Angela’s story
Angela didn’t know what to expect when she first joined us as a Specialist Nurse in Tissue Donation, but what can she tell us six years on?
When a donor family’s loved one passes away, a conversation with us is one of the many things on their to-do list. And it’s my job as Specialist Nurse Tissue Donation to get that one thing on their list done with professionalism and empathy, as soon as possible.
During a shift there’s lots of work to do before we even approach our donor families – taking and assessing referrals, checking tissue suitability. Then we speak to our families and organise the retrieval.
A day in the National Referral Centre starts at 08:00 and ends at 21:00, and you’ll never be able to guess how the day will start and how it will finish. But it can be guaranteed there will be tears and lots of laughter in between, whether that be with my work family or the families of our donors.
That’s how it is, laughing with families during the difficult times they’re going through. My colleagues and I know that’s what they want from us – to be empathetic, but keep it real. So if they want us to laugh about something with them, we laugh.
On many occasions I’ve had families say, “Thank you for just being normal."
From the ups, the downs, to everything in between, I love my job. My colleagues aren’t just friends, they’re my work family, and I know I can make a difference to the families I speak to, even by just being normal.