From left: MARIANNE SMITH, RN, ONC, and PAMELA O’NEIL, M.S.N, NP-C, AOCNP, APRN
PHOTOS BY EDI DIBUSZ
Compassionate, caring and brave are the phrases I might use to explain Marianne Smith, RN, ONC. She is an oncology nurse within the infusion clinic at Optum Care Most cancers Heart in Henderson, Nevada. She has been an authorized oncology nurse for the previous 23 years and a registered nurse for 29 years.
Marianne’s colleagues describe her as a “spunky, enjoyable, lovely particular person and one of the best affected person educator within the clinic.”
One colleague said, “Marianne presents info to sufferers in a approach that decreases their anxiousness and fears, whereas giving them sufficient info to make sure they perceive their therapy.”
One other colleague commented, “Marianne is somebody I can depend on for recommendation and data. She is at all times keen to assist in any approach doable.”
Marianne displays compassionate care together with her mild method towards sufferers by listening intently to their fears, diffusing their anxiousness with a heat blanket and delicate contact, and attending to their uncomfortable side effects in a well timed and protected method. One affected person described Marianne as “a heat hug with a mug of scorching chocolate, when it’s wanted most.”
Marianne’s capability to assume past the therapy and attend to the entire particular person demonstrates her braveness as a affected person advocate. We not too long ago had a younger feminine affected person with a incapacity that requires a service canine to take care of her always. Throughout a therapy session, the affected person confided to Marianne that she had utilized for incapacity as she was having problem discovering employment. As a result of younger age of the affected person, her incapacity advantages have been going to be an inadequate quantity to cowl the price of her dwelling bills, inflicting her anxiousness and misery. Marianne reached out to the palliative care nurse practitioner within the clinic to hunt assist for the affected person. Whereas palliative care supplies help to sufferers within the clinic, they often don’t help with profession planning or employment teaching; nonetheless, they agreed to fulfill the affected person. They labored together with her to develop her resume and supplied info on incapacity organizations in Nevada, in addition to supplied emotional help and encouragement alongside the way in which. With Marianne’s help, the affected person obtained gainful employment and elevated her vanity, as she is now offering for herself and her household.
Nursing is the artwork of caring with compassion, integrity and braveness. These are all attributes of Marianne Smith. She actually is a unprecedented healer!
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