Faye Turner, BSN, RN, OCN, didn’t start her career in medicine, but now she can’t imagine doing anything else.
For the past three years, she has been a nurse in the intermediate care unit (IMCU) on 8 West at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, after working as a hospice nurse. She is also the Nurse of the Month for July.
“I realized after working in hospice that I wanted to work with oncology patients,” Turner says. “It’s very gratifying helping patients and if I can bring a positive attitude to their day and help them through a difficult time, it’s very rewarding.”
Her dedication to patients is what prompted her supervisor, Samantha West, BSN, RN, MHA, Clinical Nurse Manager for 8 West, to submit her name for recognition.
“Faye approaches her care from a holistic perspective, including psychosocial assessments in her daily routine, no matter how critical her patients are or how busy her day is,” West says. “She is very inclusive of families in her care, and her previous hospice experience affords her a comfort level in initiating and participating in goals-of-care discussions, which are very important in an oncology setting. She is supportive of her patients and their families and is an excellent patient advocate, and she performs this in a very professional, culturally competent, compassionate way. To say she is dedicated to the total patient experience is an understatement.”
Turner has found her niche with her team at Roswell Park.
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Sign up!“I love my coworkers. If it wasn’t for my coworkers and having such a good team up on this floor, I wouldn’t be here,” she says. “It’s a supportive environment. I feel lucky working here.”
West adds that Turner is “an excellent role model for her colleagues. Her calm, kind demeanor in all situations is admirable and an attitude that is so appreciated by me, the patients and all the staff here at Roswell Park. She is an exemplary nurse and the IMCU staff looks forward to seeing her on the assignment sheet when they are starting their day, as they know they can look forward to a day focused on team efforts, a positive work environment and excellent patient care.
“Thank you, Faye, for your dedication to our patients and all you bring to the table. You are the ‘whole package’!”
