Nurse joins patients on their emotional journey
Mastectomy patients praise Sandra Sargent for respect, empathy in frightening times
From the time Sandra Sargent was a little girl growing up in Ottawa, she knew she wanted to be a nurse. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. I think it’s what I was meant to be.”
Sargent, a community visiting registered nurse with ParaMed Home Health Care in North Bay, Ont., is now also a recipient of a 2017 Nightingale Award Honourable Mention. Two local women who feel Sargent has gone beyond the call of duty to help each of them after mastectomies nominated her for the honour.
Tara Blake met Sargent just a day after she had undergone a mastectomy of her left breast for a rare form of breast cancer. She was only 43 at the time, with five children. “I was impressed by Sandra’s respect for my family and me,” Blake says.
“What makes her exceptional, however, is that she treats the whole being. She has provided reassurance to my husband and children and has included them in the visit as appropriate by listening to ‘Mommy’s heart’ and helped to normalize an abnormal situation for them.”
Marlee Franz, who also nominated Sargent for the award, met her the day after returning home from a bilateral mastectomy. She felt Sargent offered a genuine and empathetic ear.
“She had my back at all times — emotionally and physically,” Franz says. “I never felt rushed. On her first visit, the second day after surgery, she sat with my sister and I and explored the gamut of emotions that go with having a bilateral mastectomy and the unknown of waiting for the pathology report to know the staging and next steps — chemo and radiation.
“We talked about the anger that goes with a diagnosis — this was my second cancer diagnosis. We talked about the fear of a shortened life. And we cried, all of us.”
Sargent, who earned her bachelor of science in nursing at the University of Ottawa, feels her education had an impact on the type of nursing she chose. “We had incredible clinical education, but also the humanities. I came out with schooling that was really drawn to the people side of nursing, which is why I’ve always done community nursing,” she says.
Starting her career as a visiting nurse in Stratford, Ont., with the Vic- torian Order of Nurses in 1975, Sargent moved to Sudbury, Ont., several years later, where she worked in public health. She then worked as a sales rep for a medical equipment and home oxygen company in Sudbury, but she felt the pull of community nursing and returned to it in 2000.
When her husband was transferred to North Bay, she went back to school to upgrade and started working with ParaMed as a personal support worker. She’s worked with the company ever since.
Sargent says her work can involve just about anything. “We’re generalists, we do everything. I can visit a baby, a senior, a patient in diabetic or cardiac care.”
As the palliative lead for the branch, she says she also finds it rewarding to work with patients in palliative care. “I don’t know why I love palliative care, but I’ve been drawn to it since day one.”
When Sargent was nominated for the award, she says she experienced a mixture of feelings. “I felt humbled, so honoured, unworthy, but I have to add another one . . . I would have to say validation.”
She says she also has many people to thank for the award. “You can’t excel on your own. I have high standards for myself, but I’m sharing this award with my family, who have put up with my passion and with the agency I work with. ParaMed really promotes holistic care, as well as growing, evolving, excelling.
“I share it with my supervisor, Beth, who has been my rock, who allows me to be who I am, and with my new supervisor, Mary, who I’m just getting to know and appreciate her wonderful way, and with the co-ordinators, case managers and the patients, because I learn so much more from them than I could teach anybody.”
Sargent is married with two children and two grandchildren, and relaxes by spending time with her family. “I haven’t done the hobbies I like because I work too much. I love to cook when I’m home, visiting the old haunts in Ottawa.
“Sometimes, I just spend some time contemplating and have a good cry. They’re happy tears. Palliative care is not depressing. We know the goal going in and I feel an incredible sense of peace when it works, even when it doesn’t work. In any case, I feel a sense of peace being involved in that journey.”
Franz praises how Sargent is clientcentred. “She was sensitive to the fact I have three kids and made sure her visits were during school or after they went to bed so it wouldn’t draw too much attention to the drain/ bandage change. She came for a visit at10:30 p.m. on Halloween so I could spend the evening enjoying Halloween with my children.”
For Sargent, the most rewarding thing about her job is the patients. “To be privileged to visit them and help them in their journey to recovery or their journey to passing — whatever their journey is. It’s a privilege to be a part of that. And hopefully, to be able to give them something they can take forward.
“I would do an injustice to my clients if I didn’t say that every single one of them has been precious. And every single one of them I’ve taken something away from. There is not one that is more special.”