International Nurses Day – 12th May
A day in the life of…an MSA Nurse Specialist
No two days are the same as an MSA Nurse Specialist at the MSA Trust.
We might be traveling to a specialist MSA clinic, where we join Neurologists who have an interest in Movement Disorders. We see people living with this rare condition alongside other professionals in clinic and use our expertise and experience to help them come to terms with their diagnosis and manage their symptoms as best we can. As we each cover large areas of the UK we can be on the road or train (or plane in Katie’s case!) for several hours at a time.
Another day we might be attending a virtual Support Group (started up during the pandemic when we couldn’t meet face to face) run by our excellent Information and Services colleagues. These allow people living with MSA and their carers or family members to meet others who understand what they are having to deal with, on a daily basis. This can help to reduce the isolation of living with a rare condition. It also gives them an opportunity to ask questions of the Nurses and our Social Welfare Specialist and many of these questions relate to issues that all the attendees have to manage, so can be very beneficial. They can swap ideas and recommend things to each other that they have found helpful.
We are restarting our face-to- face Support Groups now and it is lovely to be able to see people in person and learn how they have been coping throughout the pandemic. These Support Groups are largely run by our wonderful volunteers.
We also offer education sessions to professionals who are supporting someone living with MSA. Pre-pandemic this was at a hospital, hospice or care home, but of late these are being offered online, so we can reach many more Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) members without the need to travel as far.
For the remainder of the week, we will be answering phone calls and emails from anyone affected by MSA. This can be talking about MSA in general, planning for the changes ahead they will have to face or helping manage symptoms.
Please do contact the MSA Health Care Specialist for your area if you have any questions about MSA or would like further support. Our contact details can be found here – https://www.msatrust.org.uk/support-for-you/hcps/.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the blogs published on these pages are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the MSA Trust.
Thanks for this information it is great to know how much is out there for MSA sufferers. It’s my wife who had MSA and I am her carer.