Caring and Parentgiving.

I've mentioned before that I come from a clan of teachers and nurses. While the teachers in our family specialize mostly in one field, which is elementary education, the nurses on the other hand, have different specializations.

There's Mum, who is a Cardiology Nurse at the Royal Free Hospital in London. My favorite uncle, now based in Arizona, is a Dialysis Nurse, whose wife is a Navy Nurse. Two of my cousins, meanwhile, are well on their way to become Pathology Nurses. And then there's my Aunt (Mum's one and only sister), a Geriatrics Nurse who specializes in the care of the elderly.

Before moving to London, my Aunt's first overseas job was at a nursing home in California, where her work is no different from the in-home care provided by ParentGiving.com. Her clinical duties revolved around the physical and mental care of elderly patients. Typical responsibilities of this job include performance of routine and prescribed tests, administering of prescribed medication, and organization of patient records. As a geriatrics nurse, she is also responsible for the general care of her patients, which include feeding, bathing, and cleaning patients - even changing their adult plastic pants and cloth diapers.

Being a nurse sure is a challenge, all the more because you deal with the health and well-being of another person. It's amazing how much nurses and health care providers can do to help save lives, whereas as I can't even stand the sight of blood. So don't be surprised if I didn't follow the footsteps of my Mum and my other relatives. I might not even make it to Clinical Practice year if I did.