So Leatrice asked me what ever happened to my thoughts about becoming a nurse practitioner? Well going along with my blog on decision-making, I realized that nurse practitioners do what they do in order to have more "autonomy". I don't want more autonomy, because making decisions is not my forte. And I'd have to make major decisions all day long about the health and course of treatment of my patients. That burden would be too much for me. I much prefer implementing the orders rather than creating them.
It's funny though. Last night I worked and I had two patients "go south" on me for a little while. In other words, they weren't doing very well and things were touchy as to whether they would stabilize or become critical and have to transfer to the ICU. One stabilized, fortunately, and the other was still in limbo as I was getting off shift. It was a very stressful shift for me, but it wasn't so terrible that I was longing to leave this job for L&D. I was happy doing what I was doing. As always it was good to get through the night knowing I had done the best I could to care for my patients. Times like these make it seem like the career change to L&D might be more hassle than it's worth since I'm mostly satisfied right now. BUT, I still think I'd be settling to stay. And it's risky to take that leap but unless red flags appear, I'm going to stick with my decision.
2 comments:
You know, I always thought that medicine would be something that I wouldn't mind doing. A lot of benefits in terms of helping people. I haven't really given it too much though in terms of the critical care element. When my choices affect whether some gets critically worse or not, well, I think I can better understand why you would be worried.
Hang in there. I haven't been fortunate enough to get to know you well, but I have a feeling that being in your care is a very good thing. :)
Thanks Esteban!
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