Ms. Ayiravalli, RN -Pediatric Oncology nurse, Government Rajaji Hospital Madurai Medical College, Madurai, India.
Ms.Ayiravalli has been working as a pediatric oncology nurse for more than three years at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai. She feels blessed and proud to be able to ease the pain and agony of children with cancer and their families to the best of her ability.On a daily basis, she prepares the intravenous chemotherapy drugs and administers them to the patients, and monitors the patients’ progress. She makes sure the children get their chemotherapeutic drugs as per protocol without delay and ensures an uninterrupted supply of all their medications.She also makes sure all the chemo drugs are properly stored and maintain a record of the stock.
When necessary, she contacts the local NGOs for some drugs unavailable in the hospital. She draws the patient’s blood specimens for needed investigations. Many of our patients are quite malnourished, and she helps provide proper nutritional supplementation and guidance. In collaboration with the social workers, the organization also provides financial support to families that are in need along with emotional and psychological support .Many parents are too timid to ask questions to physicians, and part of her job is to be a patient advocate and a liaison in the patient-doctor relationship.
She counsels the patients and their families by answering their questions about their disease and details of treatment and refers them to the physicians for questions that she cannot answer. At all times, she tries to be kind and compassionate to the patients and their families, and they feel very comfortable under her care. During the past two and a half years, she has greatly improved her technical skills in securing intravenous lines and assisting physicians in performing procedures like lumbar puncture for intrathecal chemotherapy and bone marrow aspirate study.
Another important part of her job is to keep the physicians informed of the patient's condition. If a child’s general condition deteriorates, she informs the attending physician immediately and carry out emergency steps in management. She strongly believes that her presence in the pediatric oncology team helps the patients and their families receive better care.
Ms. Pavithra - MSW (Master of Social Work)
Pavithra, a Pediatric Oncology Social Worker, sponsored by AROH Foundation, has been working at Kovai Medical Center in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India for the past four years.
Every day, she attends the ward rounds with the doctors, after which she meets with the kids and families. She engages the kids by playing, drawing, and doing other activities to keep them busy and happy—such as showing cartoons on YouTube videos. For the new patients, she provides psychological support starting with the first interaction. If a parent wants to speak with the family of a child who has completed treatment, she arranges their meetings. Most parents feel comfortable sharing their feelings, emotional distress, and financial problems with us and trust that we are there to support them throughout this long ordeal.
She also maintains the demographic details of new patients and their families in a register and explains to the parents about various funding agencies and the process to apply for funds. We get funding from various government schemes and NGOs –including the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund, MILAPP, and the Cancer Patient's Aid Association. As an example, for a 3-year-old Kayalvizhi, who was treated successfully for rhabdomyosarcoma of the nasopharynx, we were able to raise INR 227,260 ($2770)—which was extremely helpful since her parents are poor, with their annual income well below the poverty line in India.
Pavithra also makes regular follow-up calls to the patient’s caregivers enquiring about the children’s condition. If anyone abandons treatment, she immediately informs their physicians, plans for a home visit to learn the reasons for them stopping treatment, and arranges for a follow-up visit to discuss it with their physicians, and tries to convince them about the importance of continuing the treatment for the full duration, as prescribed by the oncologist.