I'm not a nurse yet, but as long as I pass this last semester I will have my ADN in December and be ready to sit for boards. Only 11 weeks left!
I was dx'd with a brain tumor in 2002. Anaplastic Astrocytoma grade III, had surgery and chemo and went through a lot to be as cognitive and able as I am at this date. In May of this year I had a regular MRI and ever since have been dealing with a recurrence and am currently doing chemo and holding off on surgery until I get out of school. My biggest problem right now is nausea during chemo week, fatigue *all the time* (but who isn't fatigued from nursing school?!), and I have noticed that my word finding ability is starting to deteriorate again along with some short-term memory problems.
I've been to this date an A student. Yet, this semester I'm finding it harder and harder to concentrate on studies and have been getting B's on my tests. In clinical I am able to hold it pretty well together aside from chemo week when I'm just washed out, yet I still do what I have to do and no one has really commented on a decline in clinical skills. The chair of the program knows what I am going through along with my three best buddies in the program, and my clinical instructor. My clinical instructor had graded me for three weeks before I told her about my issues (and I wouldn't have told her aside from the fact I was having a super bad day and was in the bathroom a lot) so I feel that her assessment of saying that clinically I was very competent and able to do the job was sincere.
I guess my question is this: is it possible to be a good nurse in critical care (what I really want) if I have cognitive deficits? I am aware of these deficits and have found ways around them and I know that you don't have to tell your employer about any disability unless it affects your ability to do the job (right?) yet my biggest fear is that I hurt someone in the process of trying to be in a field that I really want. I don't want to be greedy and I don't want to give anything up that I don't have to.
Who knows perhaps I'll never have to worry about these questions(maybe I'll hit the lottery or something!) but any advice would be greatly appreciated.