Nurses

Always There For You: Caring For Families

By Sarah Tyrrell
Communications Assistant, Communications Division
Charlottetown Head Office

Nursing Sisters of Canada

Nurses have a long history of caring for Canadian families. In recognition of their relentless efforts, a week is set aside each May to celebrate their tremendous contribution. The theme for this year's National Nursing Week is "Nurses Always There For You: Caring For Families", with a focus on service to Canadian families as a whole.

Nurses are in a position to foster a close and trusting relationship with individual family members, and with the family as a unique unit. This year, nurses from across the country will participate in National Nursing Week from May 6-12, including our first-rate nurses here at Veterans Affairs Canada.

VAC Nursing

As Sandy Fitzpatrick, a nurse at Ste. Anne's Hospital explains, nowhere is there more evidence of this family bond than working with Canada's veteran population.
"I work a lot with the families, especially with Alzheimer's. I have to communicate with the families, make them comfortable and help them to understand the disease," says Fitzpatrick. "I support everything they have to go through, the hard times."

"I love to take care of the patients, I love to take care of the veterans." Fitzpatrick continues. "To me, they're like all my grandfathers, it's like taking care of people in your own family. That's what it is here, it's a big family. Lots of them don't have families at all. I respect them and love to take care of them. We have hard moments but a lot of fun too!"

National Nursing Week is a perfect opportunity to celebrate and show our appreciation for the personalized, quality care provided by our own VAC nursing staff. Whether they work out of a VAC District Office or Ste. Anne's Hospital, they take pride in providing much needed care and support for VAC clients and their families.

As the number of VAC's Canadian Forces clients increases over the years, VAC nurses face a new challenge - providing the same high quality care for this growing population that they provide our aging clients. According to Louisa Patterson, Regional Nursing Officer for the Atlantic, VAC can rise to this challenge through education.

"The most significant role on my part would be education," says the 18 year VAC employee. "As a functional manager of twelve community health nurses, it is imperative that there is an understanding of the needs of the younger Canadian Forces client. Particularly from a clinical nursing perspective. I have found that the department has been very helpful in this regard."

"On our various national and regional teleconferences, we discuss the issue of being comfortable as a member of a team working with clients with PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder], appreciating that it's not the only condition that exists and that you can have a range of disabilities. Gaining a comfort level with symptomology and also knowing what is available in both military and community resources are very important," continues Patterson. "It's making sure you are current in your role and knowing how you can contribute. I can't overemphasize the importance of nurses being well-informed and current with regards to clinical therapies and community resources available."

Saskatoon's District Office Nurse, Maureen Haakenson also recognizes this shift in the type of care VAC nurses can expect to administer and the need to be informed of the latest practices. "The nursing role basically remains the same in that we continue to provide nursing assessments, consultation to our team members, health education and advocacy to our CF clients, the same as we would for our Second World War Veterans. However, because we are working with a younger population, we must take into consideration the needs that are unique to people in that generation. Generally, we are dealing with younger families and that provides new and different opportunities to influence health outcomes."

Patterson echoes these observations. "What does differ between our Canadian Forces clients and our aging veterans is the range of services required. Often for the aging client the focus is on, aside from the client, the aging caregiver. However, with the Canadian Forces client, we're also really seeing marital counselling being required, support for children and dealing with a young parent who might have a significant degree of disability," says Patterson. "What I think is very positive is that although some of the CF clients are quite ill, the focus is on recovery and living with the disability that exists, so issues of chronic pain management are uppermost."

Donna Davis, National Nursing Officer at Head Office, offers another perspective, "Like most other positions in the Department, the NNO post has been directly impacted by the increasing number of CF clients. While the care-planning process itself is fairly generic, the cases are particularly challenging and time consuming." she explains, "As part of the Head Office inter-disciplinary team, I work with the Policy Analysts and others at the DO and RO levels to ensure that the case plans are highly individualized and appropriate for the client circumstances. We are challenged to identify creative solutions for situations involving, for example, chronic pain, psychiatric illness, substance abuse, and rehabilitation."