Hi to all of the ladies above, interesting to read so many varied comments, personally I only have fantastic things to say about my McGrath nurse, first of all I live in a rural area and I am blessed that we have this facility, secondly for whatever reason its up to the individual woman to get in contact with the McGrath Foundation, thats the way its always been, I did not know this until I was told 7 years ago, its a case of self-referral,it could be that they do not want to overwelm you at a time when so much information and so many appointments are being made at the beginning of your breast cancer diagnosis and that they feel that when you are ready you can contact them, also most nurses who work with a breast care surgeon are employed by them and are not a McGrath nurse as such.
Personally I only have fantastic things to say, I have had my McGrath nurse now for 5 years and before that her predecessor.
My McGrath nurse has a large area to look after and many women to help, however every week without fail she rings me to see how I am, I have had several home visits and I know that she is just a phone call away, when I was hospitalized some years ago, she was the phone to phone the emergency department to say I was coming in and she came to visit me whilst I was in hospital, she also conducts monthly coffee catch ups for any women who want to meet in a social enviroment, usually a local cafe, where we can chat and discuss whatever, I might add she only works part time 3 days a week.
I guess that I am one of the lucky ones, my experience has been nothing but positive, even though I have metastatic cancer it makes no difference, all of the nurses are different and have a different temperament, so its just a matter of luck who you might get, however they are trained to a very high standard and there training is on going, I am about to lose my nurse as she is retiring next year I just hope that her replacement is half as good as she is.
I have been so impressed by her that I actually sent an email to the McGrath Foundation to say thank you for this fantastic resource,I might add that I have passed the information written here today on to my McGrath nurse for her to pass on, in the hope that they will take on board the comments and see what they can do about the situation
wendy55
