A recent illness and death in our family is one of the reasons I have chose to go into the nursing field. I know what I *want* to do, but I'm not exactly sure what area this would fall into. Here's an example:
When the immediate family was faced w/ doctors, getting updates on patient condition (especially since this was so touch and go all the time), it seemed every time we turned around, the doctors were saying, "we don't know.. we don't have all the information yet...". In those moments when talking to the doctor, I know that all the family really wants to hear is "he'll be okay", and the many questions usually don't come until AFTER the doctor has left. I know that our family would have a ton of questions about possibilities of different things, but all the nurses would say about it was, "you'll have to talk to the doctor when he returns tomorrow".. well, by tomorrow, there was a whole new set of questions, or we were getting other information and just trying to absorb that and nobody ever asked the questions. This left me to come home at night, and log on to the WWW and try my best to find information. And, lo and behold, I did find that information.. and by printing it out, and highlighting the areas in question, we were able to start asking and getting answers to questions. One of these questions was, "How on earth could this person have been misdiagnosed for so long when the s/s should have been so obvious? Of course, to that question, we'll never have the answer.. he's gone. But, by nursing, and researching the illness and finding the information for families that gives them a foundation for their questions, I feel like I can do *something* in his memory.. perhaps if I had felt this way a few years ago, he'd still be here... but I doubt it.. it was his time, and I know this..
Anyway.. can anyone give me any idea of what kind of position this is/would be? As much as I would love the hands on of working w/patients, I would so much also love the ability to be there for the families and give them the information that they so desparately need, but oftentimes are not getting b/c of the fear/shock of being in a critical care area and trying to keep faith that their loved one will be okay...
