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May 17, 2010
"There are two kinds of people: those who meticulously plan out their lives – and the rest of us, like me. I didn’t always know that I wanted to work with children with cancer, but I did know I loved taking care of babies, children, and teens.
In fact, when I started working at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles in 1973, pediatric oncology nursing wasn’t yet a nursing specialty you could choose. Back then most children diagnosed with cancer did not survive and because of this, our work focused on giving excellent supportive care for the children and helping their families survive such an unspeakable loss.
Over the years I’ve had a birds-eye view of the dramatic evolution in care and cure of childhood cancer. As a pediatric oncology nurse, I became passionate about the quality of life – and quality of living -- of children undergoing cancer treatment and their families. That passion drove me to return to school, first for a master’s degree and now as a doctoral student, to acquire skills to lead research in this area. Currently, my research interests center on health promotion and survivorship, and health communication/health literacy.
This January, I had the pleasure of attending the St. Baldrick’s Foundation first Research Priorities Summit. I was invited to represent the field of supportive care research and hoped my recommendations would be heard. I am happy to say that my suggestions were welcomed by St. Baldrick’s and the Foundation has now created a new grant category, the Supportive Care Research Grant.
I can’t begin to express how excited I am that St. Baldrick’s is funding this kind of research. There is no question that putting an end to cancer through basic and translational research is our over-arching goal, but being able to find evidence-based approaches to improving the quality of life for patients and their families during and after cancer is vitally important, too. It’s thrilling to think that nurses and other members of the multidisciplinary team will have an opportunity to do research in this area with the support of St. Baldrick’s. I look forward to the day when cancer isn’t a part of anyone’s childhood, but as long as cancer is with us, I believe we owe our patients and their families nothing less than the best possible future after all they have sacrificed to deal with this devastating disease."
Kathy Ruccione,
MPH, RN, CPON, FAAN
Co-Director, HOPE Program
Center Nursing/Health Education Program Director
Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
Keck School of Medicine, USC
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Center Nursing/Health Education Program Director
Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
Keck School of Medicine, USC
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