Covid 19 coronavirus: Jim Carney Cancer Treatment Centre staff and patients make sacrifices

Glenys Epiha (front left) and Tracy Clarke (front right) with their Jim Carney Cancer Treatment Centre colleagues. Photo / Supplied

Patients undergoing chemotherapy without family by their side, nurses sending kids away to live with whānau, and healthcare assistants not being able to give hugs.

These are some of the sacrifices staff and patients at Whangārei's Jim Carney Cancer Treatment Centre have had to make to keep the unit free of Covid-19.

But bonds have grown stronger as a result.

The specialised nature of the work at the centre means nursing staff and healthcare assistants have been working at full capacity without outside support throughout the pandemic, to ensure chemotherapy treatment continues.

With doctors working from home, the nurses' administrative responsibilities have increased to ensure patients are appropriately processed.

The staff split into two teams to reduce the chance of exposure in the unit, and patients have had to be given results and treatment plans over the phone, which has made building trust sometimes challenging.

But changes did not only occur within the walls of the unit.

To keep their immune-compromised patients safe, the team also had to make adjustments to their bubbles at home.

Clinical nurse educator Courtney Morgan sent her children to live with their other mother for the first two weeks of level 4, which was the longest time she had ever been apart from them; nurse Tracy Clarke decided to send her children north to Opononi with her mum to keep them safe and allow her to work fulltime; and nurse Jackie Boucher and her husband, also a nurse, sent their three children away for the five-week lockdown.

Boucher said her team had supported her the entire time and even threw her a shared afternoon tea on her birthday, which fell in April, to make up for not having her children around.

She also noted that cancer patients already social distance to an extent, thankfully because Covid-19 would have been detrimental to them.

"We have been lucky that the community stepped up and played their part; otherwise, we would have been in a completely different boat."

Healthcare assistant Glenys Epiha said she never thought there would be a time when human touch could kill someone.

"It truly pained me to be unable to reach out physically to my work team at times of joy or sadness, or our new patients who were so very anxious, and scared, and couldn't have their support person or family member with them."

Epiha also struggled with the fact her 9-year-old son worried about her wellbeing after he asked if she would die if she kept working and got sick.

She had to remind him that she was a real superhero and took a photo of herself in her PPE, or superhero outfit, to ease his mind.

Meanwhile, Whangārei woman Alison Dobbs was one of the many new patients to begin her chemotherapy treatment during alert level 4, which meant having to undergo her first two treatments without her husband or family members by her side.

She said it was all a bit overwhelming at first, but the care she received from the nursing staff and healthcare assistants had been marvellous.

"I'm yet to meet my oncologist, so everything I've learnt and any questions I've had during my treatment has been answered by the nurses and healthcare assistants. They have been amazing."