Amanda has worked tirelessly in our clinic to ensure optimal patient care, and she has done this in a number of ways. She routinely makes sure to address every issue of concern expressed by every patient, never minimizing or ignoring any symptoms or problems that the patient may have. She is always happy to go the extra mile for the patient no matter the situation and no matter how busy we are. Amanda routinely will assist with additional blood draws, specimen acquisition, and extra vitals in clinic, all with a smile on her face and never a single complaint. She will accompany and guide our patients to other areas of the clinic and hospital when needed, and she always thoroughly monitors our sick patients waiting in clinic for their hospital admission. It is not uncommon for Amanda to escort the patient all the way to the emergency department from the cancer center if they are sick and being admitted.

She has her Master’s Degree in Nursing, as well as Certified in MedSurg Nursing. She received her promotion to CNIII and plans on starting a project for her CNIV. She participates in various staff education and development program, including the Oncology Core Curriculum. She leads our team huddles and participates in Tier III huddle, and is a great clinic resource for nurses and CMAs/RMAs. This nurse consistently goes above and beyond to support her patients and team members. She specifically works in a group which tends to have a younger population of adult patients diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Often these patients are very anxious, writing in for patient advice often. This nurse responds to these patients supportively, often in less than an hour, to help alleviate patient anxiety and problem-solve.

She has led our program’s efforts in telemedicine, and has embraced this challenge as an opportunity to improve access for patients. As we needed to continue seeing patients both in person and via telehealth because of the pandemic, she worked seamlessly with other staff and providers to ensure continuity of care — appropriately triaging patients and facilitating all logistics of this complicated process. Additionally, she has helped lead our efforts in the clinic around patient education and side effect management. I have been an attending physician for 10 years, and I can attest that her knowledge regarding the assessment and management of side effects related to therapy exceeds that of many practicing physicians.

This nurse collaborates with team members on multiple levels, with the goal of continuity of patient care. She meets individually with our patient scheduler assigned to the group to identify areas of opportunity or additional follow-up needed. She partners routinely with pharmacy and social work to help advocate for patients with financial needs, as the cost of many chemotherapy regimens and can be very high. This nurse is very cognizant of social determinants of health, and advocates for patients who are identified by NCCN Distress Screening Tool completion, to facilitate resources for her patients. She keeps the provider team aware of patient needs, which the provider team uses to support treatment and care needs.

This exceptional nurse routinely demonstrates elements of Swanson’s Theory of Caring. Her patients recognize her as essential to the care team, often mentioning her by name in patient comments shared. She knows her patients on a personal level, celebrating their successes and trials both in person and now from afar due to the recent pandemic as we try to support our patients. Not only has this nurse been recognized for patient care among the team, she has been with and done for her team members. The COVID pandemic has been challenging for so many individuals. Although this nurse, like many on our team, was affected by changes related to COVID, she stayed positive, listened to others and supported others emotionally, and always offers to help wherever she can. She demonstrates she cares through her actions every day.

This nurse has been the crutch that our oncology patients and team members have needed to stand successfully, to navigate through this challenging year.