Alter-aspiriations...
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 25 April 2007 at 4/25/2007 11:19:00 am.
I guess one good thing about my life is that I definitely found my way (with some stumbles en route, of course) onto the right career path for me... I love the environmental/landscape gig, but I have so many friends who are either frustrated, annoyed, or otherwise confused about what they want to do with their life, that a lot of times I put myself in that make-believe position and wonder about what I would do if I had to do it all over again, or if my current career just vanished into thin air with no warning....
A place like Bots is good for those kind of random ponderings. It's really a place where a middle class white kid like me can be brought down to earth in a big way and think about stuff that would never cross your mind back on "that side".
One field that really intrigues me here, and I've only just realized exists, is the whole concept of end-of-life care. I was reading a local blog written by a Dr., and it really got me interested. I suppose being Ms. Pisces, and knowing my "tendencies", it was only logical that as soon as I heard about this issue, I'd want to know more, so I've been reading like a maniac.
Living in an AIDS-rife, developing, and somewhat informal-health-care society here, a lot of the time patients come to the hospital too late and the clinics/hospitals here have very limited resources here for helping the critically ill. This one doctor had to tell two families in one day that their loved ones were dying. When I was in that hospital up in Kasane back in 2000, I was the only person in the room who wasn't terminal. It really makes you think about how important it is to include end-of-life care as a part of the health profession. People who would do it (specialize in end-of-life care) would basically help practioners, families and patients cope with death in the best possible way for everyone involved. It is inevitable anyway, and as this Dr. was saying, death does not automatically represent a medical failure. In fact, helping a family through the death of a loved one can be one of the most sucessful things someone could do. I just think it's really interesting and I'm sure it's something that wouldn't sound that appealing to a lot of people, but then again it has always seemed to be those "not for everyone" things that I always end up getting interested in.
It made me think a little bit about fostering & adoption. Go figure. So many people I know always give me grief about how supposedly "awful" it would be to foster animals "because you'd get attached and then have to give them away"... which never even occurs to me, actually. Or inter-(particularly impoverished) country adoption, which I'm strangely interested in and everyone is like "but it wouldn't *really* be a product of YOU, your husband's DNA blah blah blah" and all that rubbish. Well, what about end-of-life care? I'm not surprised it's hard to get people interested in considering it as a career, as it's got that "terminal" feel about it. But that's what interests me and makes me wonder if I'd be the type that could approach it with positive motivation and actually make it something that inspires rather than depresses?
I was just thinking, thats all. I DO love my current gig, but I never stop thinking about everything else.
A place like Bots is good for those kind of random ponderings. It's really a place where a middle class white kid like me can be brought down to earth in a big way and think about stuff that would never cross your mind back on "that side".
One field that really intrigues me here, and I've only just realized exists, is the whole concept of end-of-life care. I was reading a local blog written by a Dr., and it really got me interested. I suppose being Ms. Pisces, and knowing my "tendencies", it was only logical that as soon as I heard about this issue, I'd want to know more, so I've been reading like a maniac.
Living in an AIDS-rife, developing, and somewhat informal-health-care society here, a lot of the time patients come to the hospital too late and the clinics/hospitals here have very limited resources here for helping the critically ill. This one doctor had to tell two families in one day that their loved ones were dying. When I was in that hospital up in Kasane back in 2000, I was the only person in the room who wasn't terminal. It really makes you think about how important it is to include end-of-life care as a part of the health profession. People who would do it (specialize in end-of-life care) would basically help practioners, families and patients cope with death in the best possible way for everyone involved. It is inevitable anyway, and as this Dr. was saying, death does not automatically represent a medical failure. In fact, helping a family through the death of a loved one can be one of the most sucessful things someone could do. I just think it's really interesting and I'm sure it's something that wouldn't sound that appealing to a lot of people, but then again it has always seemed to be those "not for everyone" things that I always end up getting interested in.
It made me think a little bit about fostering & adoption. Go figure. So many people I know always give me grief about how supposedly "awful" it would be to foster animals "because you'd get attached and then have to give them away"... which never even occurs to me, actually. Or inter-(particularly impoverished) country adoption, which I'm strangely interested in and everyone is like "but it wouldn't *really* be a product of YOU, your husband's DNA blah blah blah" and all that rubbish. Well, what about end-of-life care? I'm not surprised it's hard to get people interested in considering it as a career, as it's got that "terminal" feel about it. But that's what interests me and makes me wonder if I'd be the type that could approach it with positive motivation and actually make it something that inspires rather than depresses?
I was just thinking, thats all. I DO love my current gig, but I never stop thinking about everything else.
0 Responses to “Alter-aspiriations...”
Post a Comment