My husband has been a long-time patient of your Cancer Center. He recently just completed 6 months of chemotherapy there. While being a patient there, he came in contact with many of the kind, caring and very well-educated nurses you have on the cancer floor and in the chemotherapy suite.
It has been our good fortune to have had Nurse Heather Treffert, care for him on many occasions. In addition to the normal reactions you might expect a chemotherapy patient to have, he has experienced some relatively serious allergic reactions to some of the chemotherapy drugs used in his treatment. These reactions were unexpected to begin with and quite scary once they occurred. When he experienced his initial reaction, Heather was there and was with us from the moment she realized he was having a reaction to the time we walked out of the hospital. It was extremely reassuring to know she was right there and that she was on top of every change in his body and monitoring it closely, meanwhile keeping in close contact with the doctor to ensure the reaction was under control. Heather always presents herself professionally yet gives us a side of herself that manages to lend a personal kindness and caring that we have really come to enjoy and we look forward to seeing her whenever possible.
In addition, we have noted that she presents that same demeanor to all of her patients and during her interactions with the rest of the nurses and staff. The entire unit seems to function as a great team whose main goal is to help their patients, remain professional and yet not lose sight of the importance of making a personal connection with their patients.