A woman who battled leukaemia four years ago will return to hospital to nurse people fighting similar conditions.
“Instead of affecting me negatively, the ordeal pushed me into taking up nursing,” Janet Micallef said, sitting a few metres from where she spent four months as an inpatient.
Ms Micallef, 34, was speaking ahead of a conference on ethics at the workplace, which she will be addressing tomorrow at Mater Dei Hospital.
She recounted how, just before turning 31, she started suffering from stomach pain.
She was diagnosed with leukaemia a month later and immediately started treatment at Mater Dei. Six months later, she flew to the UK for a bone marrow transplant and spent another six months there.
Emerging as a survivor, she felt she was still alive thanks to the treatment she received and the support from her family and healthcare providers.
A former operator at a manufacturing plant, she had already given nursing a thought when she quit her job after 10 years to look after her son, Declan. But she had to put her plans on hold because of her diagnosis. Once that she was out of hospital and alive to tell the tale, she immediately enrolled for a diploma in nursing.
“I was impressed by the nurses’ dedication. You could tell they were not nursing me simply because it was their job but because they were passionate about it.
I was impressed by the nurses’ dedication. You could tell they were not nursing me simply because it was their job
“When you’re ill and spend a long time at hospital, you go through a million emotions and see patients, who may be sleeping right next to you, dying,” she said.
“All of this has an impact on patients and, at these low points, we found nurses to comfort us and emphasise that each case was different from the other.”
Ms Micallef’s experience at hospital was mainly positive, which is what pushed her into the career, but she also noted some ethical issues, which she will be addressing at tomorrow’s event.
One of her lecturers, Donia Baldacchino, a visiting professor at the University of Malta, will also be speaking about the ethical boundaries that healthcare givers have to maintain.
“The vulnerable person, in this case the patient, comes before the caregivers’ worries and concerns. Nurses have to be available to listen to the patient without pouring their problems out on the patients. At times, I feel we lack this kind of altruism,” she said.
“Nursing is sometimes attracting people with high agreeableness rather than a strong character. They prove themselves as students, but when they start working they tend to succumb to peer pressure at work.” There are also nurses who have to keep up with new developments and research and update their care, she added.
Prof. Baldacchino believes prospective nursing students should have their aptitude and personality traits tested and then be monitored and supported throughout the course and while working in the field.
The conference will be held at the South Auditorium, Faculty of Health Sciences, Mater Dei Hospital, between noon and 2pm.
Those interested can call Prof. Baldacchino at 9984 1021 or send an e-mail message to donia.baldacchino@um.edu.mt.