Who’s it for?

People with MS - & their families - who want to learn how to piece together the puzzle of living with a chronic illness.

Anyone considering a career in specialist nursing.

What’s it about?

The many & varied challenges distinct to MS nurses…. from symptom management, treating homeless & refugee patients, the ritual of medicine & the philosophies that shaped their practice.

What Will You Learn?

So many more tricks that you can put in your toolbox to live life to the fullest.

That ‘taking control’ of MS is not only possible but empowering.

“Taking Control Compassionately” reveals the ardent path of Specialist MS Nurses from around the world.

“A specialist nurse is one of the first people you will meet and speak to after you have been told you have a life-changing illness,” explains Ms Kingsford Smith. “They sit beside you as you try to wrap your mind around the quagmire of chaos you have just found yourself dumped in. Indeed, they will hold your hand and help you process the diagnosis and then gently guide you through those scary and uncertain early days.

“Specialist nurses become a one stop shop,” continues Ms Kingsford Smith. “As the stories throughout this book will illustrate, they can be considered part psychologist, part councillor, part clinician, part medical interpreter, part social worker, part educator, part mediator…. and the list goes on.”

Taking Control Compassionately chronicles the life and work of 15 Specialist MS Nurses from around the world – from Boston to Beirut to Birmingham and Brisbane – allowing the reader to peek behind the curtain to see how specialist multiple sclerosis nurses help their patients piece together the puzzle of chronic illness. 

Conversations traverse across the philosophies that shaped their practice – such as the ritual of medicine, story theory in patient consultations, symptom management and treatment development through to the many and varied challenges distinct to the nurse’s own environment, including nursing in a rural and remote location, treating refugee and homeless patients & the unique challenges of paediatric MS. Personal accounts and patient anecdotes illustrate the hidden and often enormous lengths MS nurses go to in providing care – and indeed better lives – for those they treat.

Taking Control Compassionately are stories that need to be told. It is inherently about the very hopeful outlook for people living with MS, in no short measure because of the tremendous pride, empathy and practical skills MS nurses bring to the table. 

June Halper

(USA)

“We have to keep reminding ourselves why we’re in the business. We’re in this to take care of people with MS. And what matters most to them should matter most to us.”

Joelle Massouh

(Lebanon)

“People often wonder about the differences I might contend with each day in Beirut, but I think no matter where you are in the world, living with and working in MS brings its own set of idiosyncrasies but also enormous commonalities.”

Therese Burke

(Australia)

“In Tibet we say that many illnesses can be cured by the one medicine of love and compassion.”
– the Dalai Lama.

Buy the books: