A nurse at Moffitt Cancer Center, Cydney points to two important factors that led to her career in cancer care: her mom and dad. While her mother is a breast cancer survivor of more than a decade, her father has recently been diagnosed with a recurrence of prostate cancer. “I mean, they inspire me every day with what they went through,” she says. “I just felt like even though I didn’t personally have cancer, that was my battle with cancer.”
Oncology nurse witnesses courage every day
Aside from her parents, Cydney witnesses courage firsthand on a daily basis, citing hematology patients as some who never fail to inspire her. As she explains, “They are some of the strongest oncology patients that we see. They go through long, rigorous treatments that require a lot out of them physically, emotionally, mentally…it inspires me because it makes me feel like the things that I deal with on a day-to-day basis that we fuss about, you know, are so small.”
It’s this inspiration that helps her remain strong for all her patients. And it’s not always easy to do. But she feels that giving each patient the time and attention they need is one of the most important job requirements for a Moffitt nurse. “We’re the person they can cry to, laugh to, talk about their day,” she says. “So if they know that we’re in their corner and we’re advocating for them, I think that helps them get through their process.” She claims her best days are simply the ones that allow her to give each patient the attention they need.
The courage to face cancer
Cydney pursued her doctorate in nursing at the University of South Florida and become a nurse practitioner, specializing in oncology. Occasionally—and perhaps naturally—she wonders whether she would have the courage required to face a cancer diagnosis of her own. The fear of the unknown. Adapting to the changes cancer invariably brings. The understanding that life will never be the same. And then, with a bit of reflection on the courage she’s seen at Moffitt, she finds her answer: “Just knowing the patients that I’ve come to know over my years of nursing…I think I could.”
