Pictured: Jennifer Telfer, senior charge nurse of the regular dialysis unit pictured with patient
Staff from the Renal team at University Hospital Monklands have received a Big Shout Out for the outstanding care they provide to those receiving renal treatment.
The unit looks after those receiving both regular and short-term dialysis and is made up of around 80 staff members.
Jennifer Telfer, senior charge nurse, said: “In the regular dialysis unit we support patients with long-term kidney disease and they attend for haemodialysis that involves them attending three times a week. We currently have just under 250 patients attending from across Lanarkshire.
“It can be challenging for them because it’s a whole new lifestyle change for them and they require hospital transport from home to the dialysis unit. So, where they may on the dialysis machine for a few hours, that can potentially be most of their day, and their quite tired after that.”
Nanette Blair, senior charge nurse, explained: “Dialysis patients who are coming in regularly have got a chronic illness, so they need dialysis treatment. It’s, – the lifesaving treatment they need to survive.”
Jennifer added: “For some people transplantation will be an option for them, but before that happens there needs to be a degree of screening before that where the medical team will look at cardiac status. They will also look at other health conditions. Not everybody is an option for transplant. Once that has been decided they will be put forward for a transplant.
“There’s a big drive just now in looking at live donor transplant and looking into whether they might have a family member, who would be willing to give them a kidney.”
Jennifer said: “We’ve got a pretty motivated team. During Covid, dialysis wasn’t a treatment that could be stooped. So we found different ways to support patients during that time. The staff worked very closely together personally and professionally.
“We lead with compassion and staff then feel we support them during challenging times. They are a team that you can very much rely on.”
With patients visiting the unit for long periods of time, multiple times a week, they grow relationships with the staff.
Jennifer added: “These are patients who are on litre fluid restrictions and their cup of tea on dialysis is absolutely crucial for them. The patient thinks so much of the domestic service giving them their teas.
“For some of our patients, we may be that only social contact that they have, and the nursing staff recognise that. We try to ensure that we provide holistic care for the patients including looking at all other areas of their psychological wellbeing and their social care. A lot of the time we are that one contact that’s consistent for them.”
Both Jennifer and Nanette were quick to highlight the feeling felt by the team when someone gets transplanted.
Jennifer said: “When someone gets transplanted, it’s an amazing feeling, it lifts the morale. It lifts everybody: doctors, nurses and domestics. It motivates everybody. This is what we’re working towards. It’s wonderful when you hear stories when they’ve went on and maybe had families.”
Nanette added: “Sometimes those who have received a transplant come back and visit. The patients all sit in the one area, so they’ll come back and see the people they used to sit with, which is nice.”
The Big Shout Out praises NHS Lanarkshire teams for taking an innovative, creative and patient-centred approach to working, and recognises the unique contribution staff make to overcoming the challenges faced across the entire healthcare system.
