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" A hospital stay can leave anyone confused and anxious, so it&amp;#039;s understandable that a number of questions will arise about your care. We reached out to three wonderful nurses from across the country to find out the most common questions from patients that their specialty evokes. Here&amp;#039;s what they said:  The Cancer Nurse Donna, a Macmillan Cancer Information Nurse Specialist:   1. How ill are you likely to be with chemotherapy? Everyone responds differently to chemotherapy treatment, but side effects can be reduced or controlled. Medicines are given to prevent some side effects such as feeling sick. People having chemotherapy are also given a 24 hour contact number for the hospital in case they have any problems. If they do have side effects then the hospital team can give advice and give medicines that will help.  2. On the internet there are lots of suggestions for diets that can cure or prevent cancer, is this true? There&amp;#039;s no scientific evidence to suggest that any specific diet can cure cancer. Lots of studies have shown that eating a healthy balanced diet can help to prevent cancer and can help stop some cancers from coming back. We need more research to determine exactly how diet affects our risk. It&amp;#039;s important when looking for information about diet, that you get this from a reliable source. At Macmillan, we have a booklet and information on our website about healthy eating for people affected by cancer.  3. What is the best way to support someone with cancer? I am often asked this by people who call the Macmillan support line and there are many ways in which you can support someone with cancer, but the most important thing is to let them know that you are there for them. It&amp;#039;s not always about what we say to people, our body language can show support too. A hug or a smile can go a long way in offering support. Be led by the person you are supporting and if they don&amp;#039;t feel up to chatting face to face or on the phone, think about other ways of communicating, such as text or e-mail. Sometimes, just listening can help.  For more information about coping with Cancer call 0808 808 0000 or visit macmillan.org.uk.  The A&amp;amp;amp;E nurse Kate, an Emergency Department Nurse from London:   1. How long am I going to have to wait? This is akin to asking: &amp;#039;how long is a piece of string?&amp;#039;. And in total honesty, the longer you wait the better you should feel because that means your condition is currently not giving me palpitations and that&amp;#039;s a good thing!  In an ideal world I&amp;#039;d love to get you seen right now, but this is no ideal world, this is the NHS! So, we smile, apologise, and try to tell you how many people are in front of you. Every patient is unique and takes as long as they take, you&amp;#039;ll get exactly the same treatment I promise, but if I tell you there&amp;#039;s three people and you hear two called you will know your time is close. And I&amp;#039;ll always ask you if you need anything in the meantime, because I genuinely don&amp;#039;t want you to have anything else to worry about other than how long it&amp;#039;s taking!  2. When am I going to see a specialist?  Now that&amp;#039;s a good question, but not the most pertinent one. The most important question is actually: &amp;quot;Do I need to see a specialist?&amp;quot; I work with genuinely awesome people who have hundreds of years&amp;#039; experience between them and rarely do I see them perplexed. I utterly assure you that they will give you the ultimate best of care and do everything they possibly can while you&amp;#039;re with us. 3. I don&amp;#039;t know how you do your job  Whilst this is not phrased as a question, it invariably requires an answer, so I&amp;#039;m counting it. This is how: I work with really awesome people. That&amp;#039;s it, the big secret. Oh and yeah maybe I do have an unusually strong stomach for the weird/wonderful/downright gross. And maybe it&amp;#039;s in part because I&amp;#039;m fascinated by everything &amp;amp;amp; everyone. But honestly it&amp;#039;s the people that make it possible, because they know if they need to make me laugh because it&amp;#039;s so stressful, or if I need 5 minutes to convince myself I&amp;#039;m really that brave, or a bag of Haribo at 3am because I haven&amp;#039;t moved out of a busy resus. They know that if we look after each other, we&amp;#039;ll look after you all a whole lot better. So when I tell you I can not only doit, but love it because I work with a fab team, I really mean it.   The children&amp;#039;s nurse Laura Stent, Acting Unit Sister, Amazon Children&amp;#039;s Unit, Peterborough:  1. When can I go home? This is the most regularly asked question by parents and children, as much as they wish for their child to receive the treatment they need, most just want &amp;quot;normality&amp;quot; to return as quickly as possible. Length of stay depends largely on the child&amp;#039;s diagnosis and treatment plan. If the child is requiring oxygen for example, then it is recommended by our medical team that they must be without the need of oxygen for 24hrs before they will consider discharge. A child requiring antibiotic therapy would need to complete the full course but every effort is made to facilitate discharge at the earliest opportunity and this is assisted by the use of the community children&amp;#039;s nursing team to administer at home or by allowing the family to return to the ward once a day to receive intravenous antibiotics. &amp;quot;Children&amp;#039;s best interests are served, on the whole, by being in hospital for the briefest possible time needed to provide safe and effective treatment. Evidence also suggests that most parents would prefer to care for their sick child at home, where this is an option. Hospital is disruptive to the child and family and to the care of other children; it can be costly to the family in terms of travel, parking, meals at the hospital, time off work, and extra childcare for siblings.&amp;quot; Department of Health (2003) It is extremely important to communicate with the child and family about a realistic discharge plan.If families understand the rationale and the plan of care, it helps to reduce anxiety and increases compliance.  2. Will it hurt my child? We do our best to keep pain to a minimum and provide reassurance for both child and their family. We give regular pain relief medicines and use tools such as pain assessment charts to assist in the detection and review of pain. One of our biggest tools is distraction, and we work very closely with our amazing hospital play team.  &amp;quot;Children visiting or staying in hospital have a basic need for play and recreation that should be met routinely in all hospital departments providing a service to children. Play may also be used for therapeutic purposes, as part of the child&amp;#039;s care plan, and as a way of helping the child to: assimilate new information; adjust to and gain control over a potentially frightening environment; and prepare to cope with procedures and interventions.&amp;quot; Department of Health (2003) I have seen the benefits of play first hand and it is pure magic when a child is distracted by something as simple as blowing bubbles and as a nurse I can complete a blood test without the child noticing. 3. How do you do your job?  This is an interesting question. I feel truly honoured to care for children who come into our hospital. Many think this is vocation is filled with poorly patients and sadness but the truth is that in a district general hospital we see and treat many children and send them home happy and &amp;quot;fixed&amp;quot;! The Children&amp;#039;s Ward is generally a very happy place where play is part of the recovery process. I work with a fantastic team and can say I genuinely get up for work and look forward to going every day.No two days are ever the same. We recently completed a charity Ball for the Unit and this was part of the letter we sent out to people describing how I feel about being a Children&amp;#039;s Nurse: &amp;quot;You know that you are a children&amp;#039;s nurse when you get excited each day about coming to work, you entertain the children by blowing up gloves and pretending they are chickens and use syringes as water pistols! We get to experience caring for one of the most endearing, resilient and beautiful patient populations.&amp;quot;    "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/conditions/news/a26470/the-most-common-questions-nurses-get-asked/>