fedna shares her site with free guides, a growing “Travel PA Your Way to Wealth” community, and social handles to keep the conversation going.

If you’re a pre‑health student mapping your route or a clinician ready to redesign your work, this is your field guide to locums, contracts, and buying back time with intention. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs this playbook, and leave a review telling us the first freedom you’d buy with better career design.

Follow Fedna on instagram and LinkedIn or check out her website! 

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

What if the most powerful tool in your clinical toolkit isn’t a monitor or a protocol, but a feeling you’ve learned to trust? We sit down with ER nurse Jenn Johnson to follow her unexpected path from failing organic chemistry to thriving in emergency care. She began in a tiny rural hospital where one RN ran the show, then in a major stroke center with full support and faster medicine. Along the way, Jenn exposes the hidden curriculum of healthcare: how culture shapes confidence, why bullying and micromanagement derail good care, and how real resilience starts with better sleep, better boundaries, and saying yes to yourself without guilt.

Jenn opens up about the COVID years, stressed with parenting two small kids while working nights, running on fragments of sleep, and realizing that self-preservation is patient safety. She breaks down the practical side of intuition as high-speed pattern recognition at triage: spotting “sick vs really sick,” acting before vitals crash, and asking the awkward questions that prevent disasters in the waiting room. We explore how stories teach better than lectures, why an extra physician touchpoint improves outcomes even when orders don’t change, and how simple advocacy can convert worry into action.

If you’re a pre-health student, new grad nurse, or seasoned clinician rethinking your limits, you'll benefit from Jenn's directives: choose supportive environments, leverage agency and flexible shifts, and build clinical instincts with mentorship and reps. Jenn's book—Nursing Intuition: How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity, and Survive Your Career—offers an evidence-backed blueprint for making your instincts reliable and your career sustainable. Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague who needs it, and leave a review to help more listeners find these stories and tools. Your gut is talking—ready to listen?

More about Jenn at her website: www.nursejenn.ca

And check out her book: Nursing Intuition: How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity, and Survive Your Career

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

What drives someone to leave a successful career as a Physician Assistant and return to medical school? For Dr. Joanne Amos, it was discovering her true calling in one of medicine's most demanding specialties: the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Dr. Amos takes us behind the scenes of her level three NICU, where she cares for babies as young as 22 weeks gestation. Her vivid descriptions bring to life both the technical challenges (placing catheters "the width of a spaghetti noodle" in babies who sometimes weigh less than a pound) and the profound emotional landscape of working with families experiencing their worst nightmares. The balance she strikes between adrenaline-fueled medicine and deep compassion offers a masterclass in what makes a truly exceptional physician.

Her unconventional path from PA school to medical school truly took off after she discovered her passion for neonatal intensive care. This journey gives Dr. Amos unique perspective on the differences between PA and physician education, addressing common misconceptions and offering invaluable guidance for students navigating their own healthcare career decisions.

Beyond clinical expertise, Dr. Amos discusses the realities of NICU schedules, the challenges facing PAs seeking leadership positions, and how her perspective as both a physician and parent influences her practice. Her story reminds us that finding your place in medicine sometimes means taking the road less traveled and that the courage to change course can lead to our most meaningful work.

Follow Dr. Amos on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube to learn more about her journey and gain insights into the world of neonatal medicine. Her story will inspire anyone considering a career in healthcare to pursue the path that allows them to make their greatest contribution, regardless of conventional wisdom.

Instagram: @pa.c_to_doctor 

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

Dr. Kushagra Verma's journey reminds us that finding your calling often happens through unexpected rotations and powerful mentorships rather than childhood dreams.

What makes his approach to spine surgery truly distinctive is the blend of technical excellence with deep humanity. Dr. Verma describes his complex surgical work as an intricate three-dimensional puzzle that draws on his engineering background. Yet beyond the operating room, he's built a practice that prioritizes patient education, using 65-inch TVs to explain conditions and giving surgical patients his personal cell phone number to ease anxiety. This combination of technical precision and compassionate communication transforms lives affected by spine problems that can create "the same disability scores as people with terminal cancer."

Perhaps most remarkable is how Dr. Verma has structured his practice to reflect his values. He intentionally hires pre-health students aspiring to medicine and PA school, providing them with mentorship while simultaneously expanding access to care. His yearly medical missions to Africa to perform free scoliosis surgeries is "the best thing that I do," funded by the success of his private practice. Through candid discussion of both clinical and administrative challenges, Dr. Verma offers a blueprint for creating a sustainable medical career that resists burnout through purpose and meaningful relationships.

Ready to hear more inspiring stories from healthcare leaders who've found their unique path? Subscribe to Shadow Me Next for conversations that go beyond the surface and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @shadowmenext for highlights and previews of upcoming guests.

To learn more about Dr. Verma and his office: 

Instagram: @ascmd

Website: advanedspinecare.com

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.  

What happens when a medical provider becomes the patient? Kelly Tuttle's journey shows us how personal experience can transform professional practice and create unique connections with patients.

Kelly spent two decades as a cardiology nurse practitioner before a car accident resulting in a traumatic brain injury (TBI) completely altered her career trajectory. Rather than stepping away from medicine, she channeled her recovery experience into becoming a neurology specialist. The transition wasn't simple, it required two years of intensive self-education, seminars, CME courses, and eventually, a training position where she could develop expertise in conditions like Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy.

What makes Kelly's story remarkable isn't just her resilience but the unique perspective she brought to patient care. While keeping her own TBI history private, she used her firsthand knowledge of cognitive impairments, sound sensitivity, and neuro fatigue to provide uniquely compassionate and practical care. "My favorite part was helping them cope with that, because that was like my bag of tricks that I could share with them," Kelly explains. Her patients would often respond with surprise: "You're the first provider who understands me, who gets it."

This personal experience led Kelly to create valuable resources for others, including her book "After the Crash: How to Keep Your Job, Stay in School, and Live Life After a Brain Injury" and "My Brain Injury Recovery Journal." She advocates for journaling as a powerful recovery tool that promotes neuroplasticity, helps track symptoms and progress, and provides tangible evidence of improvement during difficult days. For students facing setbacks in their own journey, Kelly offers wisdom from her experience: "Don't let a bump in the road be a mountain and there's always a way around."

Whether you're a healthcare professional, a student facing challenges, or someone supporting a loved one through recovery, Kelly's story reminds us that our greatest challenges often become our greatest opportunities to connect with and serve others. Visit kellytuttle.org to learn more about her resources and ongoing work.

Support the show

Please connect and say hello >>> Email me!              

Support shadow me next >>> Thank you!

Want to be a guest? >>>  Click here!

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. Whether as a doctor, a physician assistant, a therapist or nurse, here Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and understand your place in medicine.