Series did a service to readers

I RECENTLY experienced the loss of my father from injuries sustained in a house fire. I can say that the article ''The Making of an ICU nurse" accurately reflects the scene and feeling of being on an ICU unit.

I spent two weeks at the Temple University burn unit watching its medical team treat my father. As a mental health clinician, I am no stranger to nurses and other medical professionals. But when you are sitting on the sidelines watching a loved one being treated, you become a part of the patient world.

What is particularly well depicted in this article is the commitment that goes into trying to save a critically injured person's life, and that it is the nurse's charge to handle the moment-to-moment decisions in attempting to keep a person alive in an ICU.

Your readers were not only given an insider's look at a student nurse's training but also an extraordinary account of what it's like to be on an ICU. These ICU nurses are highly trained, dedicated, and skilled professionals who, in my case, also expressed emotion when there was nothing left to do but stand there. It was comforting to know they cared.

THEODORE BRADFORD
Jamaica Plain