SE 8 Jaime Carlstedt RN (ASCENT Graduate)
I graduated from Beth-El August of 2010 with a really good idea of what kind of nursing I wanted to do... A few years ago I got diagnosed with Melanoma. My diagnosis was good, it was stage I and only required emergent surgery which is great... except that my oncologist told me that if I had waited even one month to see my dermatologist it would have progressed to stage IV. It was hard news to swallow but since I was in the middle of my senior year getting my biology degree I didn't have time to process; I “pretended” it didn't happen. This defense mechanism worked really well until a year ago. I knew I had cancer; I had the scars to show it but I didn't want to deal with it. I did, however, have a very great health professional team at the time that left a huge impact on my life. Because of these individuals I wanted to become an oncology nurse (or so I thought). So when I passed the NCLEX exam I took a job on the Oncology Unit at Penrose. I had a fantastic manager that was aware of my history with cancer. My thought process at that time was that I had cancer andI would be able to connect with my patients on a deeper level. This part was true, but since I had never really dealt with what happened to me, my emotions about my own historystarted to get in the way. I was on the 11th floor from December 2010 to April 2011 when my emotional well being deteriorated quickly. I started having anxiety attacks at work, nightmares about my own cancer coming back, and there came a day when I could no longer handle it.After talkingto my RN Residency Educator, Diana Patterson, about my situation, she gave me the courage to speak up about how I was feeling and seek help to get transferred. I explained my situation to my manager who helped me transfer to the OR. During the interim between transferring Bill(EAP) helped me work through my issues. I enrolled in the Cancer Centers Cancer Transition class which gave me some really helpful tools to coping with my past. Thanks to everyone’s help I am now in a great place. I love my job!
From Diana Patterson, BSN, RN ASCENT Coordinator: My first introduction to Jaime was through a phone conversation the week before the graduate nurse (ASCENT) program started. Her grandfather had died and she was headed out of state for the funeral. She wanted to let me know that she would miss the first day of the ASCENT Program. I assured her that it was not a problem—I would have a binder ready for her at Session 2 with all of the previous week’s information and asked her to stay for an extra hour to make up the “hands on” skills at that time.
I anticipated dealing with some grief issues when I met Jaime the following week due to her grandfather’s death. When we were doing our 1:1 training, I inquired how she was doing. Little did I know that it would open up a floodgate of emotions regarding Jaime’s own cancer journey and her current experience on our inpatient oncology unit. I encouraged Jaime to talk to her new manager and explore EAP counseling. Because of my own personal cancer journey, I was able to readily identify with Jaime’s situation. Additionally, I was also doing a counseling rotation for my master’s degree in the Penrose Cancer Center and knew that they getting ready to kick off the first Cancer Transitions seminar—space was limited. Jaime took the last available spot!
Throughout the remainder of the ASCENT Program, I checked in with Jaime weekly. Her fellow ASCENT new grads encouraged and supported her. Because Jaime was in transition between her oncology position and a not-yet-available position in the OR, there was no one to pay her time for the last session of the graduate nurse program. Sylvia Kurko, the Education Resources Coordinator agreed to pay Jaime’s time so she could graduate with her ASCENT Program cohort. Since Jaime moved to the OR, she radiates her enthusiasm for her new career path. While no one would ever choose to go through cancer, I do believe that God puts people in your path to help you along the way.