NEWS

Two cancer center nurses recognized for excellence

By AMY PHILBECK
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

CHAPEL HILL -- Two oncology nurses recently were recognized for the care and dedication they provide to cancer patients every day.

Soraya Flores-Tan and Rose Dunaway received the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s 2002 Oncology Nursing Excellence Awards.

"Nurses at the cancer center have a special job," said Dr. Shelton Earp, director of the center. "They provide so much of a patient’s care and become close to the patient and family. They form enduring and memorable bonds. These awards are one way of honoring their excellence and commitment to the field of oncology nursing."

This is the first year for the center’s oncology nursing awards, and Earp said the annual recognition will continue. The award comes with a $1,500 stipend for professional education activities.

"We are honored to name the outpatient award in memory of Charmayne S. Gray, one of UNC’s and the nation’s top oncology nurse practitioners, who died tragically in an auto accident earlier this year. Charmayne exemplified all the best about nursing – the individual care given to each patient, dedication to the highest professional standards and leadership in organizing oncology programs," he said.

Dunaway, who has worked as a pediatric oncology nurse at UNC for the past 17 years, was nominated by Dr. Julie Blatt, chief of UNC pediatric hematology-oncology, and Dr. Stuart Gold, associate professor of pediatrics.

"While we have a great crew of nurses in our clinic – each of whom should be getting an award – it is to Mrs. Dunaway that we turn for the ‘difficult-to-needle-stick patient,’ and it is ‘Miss Rose’ whom the patients ask for once they have experienced her special touch," Blatt wrote in nomination of Dunaway.

Flores-Tan, who received the inpatient nursing award and who serves as an oncology resource nurse for UNC Hospitals, received similar commendation from her nominator Beverly Edmonds, nurse manager for the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit at UNC. Flores-Tan has developed numerous teaching tools for new nurses and has organized resources for new staff and families, said Edmonds.

"Soraya is recognized by peers and medical staff for her outstanding clinical expertise," Edmonds wrote in nomination of Flores-Tan. "Patients and families consistently praise her knowledge."

"It is nurses such as Rose Dunaway and Soraya Flores-Tan that make UNC Health Care system and the UNC Lineberger’s cancer programs so special," said Earp.

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