The Conflict Of Caring

Living through the experience of a serious diagnosis brings to light the effect illness has on the human perspective. From the search for a heart for a dying husband and father to the reality of the death of a loved one, The Conflict of Caring follows the story of one family's struggle to maneuver the healthcare system and their perception of the people within it. The feeling of loss of control during the time of a stressful illness is told through a personal and touching view point that will generate laughter and tears and the feeling of personally "living through" the situation.As the focus moves from sitting next to the hospital bed to standing over it, the loved one-now nurse brings a new light to the healthcare experience. Poignant stories of the fortitude of patients told through the eyes of the nurse demonstrate a vulnerable yet interconnected relationship between them.All the perceptions of being a family member and nurse are now blurred by being the one affected by an illness. As a patient, the author now brings the story full circle and draws from past experiences to eventually become a participant in life instead of a victim of it. The Conflict of Caring focuses on the human side of health care. Talking, listening, understanding and caring are at the root of this relationship, and these basic needs are as important as any medical ones.
About the Author: Growing up in a small town in northern Kentucky, I always loved writing. Many short stories and poems sat quietly in my notebooks at home while life proceeded in an unpredictable way. After my husband was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and had a heart transplant, I went to nursing school to be able to help support my family. The basis of my writing then became clinical situations and research papers while my creative side waited patiently again. After a breast cancer diagnosis, I began to understand all the different perspectives of healthcare situations and how they can affect how we heal; the human side of healthcare so to speak. My desire to write along with the experiences I had faced from all sides of the bed rail then merged together and became a manuscript, "The Conflict of Caring." I currently work as a manager of a cardiovascular step-down unit in a community hospital and have two sons and one granddaughter. I enjoy gardening and exercising but my favorite thing to do is to share my story with others. When we work together to understand the perspective of others, we can begin to heal our healthcare system from the inside out.