By Julien R. Fielding
The Daily Record

Most of us know the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would want others to do unto you.”

Dorothy Wahrman, RN, OCN, oncology nurse, goes one step further; she actually lives by it. And, because of this, she was recently named winner of CURE magazine’s 2010 Extraordinary Healer Award for Oncology Nursing.

Born in O’Neill, Neb., Wahrman grew up during a time when women had few career options.

“You could be a nurse, a teacher or you could marry a local farmer and be his wife,” she said. Because her older sister was a nurse, and because the nuns at her Catholic school encouraged her to use her “talents,” Wahrman decided to give nursing a chance.

The youngest of four siblings, Wahrman was 14 when her mother was widowed as a young woman. She always stressed to her daughter that she should get an education to make sure she could support herself.

It turned out to be good advice; Wahrman herself was widowed 19 years ago, with two teenage boys to raise on her own. Those boys, Mike and Mark, are thriving in Omaha and have presented her with three grandchildren as well.

Nursing

After high school, she attended St. Catherine’s School of Nursing in Omaha and graduated in 1970. “I was in the last class to graduate,” she said. “A lot of three-year diploma programs were closing their doors.”

Since she got her first job in 1970, many things have changed in the health care field.

“In the mid-1970s, oncology was not the sub-specialty it is now,” she said. Wahrman herself started in general medicine, on the surgical floor at Bergan Mercy, and it was there that she became interested in oncology. At that time, those who were diagnosed with cancer were treated in the hospital, on an outpatient basis. Now, more often than not, they seek out a service such as Nebraska Cancer Specialists, a “subspecialty practice of 15 collaborating physicians who are devoted to oncology and hematology.”  Its specialists practice at many area hospitals.

Wahrman has been employed with this “regional leader in cancer diagnosis, treatment and research” since 2001. Her job, four days a week, 10-hours a day, is to educate new patients, monitor their treatment and manage any side effects that they might encounter.

“It used to be that no one could be in treatment for more than two hours at a time; most were in for half-an-hour, and everyone sat with an emesis basin [that little kidney-shaped basin] on their laps,” she said. “We also only had four or five drugs that we could give patients, and treatment didn’t last as long.”

Times have certainly changed.

“Now we have numerous types of drugs and much better treatment for side effects,” she said. “We have better anti-nausea drugs. Some patients even come in and eat lunch while getting treatment. And treatment can last up to eight hours, several days in a row. New drugs are being discovered all the time, making treatment much, much better. Survivor rates are much better. I hope that one day I’ll be out of a job.”

But until that day when a cure can be found for cancer, Wahrman will continue making a difference in the lives of her patients and their families.

And she does make a difference.

Just ask Valerie Bosselman, the woman who nominated Wahrman for the Extraordinary Healer Award. In her essay, Bosselman called Wahrman “the most remarkable woman” whose “ability to sense the every need of patient and family was the most beautiful and natural part of her character.”

She singled out the special care and tenderness that this caregiver took while attending to her daughter, Megan. And she described, in heartbreaking detail, how, during Megan’s last moments in 2008, when she finally lost her battle with adrenal cortical carcinoma, Wahrman “tenderly” cradled Megan in her arms. “So motherly in her stature, it appeared she was pressing Megan tightly into her bosom, but in reality she was pressing my girl into her heart for the last time.”

Wahrman admits that when she read this essay, she cried.

“When you lose a patient, it’s very hard, but you have to separate your work life from your personal life,” she said. “You just do what you have to do, and you do it every day without realizing that what you do makes a difference. I just keep thinking that I want to be treating others as I would want to be treated; as my family would want to be treated.”

She manages her stressful job with the philosophy that when she’s there, she’s 100 percent there; when she’s home, she’s 100 percent there. “You have to be able to get away.”

To be a nurse, a great nurse, Wahrman said that one has to be “caring and considerate” and recognize that each patient is an individual who has different needs. “You have to be flexible and have a sense of humor, because it’s a great stress reliever. It’s good for you and your patients.”

Judging by Bosselman’s essay, Wahrman has all of those qualities and more.

CURE magazine’s publisher, Susan McClure, said, “While we know each and every oncology nurse is a healer and an asset to those on the cancer journey, when choosing a winner for this event, we look for those who go above and beyond the call of duty and it is obvious Dorothy did just that.”

This is the fourth consecutive year that CURE magazine has announced the winner of the Extraordinary Healer Award for Oncology Nursing during a special ceremony. This year, nearly 200 cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and peers, from more than 38 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, submitted essays. CURE magazine is a free, award-winning publication from Dallas-based CURE Media Group – the national course for cancer patient education. To read Bosselman’s entire essay, go to www.curetoday.com. For more information about Nebraska Cancer Specialists, go to http://www.nebraskacancer.com.