Submissions are welcome from oncologists, oncology nurses, and other cancer caregivers. E-mail only, please, to: mailto:[email protected], and include affiliation/title, address, and phone number, along with a photo, if available.
All It Takes Is a Moment
Shy, quiet, unassuming, he walks the halls of a busy oncology clinic.
He speaks no words yet watches with large brown eyes as nurses flit from patient to patient administering chemotherapy behind curtained walls.
IV pumps alarming, telephones ringing, staff stressing-none of these distract him from his mission.
He calmly lies on the bed to comfort a patient. Sometimes he'll step on a stool to be closer to patient in a recliner or visit with familiar faces in the waiting room.
As one patient wrote, "It was so nice to have him rest his head on my arm. I do so much appreciate the moment."
All it takes is a moment. A moment to give someone a reason to smile, to provide distraction, to provide comfort.
He is Yoda, our four-legged cancer caregiver, unsung hero amongst us!
Pat Inada, RN, OCN, is a Staff Nurse at The Queen's Cancer Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. She wrote this poem about Yoda, a two-year-old old golden retriever who is the first facility dog at the Center. "He comes to work with me and works exclusively at the Cancer center," she writes. "He was trained in Maui at Assistance Dogs of Hawaii."