Stewardship Report to
the Josh Gottheil Memorial Fund for Lymphoma Research
April 27, 2020
Prepared by Anizia Karmazyn, Executive Director
Excerpts
Since 1995, the Oncology Nursing Foundation, with support from the Josh Gottheil Memorial Fund, has provided the Josh Gottheil Memorial Career Development Awards to over 100 nurses caring for patients undergoing bone marrow, stem cell, or cellular therapy transplantation.
With cancer treatment methods for transplantation continually evolving and improving, it is imperative that nurses stay abreast of the changing landscape to ensure their patients are receiving the best care. Transplant nurses understand the importance of their role in patient care and seek to gain a better understanding of the latest treatments and care management on an ongoing basis. But continuing education support is not readily available for nurses in direct care roles. As such, the funding provided to them from the Josh Gottheil Memorial Fund and the Josh Gottheil Memorial Career Development Award program is vital.
Awardee Testimonials
[Upon Receipt of Award]
“As a recipient of the 2019 Oncology Nursing Foundation Josh Gottheil Memorial Bone Marrow Transplant CareerDevelopment Award, I have the opportunity to attend the Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR in 2020. These meetings highlight the ongoing research efforts that have advanced the practices of both Bone Marrow Transplants and Immunotherapy.
I am so excited to be a part of the effort to fight Cancer by learning about the cutting edge treatments and therapies that will target specific diseases and, in doing so, I hope to help patients navigate the physical and emotional complexities of diagnosis, treatment, and life after transplant or immunotherapy. This opportunity will strengthen my nursing knowledge and skill. Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity!”
[Post Conference]
“I would just like to thank the Gottheil family for extending this scholarship opportunity in honor of Josh. While it is impossible to erase the pain of losing somebody so tragically, I hope that they will find comfort in the fact that because of Josh and their generosity, we are making progress every day to fight hematologic cancers and hopefully improve the patient experience during and beyond treatment. I am humbled to be a recipient of this award, and I treasure the experience I had attending the TCT conference in Florida. I will forever be inspired and motivated to improve my practice and encourage my community with the knowledge I have gained. Thank you!”
-Aiya Alberg, BSN, RN
University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA
“The 2019 Oncology Nursing Foundation Josh Gottheil Memorial Bone Marrow Transplant Career Development Award, in enabling me to attend the ASTCT Conference, will greatly enhance my career goals in improving both our patient and nursing education. I look forward to learning about Car-T cell therapy, effector cells, chronic GVHD treatment and more. This opportunity enables me to further strengthen my support as a resource to my Inpatient Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Team.”
-Adrienne Catedral, RN, BSN, BMTCN, Pediatric BMT Coordinator
Memorial Sloan Kettering KIDS, New York, New York
“Thank you so much for this grant that I was awarded. I am honored to be representing my institution at the 6th Annual ASTCT Fall Clinical EducationConference. The field of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is a small but mighty team ( now rebranded as MSK Kids) and I hope to inspire and encourage more of my team-mates, pediatric hematology and oncology RNs and NPs, to be involved in the Oncology Nursing Foundation. It will be an invaluable experience and education in the latest practices of Bone Marrow Transplant treatment, and it would not have been possible without this grant.
As a nurse clinician, we are at the bedside administering new chemotherapies and executing new treatment plans on a regular basis. It was very exciting to learn about new therapies and the impact on the nursing practice. I really enjoyed the seminar on survivorship for BMT patients. I learned about how patients hesitate to attend a survivorship clinic because they are worried about leaving their primary BMT doctor, but the goal of survivorship care is to be supplemental. This was one of the most moving seminars because a pediatric BMT survivor who is now a medical student presented about his struggles post BMT and focused on what he thinks were most important for him: fertility, relationships, and financial support.”
Kate Gaspar, RN, BSN, BMTCN
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
Summary of Program Impact
The Oncology Nursing Foundation is deeply grateful for the ongoing support provided by the Josh Gottheil Memorial Fund of the Oncology Nursing Foundation. This Fund has provided important funding annually for oncology nurses under the Josh Gottheil Memorial Career Development Awards program. As demonstrated by the testimonials provided by our awardees over the years — nurses, their patients and patient families are clearly impacted in positive ways by the education and nursing practice development nurses have received. We are deeply grateful for your longstanding commitment and generosity!