title: From the other side of the curtain: the nurse as patient.
abstract: Anticipatory grief experienced by patients while awaiting a life-threatening medical diagnosis was explored through the personal experience of a nursing faculty member. The patient's emotional journey from diagnostic testing to result-reporting provided a background from which nurses can recognize the value of a support system and caring interventions. Recommendations for nursing faculty members, nurse practitioners, and students of nursing were made to help mitigate the uncertainties patients experience during this critical period.
authors.affiliation: RN-BSN Online Completion Program, Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences, USA.
authors.forename: Loraine P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D002388:Catastrophic Illness / Q000523:psychology; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D035501:Uncertainty; D014481:United States