Our Nurses Write......

Expanding professional practice -
I have been working for MAS for six and a half years and have enjoyed being able to advise and help people via the telephone. At first I was not sure how this method of patient contact would work, but I have been pleased to be part of a team, that I am sure is appreciated and achieves positive outcomes. MAS enables many people to access correct information, be pointed in the right direction and at times have a listening ear while they discuss their feelings and form their own opinions.

I have worked on various telephone helplines, some for short periods of time and others I continue to work on. I enjoy the differing calls, attitudes of the public and responses from people. I feel MAS offers most callers information that they have not had time or felt they had the right to ask and enables them to be in control and really explain how they feel.

 Sometimes asking the most basic questions, or having someone to relate to, can help the caller feel supported and enable them to go back to the Primary Care Team and, hopefully, achieve a better outcome. MAS is a useful patient tool giving callers the time to talk through their problems - time often lacking in many clinical situations - which can be so beneficial to patient care.

Supporting helpline colleagues -
As one of the longer serving members of the MAS team - joining in 1992 - I came, as so many of our helpline nurses, via the RCN Work Injured Nurses Group. I am so pleased that our charity helpline work continues to expand.

Our regular training days relating to the wide variety of helplines we run, gives me the opportunity to discuss problem calls I have received and also to listen to speakers on specialist medical subjects. It is also good to meet up with friends and helpline colleagues.

The ability to successfully communicate with callers to our helplines is essential to the work of MAS. It is vital that our internal communication and support systems work well too. As 'mother' to our nursing team, I make sure that birthdays and other important events in the lives of my colleagues are not missed.

When I retired, on health grounds, from my clinical work I felt I was 'past my sell by date'. I am so lucky to have been 're-cycled'! It's good for me to know that I can use my knowledge to help people and be of use to callers to the helplines.

A new lease of life -
After 25 years in the nursing profession, a work injury lost me my job in the Critical Care Unit, and I retired from nursing in the NHS on health grounds. Having battled through injury, surgery and illness for many years, I was absolutely shattered, very angry, depressed and sad to be jobless.

I worked hard to gain new qualifications and skills but it did not help me to get a satisfactory job. I first learned of MAS through the RCN Work Injured Nurses Group. Since joining the MAS helpline team in 1999 I have not looked back. This work has given me a new lease of life. I am more confident in myself and have a more positive attitude towards my health and my work.

I enjoy my helpline work and also look forward to our regular meetings and the training days which help me to maintain my nursing registration. As a MAS nurse working on the telephone from home I feel I am contributing and helping the people again.

I have gained and learned a lot from MAS and have got to know lots of nurses in similar situations to me. I no longer feel alone, useless or unwanted. Being a MAS nurse means a great deal to me.

Continuing nursing practice -
In 1997, at the age of 27, due to injuries sustained in a car accident I had to accept that I could no longer practice as a paediatric nurse in a clinical capacity. My childhood dream of being a nurse working at the Birmingham Children's Hospital, was realised after completing my RSCN training in 1993. So what do you do when your career is over before it had really started?

The Work Injured Nurses Group (WING) put me in touch with MAS, Working a few hours a month, fitted in with the routine of my three-year-old son, it didn't matter if I was having a bad day because I didn't have to travel to work - it boosted my confidence and gave me a new purpose in life.

In April 2000 I was offered a job with NHS Direct. With help from a Disability Adviser, the Access to Work Scheme supported me with funding for transportation costs to and from work and for specialist equipment installed in my home which allows me to take MAS helpline calls sitting or standing.

I do enjoy working on the helplines but cannot pretend that it entirely fills the gap left from being unable to do the job I loved. However, it does help fill the void and I feel I am using my nursing knowledge whilst developing new skills.

Crises overcome -
After a crisis in my working life in 1989/90 I was put in contact with the Medical Advisory Service who, recognising my qualities even if I did not, put me to work on the helplines after the appropriate induction course. My self esteem returned, enabling me to resume a nursing career.

As a "thank you" I stayed on the various helplines, supporting the charity whenever I could, whilst continuing my full time work as a Psychiatric Nurse. I gained very valuable experience in the process, in particular in the field of ‘general’ nursing and the quite different way in which telephone triage is conducted as opposed to 'face to face' contact.

In September 2001 I was diagnosed with Throat Cancer and had to engage in some rather aggressive therapy. Between December 2000 and March 2001 I had to give up my full time nursing career yet again. For the second time MAS came to my rescue, enabling me to work around my in and outpatient appointments, allowing me to cover the helplines at mutually convenient times. During this very difficult period, I was more than amply supported by both management and colleagues.

I am very grateful far this ongoing support which has enabled me to cope with being on the 'other side of the fence'. I have kept my self-esteem knowing I could still do a little work and be useful to society. By doing MAS helpline work I am also able to maintain my nursing qualification by fulfilling current 'PREP' requirements.

Helpline work is right for me -
I am a work injured nurse and after reading an advert in the WING newsletter 'Nurses required to man helpline in Health matters', I thought this is exactly what I want; it would be just right for me.

So three years down the line, here I am working for the Medical Advisory Service and it his made such a difference to my life. Why?.., because I can again put my nursing knowledge to good use, I am so lucky to be working on two interesting lines, both different but each very fulfilling in their own way.

On the Meningitis Research Foundation Helpline we help people worried about their very ill family members and give them information and reassurance. We hope that by the end of the call, callers will feel reassured and less worried.

On the IBS Network Helpline, people phone, on many occasions, as a last resort. By discussing their problems and giving advice on different ways to manage their IBS, you can hear the tension go from their voices. Letting them know that they are not alone with their health problem seems to be reassuring. We are always there at the end of the line for them to ring.

At the end of my shift I feel that I have been useful. I am injured and unable to work in the health services in any way. My nurse training has not been wasted, it helps me feel that I can still be a caring nurse, albeit not 'hands on'.

Supportive and motivating -
 Since I started working on MAS helplines I have found my colleagues to be incredibly supportive, encouraging and motivating. So I never feel alone after I have 'logged off ' the line.

If all nurses working in clinical practice had but a small portion of this support, I do not think that we would be so short of them today.