Gila Rosen shows a patient how to administer medication.
Pain Coordinator
I
Gila Rosen helps
acutely-ill
patients at
Hadassah
L:J Hospital get
-ct) involved with
their treatment.
CC
F-
UJ
I=1
LLI
I-
90
he phone rings in a
Jerusalem bedroom.
The clock shows 2:10
a.m. Fortunately, the
girls' room is at the
far end of the hall and
her husband sleeps heav-
ily.
"Hello? Yes, of course
it's okay to call...He's
had that reaction before,
hasn't he? I remember,
you telling me about it...
No. No, it's nothing to
worry about. That's how
the medication works...
Perhaps sit with him
until he falls asleep. Yes,
just to reassure him...
Okay. See you Sunday."
Almost 4 a.m. Again,
the shrill of the tele-
phone. This time it's
more worrying. "Why
don't you go to the emer-
gency room. It's probably
not serious, but let's be
sure. Call me from the
hospital if you need any-
thing."
Gila Rosen, R.N., is
nurse/counselor to a spe-
cial immuno-therapy
trial at Hadassah-
Hebrew University
Medical Center in
Jerusalem, now in_its
fourth year. Cancer and
lymphoma patients who
have undergone bone
marrow transplants run
a high risk of relapse.
Daily injections of
Interleukin II could be
the answer.
"Interleukin II is a
hard treatment, with
uncomfortable side
effects," says Ms. Rosen.
"We see all the patients
once a week, but we also
make ourselves available
to them 24 hours a day.
Two calls in a single
night is unusual — but
as the injection is given
in the evening, nighttime
calls aren't a rarity."
Born in Morocco in
1947, and trained at the
Neuilly Hospital School
of Nursing in Paris, Ms.
Rosen has worked at
Hadassah all her nursing
life.
"Hadassah has an
international name," she
says. "I knew of it long
before I moved to Israel.
"I joined the
Interleukin II project
because it could be very
important," says Ms.
Rosen. "But I also see it
as very much within the
mainstream of nursing:
being close to the
patient, helping to com-
fort and to calm fears,
and taking an increas-
ingly responsible role on
the medical team."
When patients
control the
medication, they
use less.
Sunday is immuno-
therapy day for Ms.
Rosen. Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday and Friday see
her in the recovery room.
"I've worked in the
recovery room since 1971
— as long as I've worked
at Hadassah," she says.
"When I started here, it
was the early years of
open-heart surgery. I did
a post-graduate course in
intensive-care nursing,
and have gone on to look
after patients undergo-
ing increasingly radical
surgery — most recently,
of course, organ trans-
plantation."
It was her recovery
room work that led Ms.
Rosen to put on a third
nursing hat — the one
she wears on Wednes-
days, and which is
demanding more and
more of her time, energy
and interest.
"I have a title now,"
she smiles, "and it's
unique, because so far
I'm the only person with
this job in all of Israel.
I'm Hadassah's acute
pain-service coordinator."
Pain and its effect on
recovery is a growing
emphasis in health care
worldwide. Many doctors
now believe that sup-
pressing pain speeds
recovery, as well as
improving patient well-
being.
Ms. Rosen now demon-
strates to doctors and
nurses the use of the
intravenous PCAPs —
setting a basal rate of
small, renewable doses of
pain killer, with a delay
time and the maximum
amount that can be given
in an hour. They see the
benefit — when patients
control the pain killer,
they use far less of it.
Part of Ms. Rosen's
service is visiting surgi-
cal patients once they've
returned to the wards.
"Whenever I have time, I
go and see how the
patients are getting on,"
she says. "I saw a woman
last week, following a
major gynecological oper-
ation.
" 'I've had this kind of
surgery before,' she said,
`and I remember the
agony I went through
afterward. But this time,
with the pump, I was sit-
ting up, pain-free, the
same day.'
"And that , of course,
is the kind of thing that
makes the long hours,
the broken nights, the
intense pressure and the
low pay all worthwhile." ❑