When I graduated High school all I knew was that I liked sciences and people. I took a year off after high school to coach cheerleading and work at the local Tim Hortons. During that year, I dated a local boy, and one night at a local minor league hockey game his little brother, 14 at the time, just collapsed on the ice during his shift. He had been tired lately and had funny bruises, turns out that trip to the ER that night showed he had Leukemia.
He spent months at the Alberta Childrens’ Hospital, and the nights that I was visiting I really liked the nurses and wondered how they did it. Then one day in the cancer clinic I watched a nurse access his central line (port o cath) and at that very moment I thought I really want to do that (and vaguely remember announcing it to the entire clinic!), and the rest is history. I enrolled in nursing school and knew from day one I wanted to work with kids with Cancer. I was honoured to actually get to work with most of the nurses that cared for him and got to Thank the nurse who accessed his port for inspiring me to pursue nursing.
I was blown away by Tim’s courage and strength throughout his battle with leukemia. I never once saw him negative, even when he was so sick. He made the doctors discharge him early from the hospital so he could be a groomsmen for his Brothers’ wedding and he never once said he was tired, when we all knew he was exhausted. He went on to ride his bike across Canada to raise funds and awareness for Pediatric Cancers. www.spokemantour.com I was completely inspired and humbled by his determination and drive, and knew that I wanted to work with kids just like him. And I have for the past 3 years and they inspire me daily. If those kids only knew how much they teach us all about the beauty of life.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
A poem for the nurses out there
Here is a little poem. Nurse’s week is next week and I really want to recognize all the amazing contributions nurses make in the lives of their patients!
I develop relationships with my patients
Sometimes I get bodily fluids on my clothes, and that’s okay
I comfort the grieving
I am patient
I do the dirty work
Everyone I work with daily is very capable and effective
I see people as people, not cases, not statistics
I live and breathe life and death
I see people at their most vulnerable
I can draw blood so carefully that you barely even feel it
I facilitate healing
I CARE
I do what needs to be done
I Love wearing scrubs
I have given someone their first bath;
And I have given someone their last bath
~anonymous~
I am inspired daily by each and every one of you,
And am blessed to work with such passionate nurses!
I develop relationships with my patients
Sometimes I get bodily fluids on my clothes, and that’s okay
I comfort the grieving
I am patient
I do the dirty work
Everyone I work with daily is very capable and effective
I see people as people, not cases, not statistics
I live and breathe life and death
I see people at their most vulnerable
I can draw blood so carefully that you barely even feel it
I facilitate healing
I CARE
I do what needs to be done
I Love wearing scrubs
I have given someone their first bath;
And I have given someone their last bath
~anonymous~
I am inspired daily by each and every one of you,
And am blessed to work with such passionate nurses!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Why I love my job.
What do I love about being a pediatric oncology nurse? First and foremost the kids! I am inspired by their strength and courage every day.
Work is like another family to me. Oncology is different, our kids aren’t short stays at the hospital, some of them are there for months at a time. I have the opportunity to build lasting relationships with kids and their families. I am there to give them their chemotherapy, watch them battle through the nausea and fatigue and everything else that goes with chemotherapy, but I’m also there to celebrate recovering blood counts, birthdays, and sometimes even the arrival of new baby siblings! I get to watch a mini hockey game between a child and his grandfather in the hospitals hallway and I get to keep score. I even get to see Santa and his reindeer deliver gifts on Christmas Eve and see the trail of cookie crumbs and carrot bits leftover from what the kids had left outside their rooms!
I love that these families, unknowingly, keep me humble and remind me of what is really important. I am blown away that somehow these kids and families make the best of every situation, and normalize life in the hospital. Vitals every 4 hours, medication after medication, bloodwork every day at 4am. Test after test, procedure after procedure, and no matter what, you’ll always see a smile on that child’s face, maybe not that day, maybe not that week, but you’ll see it soon enough!
I love the sense of community that exists at work. Families come together, find strength in each others stories and struggles. The unit is like a little cul-de-sac, and every room is a house. Kids still nock on each others doors to come play and they still ride their tricycles around the unit, with speed limits enforced of course!
Most of all, I love that I get to share all of these experience, the good, the bad, the happy and the sad with incredible nurses. People sometimes wonder why nurses are “clicky”, we share a lot in a 12 hour shift together you know, we couldn’t run a hospital without such strong teamwork! No to mention it may be one of the only jobs where talking about bowels at any given time is completely acceptable!
Work is like another family to me. Oncology is different, our kids aren’t short stays at the hospital, some of them are there for months at a time. I have the opportunity to build lasting relationships with kids and their families. I am there to give them their chemotherapy, watch them battle through the nausea and fatigue and everything else that goes with chemotherapy, but I’m also there to celebrate recovering blood counts, birthdays, and sometimes even the arrival of new baby siblings! I get to watch a mini hockey game between a child and his grandfather in the hospitals hallway and I get to keep score. I even get to see Santa and his reindeer deliver gifts on Christmas Eve and see the trail of cookie crumbs and carrot bits leftover from what the kids had left outside their rooms!
I love that these families, unknowingly, keep me humble and remind me of what is really important. I am blown away that somehow these kids and families make the best of every situation, and normalize life in the hospital. Vitals every 4 hours, medication after medication, bloodwork every day at 4am. Test after test, procedure after procedure, and no matter what, you’ll always see a smile on that child’s face, maybe not that day, maybe not that week, but you’ll see it soon enough!
I love the sense of community that exists at work. Families come together, find strength in each others stories and struggles. The unit is like a little cul-de-sac, and every room is a house. Kids still nock on each others doors to come play and they still ride their tricycles around the unit, with speed limits enforced of course!
Most of all, I love that I get to share all of these experience, the good, the bad, the happy and the sad with incredible nurses. People sometimes wonder why nurses are “clicky”, we share a lot in a 12 hour shift together you know, we couldn’t run a hospital without such strong teamwork! No to mention it may be one of the only jobs where talking about bowels at any given time is completely acceptable!
Monday, May 3, 2010
My name is Kim. I'm a nurse a CHEO.
My name is Kim McMillan and I’ve been in the “Cancer World” for 3 years now. My role is a Pediatric Oncology/ Bone Marrow transplant Nurse. I started at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary as a new graduate 3 years ago this Month. I worked in Calgary where we cared for children with all types of cancer and provided stem cell transplants for children with a type of leukemia that is most responsive to transplants.
I have also enjoyed working as a camp Nurse at Cancer Camp in the summers, especially out at the Camp Horizon site in Kananaskis. It’s humbling to see patients, their siblings and any other children affecting by cancer at camp, learning, growing and having fun. It’s a beautiful thing to see children I cared for in the hospital at their sickest times now out playing and laughing and loving life just like any other kid.
After 2 years of Calgary I decided I wanted to explore the rest of Canada, as travelling is my passion, and I am blessed to have a job that allows me to do that. After chatting with my long distance best friend who had always lived in Ottawa, and professes it is the most beautiful city in Canada I decided I should see for myself! I packed up my things, and drove out to Ottawa in late August and with the help of my best friend, I had an apartment waiting for me when I got here. I’m pretty sure my best friend was right, Ottawa is beautiful!
I am currently working at CHEO in the inpatient oncology unit and have been since September 2009. It’s great to see how another hospital works, the similarities and the differences when caring for the same population of Patients. The nurses, as with any oncology unit I have worked on are wonderful, amazing and always inspiring!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s edition....and you'll learn why!
I have also enjoyed working as a camp Nurse at Cancer Camp in the summers, especially out at the Camp Horizon site in Kananaskis. It’s humbling to see patients, their siblings and any other children affecting by cancer at camp, learning, growing and having fun. It’s a beautiful thing to see children I cared for in the hospital at their sickest times now out playing and laughing and loving life just like any other kid.
After 2 years of Calgary I decided I wanted to explore the rest of Canada, as travelling is my passion, and I am blessed to have a job that allows me to do that. After chatting with my long distance best friend who had always lived in Ottawa, and professes it is the most beautiful city in Canada I decided I should see for myself! I packed up my things, and drove out to Ottawa in late August and with the help of my best friend, I had an apartment waiting for me when I got here. I’m pretty sure my best friend was right, Ottawa is beautiful!
I am currently working at CHEO in the inpatient oncology unit and have been since September 2009. It’s great to see how another hospital works, the similarities and the differences when caring for the same population of Patients. The nurses, as with any oncology unit I have worked on are wonderful, amazing and always inspiring!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s edition....and you'll learn why!
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