Oncology nurses are the lifeblood of cancer care, providing indispensable support for patients and families as they navigate the physical and emotional challenges of a cancer diagnosis. Oncology nurses are also educators and innovators, serving as trusted resources and working at the forefront of new cancer treatments.
In oncology nursing, transplant and cellular therapy occupies a specific niche. These nurses help patients access advanced transplant and cell therapies for blood cancers and other diseases, guiding them through a life-altering diagnosis.
Many of the nurses on UF Health’s Adult Hematologic Malignancy, Transplant & Cellular Therapy Unit have worked there for decades. Their deep experience not only ensures patients receive the best possible quality care, but allows them to nurture the next generation of nurses and move the field forward.
The nurses stay because of the lifelong bonds they forge with patients and families over weeks or even months of treatment. They stay because the compassionate care they provide is an essential part of patients’ healing. Indeed, they stay because of the patients.
This Nurses Week, we’re honoring our oncology nurses for their unwavering dedication and commitment. We asked some of the nurses on the Hematologic Malignancy, Transplant & Cellular Therapy Unit what makes being an oncology nurse rewarding, their advice to new nurses and more.
These are their stories, in their words.
Jamie Dees, M.S.N., R.N., CNL, TCTCN (M.S.N. ’14)
Oncology Nurse Leader
“I’ve been a nurse for 15 years and for my entire nursing career I’ve worked in oncology. I started as a surgical oncology nurse working night shift, like many of our new nurses do, and I’ve been working with patients who have blood cancers for the last 12 years.
Oncology nursing is a specialized field focused on caring for patients with cancer, including prevention, treatment, symptom management and end-of-life support. It is unique because nurses have to understand complex therapies like chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation, while closely monitoring for severe side effects.
Oncology nursing centers on caring for patients with cancer while forming strong, meaningful bonds with both patients and their families. Because treatment often extends over long periods, nurses become a steady source of support, building trust and providing emotional guidance through every stage of their journey.”
On what makes being an oncology nurse rewarding:
“I’m grateful to be an oncology nurse because I have the privilege of supporting patients and their families through some of the most challenging moments of their lives while making a meaningful difference in their care and comfort.”
“I’m grateful to be an oncology nurse because I have the privilege of supporting patients and their families through some of the most challenging moments of their lives while making a meaningful difference in their care and comfort.”
Nicki Santerfeit, M.S.N., R.N., TCTCN
Interim Nurse Manager, BMT Clinic
“I’ve been a nurse for 22 years and I’ve been in this program the 22 years. When I was in nursing school, I was doing a pediatric rotation. At the time, pediatrics and adults were combined. I got to choose between the burn unit or BMT unit. Years ago, my mom was a lung transplant recipient. I wanted to do something to that effect, so I chose the BMT rotation. I went for one day and I knew that’s where I wanted to be. As soon as I got the opportunity, I applied. This is my home; I’ve grown up here. I feel supported. I can’t imagine working anywhere else or in any other department.”
On what makes being an oncology nurse rewarding:
“What makes being an oncology nurse rewarding is knowing we make a difference for the patients. They go through so many struggles and hard times and they appreciate what we do for them. They appreciate knowing we care and we actually become part of their families. They’re family to us; they’re not just patients. My goal when I became a nurse was if I could make someone feel better for five minutes of their day with whatever they were going through, then I’ve accomplished something. That’s what I feel we do.
“They’re family to us; they’re not just patients. My goal when I became a nurse was if I could make someone feel better for five minutes of their day with whatever they were going through, then I’ve accomplished something. That’s what I feel we do.”
I have people I still communicate with from years before. I’ve had patients who come see me if they’re in town 14 years later. You go home knowing you’ve made a difference and that’s the most important thing.”
On advancements in the field:
“To me, it’s rewarding to go to an academic institution because of the opportunities to learn and the many new things happening. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of different treatments and opportunities for patients that have arrived that weren’t here back when I first started. There are so many more opportunities for longevity for patients that weren’t here when I first started.”
On her advice for new nurses:
“My advice to a new nurse would be to remember that’s someone’s family member. People have to find their special niche. This specialty is hard for some people. You have to learn to know what your niche is and be as dedicated as you can. Be the best you can be at what you do and put your heart into.
I always tell people that in my opinion, this is the best place to work in the hospital. I like coming to work and being here every day. My family and people who know me always comment, ‘It’s so nice to see someone who likes their job’ and I do. I love my job.”
Susan Kochtan, B.S.N., R.N., TCTCN, OCN (B.S.N. ’25)
“I’ve been a nurse for 27 years in June. My entire nursing career has been in bone marrow transplant at UF Health. My mom was going through breast cancer while I was in college and I wanted to help other oncology patients, so that’s why I chose that specialty. I was able to do my last nursing rotation in the BMT Unit, then applied and stayed. I knew that’s what I wanted. I first went to Santa Fe College. I decided 25 years into my career to get my B.S.N. and I went to UF and I graduated last May with my B.S.N.”
On what makes being an oncology nurse rewarding:
“What makes being an oncology nurse rewarding is the human connection with the patient and their family, loved ones and friends. It’s a community. Our patients on this unit stay for days to week to months, sometimes six months. So there’s time to get to know the patient and the family and forge a bond with them. That’s why I do it.
I have a patient who calls me every Oct. 5. This year will be 27 years since his transplant. I was a very new nurse at the time. He calls me every year to thank me.
You see patients across their entire journey. I’ve spent half my lifetime in this job as an oncology nurse. The best part is the reward you have from the connection with your patients. That’s what keeps me coming back every day. The connection is part of patients’ care too; it’s part of what helps them get through their treatment and cope. It means a lot to them.”
“The best part is the reward you have from the connection with your patients. That’s what keeps me coming back every day.”
On advances in the field:
“All of the different treatments give me hope. We have patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, that when I started in nursing, there were very few treatments for. And now, just in the last few years, there are a multitude of treatments for them and things they can just get as outpatients. I have to learn all the time. You can’t stay stagnant as an oncology nurse because things change so quickly.”
On her advice for new oncology nurses:
“Embrace the entire cancer care journey that a patient goes through, from diagnosis to treatment to outcome, including end of life.”
Dannielle Obermeier, M.S.N., R.N., TCTCN (B.S.N. ’16)
Interim Nurse Manager, BMT Unit
“I’ve been a nurse for 13 years and all 13 years have been at UF Health on the BMT unit. When I was a nursing student at Santa Fe College, I did my transition here. Coming into it, I had no idea what BMT was. I spent three weeks working with an amazing preceptor and I fell in love with the patients. You could really see the impact the staff had on the patients. I knew this was the kind of nurse I wanted to be. I wanted to be able to impact someone in their deepest, darkest days and provide that hope for them.”
On what makes being an oncology nurse rewarding:
“What makes being an oncology nurse rewarding is being that light for someone. They’re here unexpectedly. Sometimes they come to the ER for what they think might be a cold or a really bad case of the flu and it turns out they have leukemia and they have to be in the hospital for a month and they can’t go outside and they have to change their diet and all of these things. Finding those little pockets of joy, even if it’s just the familiarity of having patients for weeks at a time and them just smiling like, ‘Oh hey, it’s you again.’ Being that joy for someone when they can’t control so much of what’s happening to them is special. You can control how they feel in your presence. It’s really rewarding to know that they appreciate the care you’re giving. You can see that and feel it.
“What makes being an oncology nurse rewarding is being that light for someone. Being that joy for someone when they can’t control so much of what’s happening to them is special. You can control how they feel in your presence.”
You develop those relationships over time because they’re seen in our outpatient clinic and they come back in either for the rest of their therapy or for complications. You see them progress. It’s really awesome to see when they have a positive outcome and get to go home and just come back for their annual checkups. You almost don’t recognize them because they’re doing so good. You get that closed loop and you can see the impact you have on them.
We take any chance we can to celebrate patients. We’ve had nurses get grants so that on transplant day, we sing them happy birthday and give them a bag full of goodies to make their stay better like crossword puzzles and blankets and a deck of cards. Those little opportunities to be meaningful give me joy. I’m a giver.”
On learning and growing as a nurse:
“I’ve had the opportunity to continually grow in my career. I started as a night shift nurse. I worked there for five years. The opportunity came to become the clinical leader, so I stepped into leadership. I just knew it was a really good organization to work for. I saw the opportunities for bedside nurses to have an impact in quality and care. Seeing how our unit can affect the whole hospital and what other awesome things people are doing in the hospital inspires me to do better for our patients.
What’s kept me here is my loyalty to the patients and the specialty. It’s so niche and it’s always changing. I’m always learning something new. I feel like it’s my life calling. UF Health has continually supported me. I got my B.S.N. at UF while working and had tuition reimbursement for my master’s degree. It helped tremendously in reaching my professional goals. They put so much value into nurses.”
On her advice for new nurses:
“You don’t always have to do something big to have a meaningful impact. Just being there for someone. Therapeutic communication goes a long way. It is very much a skill. Listening, but pausing and making eye contact, letting them know, ‘I’m here for you.’ Being in leadership, the things I hear about the great care we give is not, ‘I only had to get stuck once for my IV,’ it’s ‘They really listened to me. They knew how I liked my coffee. They knew me as a person, not a patient.’”
“They knew me as a person, not a patient.”
Janine Cruz-Sands, B.S.N., RN-BC, TCTCN
“I’ve been a nurse here more than 16 years. I knew I wanted to do something different at the time and wasn’t sure what, other than that I wanted to be somewhere I could see the outcomes of my efforts. I had a friend who worked here at the time and I started picking up her shifts and fell in love. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
On what makes being an oncology nurse rewarding:
“You have the opportunity to meet people at the very beginning of a shocking and life-altering diagnosis and you get to help them adjust and learn about the changes happening to them and their families. You take them through the spectrum of their treatment. You get to be part of something that’s very unique and incredibly life-altering. Working here reminds me to make sure my time away from here is as meaningful as I can make it. It’s a good reminder to make the most out of everything you have.”
“You get to be part of something that’s very unique and incredibly life-altering.”
On her advice for new nurses:
“Try to find something positive about every day, regardless of how difficult you felt it was. Think of something positive you did, even if it’s something minor like you told a dumb joke and you made a family member smile. The little things make a big difference on days like this.”
“The little things make a big difference on days like this.”
Grace Solis, B.S.N., R.N.
“I’ve been here for 24 years and I was a nurse in the Philippines for eight years before that. I am really lucky to have landed here. This is my original unit and I’ve never left. I love working here. I love my coworkers and I love my patients, especially. They’re the nicest patients that I have encountered. Our patients are knowledgeable. The nurses, the doctors, the social workers, everybody is working together to give them information about what they have. We encourage them to ask questions so they know what needs to be done.”
On what makes being an oncology nurse rewarding:
“You will see patients on their worst day and on their best day. Sometimes I go to the clinic and I see patients in their best outfits, with makeup on. Those things are rewarding. You’re part of their journey. The most rewarding thing is when you see patients ring the bell after they’re discharged. It gives me goosebumps. We had a pediatric patient who came back after 12 years. He’s a grown man now. We love him so much. For us, those things are an accomplishment. You took care of him. That is the most rewarding feeling you’ve ever felt as a nurse.”
“We had a pediatric patient who came back after 12 years. He’s a grown man now. We love him so much. For us, those things are an accomplishment. You took care of him. That is the most rewarding feeling you’ve ever felt as a nurse.”
On her advice for new nurses:
“My daughter just stared here as an oncology clinic nurse. I told her, ‘You have to be nice to your patients. You have to be a safe nurse.’ They trusted their lives to you, so you have to make sure that you’re treating them as your family member or as yourself. If you were taking care of yourself, what would you do? Just give the best. That’s what all of us are thinking here.”
“If you were taking care of yourself, what would you do? Just give the best. That’s what all of us are thinking here.”
