Oncology Nurses Make ‘the Most Difficult Situation … Much Easier’

A caregiver recognizes the oncology nurse that cared for her father when he received cancer treatment at the place he used to work.

Alice Pons, B.S.N., RN, is an amazingly compassionate, intelligent and caring person who makes the most difficult situation — helping patients with cancer — much easier. She was one of the team of nurses who cared for my dad as he was being treated for cancer at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center of Johns Hopkins University, where she has worked for over 12 years.

As an immunology research nurse, Alice is responsible for a caseload of patients undergoing treatments through clinical trials, and her energy and humor are as therapeutic as the experimental drugs she administers her patients each day. Her positivity is evident when you see her smile as she enters the room. She remembers every detail of her patients — on a personal and clinical basis — and her ability to comfort patients and their loved ones as they navigate difficult and uncertain treatments is unsurpassed. She laughs often and lightens the serious atmosphere in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center with a light-hearted attitude that reminds her patients and their loved ones that each day is a gift. In addition to her ability to comfort folks going through experimental treatments with unknown outcomes, her in-depth knowledge of the details and complexities of each of her patient’s treatment plan is critical to their management. She is responsible for careful monitoring, reporting to the research team and determining the best dose of the drugs being administered, as well as for managing their side effects for her patients. Her role in the care and treatment of patients with cancer in the clinical trials at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center is critical.

There is no doubt that the patients assigned to her caseload truly benefit from her expertise, her overflowing compassion and her wonderful ability to put everyone at ease under very difficult circumstances, and this makes Alice my No. 1 choice for the Extraordinary Healer Award. I hope you agree.

Editor’s Note: This is an essay submitted by Amy Alexander for the 2021 Extraordinary Healer® Award. Click here to read more about CURE®’s Extraordinary Healer® Award for Oncology Nursing event on April 30, 2021.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, don’t forget to subscribe to CURE®’s newsletters here.