You may have seen our Practice Nurse mentioned on our website and wondered why we have one. Isn’t that like at the GP, where you have your travel jabs or baby checks? Why do we have one in a plastic surgery practice?
Sandie Ruston, Practice Nurse at DRG Plastic Surgery, is an expert in the field of plastic and cosmetic surgery, with over 5 years of specialist plastics experience on top of her wide ranging nursing experience. She supports our Consultant Plastic Surgeons, Mr David Gateley and Miss Victoria Rose, in theatre and in clinic at the various hospitals in which they practice. Like the surgeons, she is alongside the patients throughout their journey from preoperative assessment to final post operative appointment.
As a patient you will first meet Sandie at your Preoperative Assessment. This is your opportunity to ask all the questions which you may think too trivial to trouble a consultant about. The things which you wonder about your surgery and hospital stay. Sandie is here to answer them and put your mind at rest. She’s heard it all before so you can be assured that the only silly question is the one you don’t ask!
If you watch her in action in theatre assisting surgery, you will do a double take. She works so closely in synchrony with the surgeon that her hands look like their second pair, anticipating exactly what they need at each point in a procedure. They barely need to speak, so well used are they to working together. So when Sandie changes your dressing afterwards, or rings to see how you are feeling, she knows almost better than you what you went through because she was there. She knows what’s normal and to be expected, or what may need checking.
She’d always prefer you to check sooner rather than later. If you’re concerned, just pick up the phone. By chatting to you she can tell what’s needed: perhaps just a kind word and reassurance, perhaps a quick glance in clinic to check everything’s healing as planned. If you’ve met Sandie, you’ll know that she’s a vital player in the plastic surgery team.
Catherine Cowen, Plastic Surgery Blogger