I'm Aimee Strong. I'm an acute care nurse practitioner in the department of radiology and work in the lung cancer screening program for the Emily Couric Cancer Center. I see patients who are at high risk for lung cancer, and that means that I see them for an office visit to talk about the pros and cons of lung cancer screening based on people's age, smoking history, and other risk
factors for lung cancer. I think the exciting thing with lung cancer screening is it really encompasses what we do as nurse practitioners. We kind of view patients from a very
holistic view and deal with a lot of disease prevention and health promotion, and that's what lung cancer screening is. It's meeting patients who are otherwise fairly healthy, but at high risk for lung cancer and trying to intervene in their life at a point where we can talk about smoking cessation to improve their overall health and decrease their risk of cancer. So it's really nice as a
provider to be able to take that patient from being so anxious and so nervous about coming in for lung cancer screening, by the end of that visit feeling really good about what they've done. I started out as an associate's degree nurse at age 22 and over the last 25 years have really just continued my education, getting my bachelor's and master's and then doctorate degree. And I think it's just a nonstop love of learning. And being somewhere like at UVA, you're constantly exposed to new learning opportunities, lectures by cutting-edge researchers from around the world. So it's a great experience here and a great ability here to continue to learn every day.