There was a thread posted a little while back asking about how your recipient's life has changed post transplant. I also wanted to include something for donors. I donated a little over 3 1/2 years ago to my brother. The donation experience had a lot of ups and downs and I felt could be somewhat improved. This forum helped me deal with a lot of the emotional issues that face some family donors. About a year after donation surgery I decided to explore the possibilities of expanding on my health career as a sonographer and decided to return to school and pursue a career in nursing. I did all my pre requisites over the past 2 1/2 years and was accepted to the University of Maryland School of Nursing, CNL or Clinical Nurse Leadership Masters in Science. I will begin the full time program on Aug 22, 2011 and hope to graduate in 2013.
The School of Nursing describes the goals of the CNL program as follows.The CNL is a new program to help improve the quality of patient care and prepare nurses to thrive in the current and future health care system. The CNL puts evidence-based practice into action to ensure that patients benefit from the latest care innovations. The CNL collects and evaluates patient outcomes, assesses cohort risk, and has the decision-making authority to change care plans when necessary. The CNL functions as part of an interdisciplinary team by communicating, planning, and implementing care directly with other health care professionals, including physicians, pharmacists, social workers, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners.
I look forward to using both my personal experience as a living kidney donor together with the new skills I will be learning to help make a difference in transplant medicine. I hope to advocate for all patients whether they be recipients, donors, donor families or any patient and their family facing a medical crisis.
A big thank you to all of you who have helped me take this step and most of all, thank you to my husband and children who are all sacrificing a little bit (ok a lot)to help me fulfill my new dreams.
Sherri