| The purpose of the dissertation is to both gather and create stories from and about the nurses, physicians, support staff and administrators who work with HIV/AIDS patients at Raritan Bay Medical Center. When these gathered medical narratives and personal stories are put together they portray the true, whole experience of working with HIV/AIDS patients. The focus of this project is not HIV/AIDS itself, but the experiences of those who care for its victims.; In addition, the interpretation of the medical narrative in a clinical setting often depends upon determining what the patient does not disclose to the physician. It is in these “silences” that the creation of the story takes place. By using the ideas, themes and simple phrases or comments that are conveyed in an interview, I hope I have created the stories behind what is not told to the listener.; One of the reasons this project seemed necessary is to counter the lack of recent narrative literature regarding AIDS patient care. So many of the statements regarding the progression of the epidemic, the change in patient population, the realization and failures of medical goals have come true. But, very little has been written about what that means for the healthcare profession and its role twenty years into the epidemic. This project will preserve the oral and written history of the EIP unit at RBMC. In twenty years, perhaps we will find that these concepts are once again outdated, but because they have been written down, the individuals and society as a whole is free to move on and create new stories and share new ideas and concepts about healthcare professionals.; Encompassing the entire project is an analysis of the process involved in gathering the narratives and recording them. The multiple levels of narration and the influence of time reflect the same issues in the medical encounter. The parallels between literature and medicine ultimately reflect the art of both. |
