Every Day Is Different

For Nurse’s Week, we sat down with Lyndsay Litwin, RN, a nurse clinician in the Cardio-Oncology and Cardiac Amyloidosis clinics at Calgary's South Health Campus, to learn more about her role.  

What does your day-to-day routine look like?  

My day is varied. One day I will be in my office ordering and reviewing testing, following up with patient who have recently started new medications, or checking up on a patient who is in heart failure. The next day I might be in clinic with patients and educating patients and their families on cardiac medications and heart failure. No two days are ever the same.  

Tell us about your patients. 

Between the two clinics, we follow about 1,300 outpatients. In the Cardio-oncology clinic, patients are monitored for changes in their heart function that may result from their chemotherapy or seen if they develop cardiac symptoms for their cancer treatments.  

Our amyloid patients are of all different ages, and they can be quite ill. We follow them very closely. When I started in the clinic, there was no treatment for these patients, but in the last five years, several treatments have been developed. There is a lot of promise for these patients, and I find that exciting.   

What do you like about your job?  

I love helping people navigate the complexities of our health care system. When a patient who has been feeling terrible improves, that is very fulfilling.  I am also part of a fantastic team – everyone, from doctors to our booking clerk, everyone is so supportive.   

Tell us about your nursing journey. 

I always knew I wanted to help people. When I was in Grade 9, I started volunteering in the hospital, and I thought nursing would be a cool job. In my early years, I struggled in school, but once I found nursing, I thrived. I worked in rural nursing, internal medicine and cardiology before taking this job. I have been in this role for almost seven years, and I still feel challenged every day.  

What’s something you are proud of?  

I am working on a patient resource, Living With Amyloidosis, with several colleagues in the Prairie Amyloidosis Nurses Network (PANN). It’s a comprehensive guide for patient’s living with cardiac amyloidosis. I am passionate about making sure people understand amyloidosis and proud of this resource.