“Of course I sometimes take things that happen home with me”
Hilde van Verseveld (44), oncology nurse Albert Schweitzer Hospital Dordrecht
In the 22 years that Hilde van Verseveld now works as an oncology nurse, there was not a day that cancer care was not in motion. “So many more options have been added. We can really offer patients more hope during this time.” And this nurse finds that very nice to see. Because yes, it is often busy in the treatment department of the Albert Schweitzer hospital. Hilde also sees this as a good sign: “We can treat so much more these days.”
Her work is mainly day care. There she gives patients chemotherapy. For the past two years she has also been the point of contact for a group of patients with haematological cancer (including leukaemia). “I get people who have just had a bad diagnosis and don’t really know what to expect. I can talk to them about this in my consultation hours.”
Hilde also regularly calls her patients during treatment to see how things are going. And that sometimes leads to tough conversations, for example with people who are heavily burdened by their therapy. “I even once experienced that someone who did have prospects no longer wanted treatment. That was of course very difficult, but I also liked it. People really do have their own choice.”
Hilde also regularly gets young people in front of her. “Then we talk about a possible desire to have children and how the treatment affects fertility.” Although the situations are sometimes difficult, Hilde likes her job. “Of course I take certain events home with me. I remember a young woman of 18 who did not have long to live. He asked me: ‘What am I going to do with my life now? I’m going to die anyway.’ I can still see her sitting in bed. You meet people in a very difficult phase of their lives. I try to guide them through that as best I can.”
And now the oncology nurse knows that it is not bad to also think about patients at home. “There are so many patients that have stayed with me. That’s part of it. Still, I try to look mainly at the resilience that people have. Then they have to undergo a heavy treatment, but they recover. I keep learning from the patients.”
“Because I had breast cancer myself, I understand people even better”
Betsie Hurkmans (57), oncology nurse at the Anna Hospital in Geldrop
More than eleven years ago, oncology nurse Betsie Hurkmans suddenly felt a hard strand in her chest. She herself thought it was a blocked milk duct, but it turned out to be breast cancer. “I really didn’t expect that from myself. I was in denial,” she says now. Because she had been working as an oncology nurse since the 1990s and knew better than anyone what the diagnosis meant. “Even though you are working with the disease, you experience the same fear and uncertainty as any other patient.”
Her colleagues gave Betsie chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and the oncologist with whom she regularly visited treated her. “It was very unreal. I wanted to be treated in my own hospital. I had confidence in that.”
Betsie is now ten years later. After her illness, she ‘just’ returned as an oncology nurse. In the beginning it was hard for her. “When the phone rang, I was afraid to get on the phone with my own oncologist. And the sight of those bags of chemo hit hard.” She decided to no longer work in day care and to transfer completely to the oncological nursing ward, which was a little less confrontational for her.
To this day, the nurse works with cancer patients. “I find it so special to assist people in such a difficult phase. The work in the oncology department is extremely interesting. You are concerned with prevention, with treatments, but also with the end of life.”
When she talks about that last phase of life, the nurse gets emotional. “It’s so intimate when someone dies. You see so much love between people.” She tells of a dying woman who had lost contact with her children. She wanted them so badly at her bedside. “I said give me a phone number. We have nothing left to lose. The children and grandchildren came. That was so beautiful.”
It is precisely because of her own illness that Betsie can put herself in the shoes of her patients. She tries to give them what they need; if the food doesn’t taste good because of the chemo, she gives advice, if they need a chat, she makes time for that. “It’s such a rewarding profession. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“I arranged a dinner for someone who was celebrating her wedding anniversary”
Sandra Braks (22), oncology nurse in training at Catharina Hospital Eindhoven
When a patient recently said that her wedding day was one day later, oncology nurse trainee Sandra Braks knew enough. She asked what the couple usually do on that day (dinner together) and secretly got to work. “I arranged a dinner, including wine glasses with apple juice in them. Those people cried a lot when I brought them there.”
It is those special moments that made this young nurse decide to start her career in an oncology department. She has been working there for a year and a half and recently started specializing in oncology nurse. “I like the work in this department, because it is about quality of life, among other things. These patients come more often, so you get to know them and can really add something,” she explains.
Sandra came to that insight during the pandemic. She did an internship at the orthopedics department of the Catharina Hospital. That is precisely where the elderly with corona came to lie who no longer wanted to be treated. Sandra saw an awful lot of people die. “Of course it was intense, but I also thought it was very special. You could make the last bit of life beautiful. That gave me a warm feeling.” The nurse held hands, took time for conversations, made sure a dying couple came together in the room.
It got her thinking about which internships she wanted to do more. The oncology nursing ward sometimes houses seriously ill people who do not have long to live. Other patients, on the other hand, recover. She felt she would be right there.
Of course, when patients die, it affects Sandra. “At home I really sometimes shed a tear. Especially when it comes to young people. Fortunately, most patients are treatable.”
Sandra talks about a patient who was unable to do much due to metastases in his back. “He hadn’t been outside in weeks.” Sandra drove him out, bed and all. “He was so happy, took a selfie to send to acquaintances.”
On animal day, the nurse had two dogs come to the ward. One patient appreciated that so much that she shed a tear. “It’s such a small thing to me, but it means so much to a patient like that. I find that valuable.”
Bron: AD