Paula Esam

Registered Nurse, Kaweka Hospital, Hastings, NZ

I have been a Registered Nurse for 43 years as well as my three-year hospital-based training. I have done many different types of nursing in that time, but the last 25 years have been mainly surgical nursing in both public and private hospitals.  I currently work at Kaweka hospital in Hasting working in pre-admissions, admissions and PACU. In that time, I have done a lot of ORL nursing.

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Don't Stop Living

I am not here to talk about my nursing career but to share my journey with having 2 different types of cancer in my throat 37 years apart.
I want to give you a patient's perspective on what it has been like comparing the care and treatment from when I was 27 to now at 64 and living the last 37 years with the ongoing effects of radiotherapy.
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Being a nurse and being sick is not always a good thing, the saying " A little knowledge is a dangerous thing rings true for me.......