Gina Alibin, Hemodialysis Nurse, Seven Oaks General Hospital, Winnipeg, MB

“I’ve been in nursing since 1996, 20 years now but in dialysis since 2002. A lot of my family members are in the nursing profession. I think in dialysis it’s a unique type of relationship with the patient. We know them for a really long time – sometimes for many years. You develop a bond. I don’t know any type of unit or nursing that you experience that type of relationship. You get to know them – the cycle in their life. They have marriages, kids, their kids get married.
It’s a busy unit. There are a lot of patients. The turnover is quite high. There are 50 patients every four hours pretty much. We see 150 patients a day. The other part is because we do know them, when they don’t do well or if they’re end-stage it’s hard for us because we’ve bonded with them. Like our families, it’s kind of difficult to see them at that stage of their life.
Seeing them get transplanted – I think that’s always nice to see.

Even though we don’t see them further after that because they are not there to have their treatments anymore, it’s nice to see they got that – almost like their second life. We’ve had patients that were younger. One had a pregnancy during dialysis. She got a transplant after that. It’s like a new life for her. Unfortunately that’s a very small percentage of our population. I guess organ donation is something we need to really pursue. When they do have a success story it’s very nice feeling. Especially when you see them have that other life apart from being sick. They have their little kids and they get to see them more.