my care kit

Hi Candygirl,

We were truly sorry to hear you and by the looks of the comments to this blog post a number of others have had bad experiences with your nurses. We do work closely with Health Professionals to ensure our resources are distributed to as many as possible and as soon as possible. So this feedback is helpful.

My colleague Di, who works with the breast care nurses was going to make direct contact with you to get some more details and would be happy to follow up on your behalf.

~Daina

I am glad you put up with post as I too didn't have apositive experience with my BC nurse. I saw her on my 1st visit, she ordered my kit and bra and I never saw her again.

I was most dissappointed as I believed that the nurse would be with me througout my journey, at one stage when Iw as having major sideffects I tried to see her and was told they were both on leave and there was no-one to see me.

On their return no-one contacted me to see if I was ok or had got the answers I required.

I found the whole experience very unsatisfactory and did compalin to the hospital.

Donna

I am glad you put up with post as I too didn't have apositive experience with my BC nurse. I saw her on my 1st visit, she ordered my kit and bra and I never saw her again.

I was most dissappointed as I believed that the nurse would be with me througout my journey, at one stage when Iw as having major sideffects I tried to see her and was told they were both on leave and there was no-one to see me.

On their return no-one contacted me to see if I was ok or had got the answers I required.

I found the whole experience very unsatisfactory and did compalin to the hospital.

Donna

I spent some time yesterday responding to Nicole's posting only to have my words and Nicole's original posting disappear from view.  Welcome back, Nicole.

I am glad Nicole got onto the website to vent as that is often all that is needed.  If it upset someone then so be it - you and your thoughts were the most important thing at that time.

If BCNA took the post off for some reason I hope they had the courtesy to contact you via telephone first.  I am a great fan of the BCNA as they provide a great service - even if I could not get any Xmas baubles because I do not have a plastic card !!!  (That is the trouble with 'outsourcing').

Your experience with the BC nurse is not unusual.  I have found that people LOVE theirs or HATE theirs.  Mine was pretty useless really.  When I said something about information I'd found she'd say "oh, I have that information in my office" - which is 75 kms away and she only visits this area twice per month !  She never looked at my (missing) breast or drainage bag or anything - she preferred to play with my puppy.  After a couple of visits I told her that perhaps she has more needy ladies out there.

I was so disappointed that I looked at the McGrath Foundation's website and read the BC Nurse job description.  I then understood that my idea of what they do (and that of many others) is not what they are there to do.  I was lucky in that I was diagnosed via the Breastscreen service and they were great.  As I had not heard from the BC Nurse I rang her and, luckily, she was in my area the following day so I drove there to meet her - or I would have missed out.  I found her to be a very unprofessional lass and her sample boobs and bras were filthy !

Perhaps the Foundation has grown too quickly and lives on it's hype - and the BC Nurses are drifting along as if it were 'just a job' - it may be that to them but not to their clients.

I humbly apologize to the very good BC nurses out there, as I am sure there are many.  Some of your colleagues are letting the side down.

Nicole, I hope you are having a better day and that you've had a reason to smile.

Summer  :-)

I made a complaint that the local bc nurse was in the local shopping centre waiting for ladies to donate their old bra's to charity. Surely her services would have been more appropriate to be out in the field seeing BC patients, and a volunteer could have been in store for that day.  I know for me personally I would have loved to have had the My Care Kit at the start of my journey, and not towards the end.

The cost to put BCNurses into the field is $300,00 over two years.

Viv

I apologise in advance if I am going to upset anyone.  This is just my experience and my particular view. Many woman have had very positive experiences with bc nurses who have been invaluable sources of support to women who may not necessarily have support.  My experience was quite negative.  After surgery a bc nurse came to visit me with a bra (wrong size - could have bought anywhere).  She was nice enough but talked mainly about the weather, fashion, etc.  Gave me her mobile number and that of the other bc nurse in the area and she left it at that.

During chemo when experiencing dreadful side effects desperate to talk to someone who may be able to explain what was happing to me (not bothering the busy Oncologist) the system failed miserably.  I rang both mobile numbers given to me but found only answering machines.  Over the next two weeks I kept ringing both numbers leaving yet more messages.  No-one ever got back to me - to this day!  My Oncologist said one was on leave and the other had urgent family business but she was very unhappy about situation.  At the end of the day my GP, who I know and trust, answered all my questions, was happy to see me whenever I needed. I also utilised a govt sponsored breast care psychologist who helped me through particularly difficult times. I was therefore left wondering why do we need bc nurses?  Two of my best friends are specialist clinician nurses.  Both said if the services of a bc nurse were truly warranted they would be employed like any other nurse in the system.  I have breast cancer.  I was lucky to have people hold my hand and give support and I had a good medical team around me.  As a breast cancer patient what do I really really want?  I want a bloody cure!  Imagine where we might be if the donation dollars were directed into research instead of supplying bc nurses?  Problem is most people who donate to a particular breast cancer charity don't realise the money is not going to research.  As long as donation money keeps being directed away from research then finding a bc cure will be further and further away.   I always advise people to donate to the NATIONAL BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION OR CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA.  Just make sure your hard earned donation goes to RESEARCH.

Sadly my experience with the local breast care nurse was tragic. 

She never contacted me, I contacted her when I couldn't find a suitable bra.  I then received the my care kit and the berlei bra.

I have not had any contact with her since.

I too have put a complaint into the organisation of this service, I gave my name, phone number and email, to date I have not had any feedback from them.

I think it is unfortunate that many ladies on this site, and those that I have spoken to locally have also had a bad experience with their breast care nurse.  This service is so important to all diagnosed with breast cancer.

All the best to you ladies

Viv

Sadly my experience with the local breast care nurse was tragic. 

She never contacted me, I contacted her when I couldn't find a suitable bra.  I then received the my care kit and the berlei bra.

I have not had any contact with her since.

I too have put a complaint into the organisation of this service, I gave my name, phone number and email, to date I have not had any feedback from them.

I think it is unfortunate that many ladies on this site, and those that I have spoken to locally have also had a bad experience with their breast care nurse.  This service is so important to all diagnosed with breast cancer.

All the best to you ladies

Viv

Hi Nicole,

I put a complaint in about the lack of support, or for me nil support from my nurse.  From speaking to other ladies if you are in an age bracket of over 60 she will be sitting on your bed after surgery but for the younger ones nope, nowhere to be seen.

The nurse at Radiation gave me her number, when I asked her why I didn't receive this when I was diagnosed she made some stupid statement that she was curious to meet me as my pathology was a tricky one for the Multidisciplinary team and that they had also talked about me at another meeting.  She gave me the kit and little pillow, I remember thinking that would have been really handy 8 weeks ago after surgery.

My experience with her was horrid, she sat me down and told me that if I have a recurrance that I would only be able to have certain reconstruction options and brought out lots of frankenstein pics.  At that stage no one had told me any of this, I couldn't get out of there quick enough, went out to my car and burst into tears. Have not heard from her since.

All I can say is what a waste of financial resources. To date I have not come across another BC lady who speaks with any gratitude for this nurse.

Sadly we are not alone in this experience, there have been many bloggs over that last 2 years.

Candy xxx

ps.  getting it off my chest makes me feel a bit better about this horrible experience.