Cancer experience helps nurse find calling

Nicole Chung remembers the moment that set her on a path to becoming an oncology nurse.

Her toddler son’s inadvertent bump of his grandmother’s breast caused a painful reaction, eventually leading to a cancer diagnosis and successful treatment. During those difficult days, Chung served both as a parent and a caregiver. The experience changed Chung as she saw cancer, and her own abilities, in a different light.

“When my mom was diagnosed, all sense of control seemed to be lost,” Chung said. “As my mom recovered, post mastectomy, I saw there was an opportunity to redirect my life. I’d underestimated myself.”

She moved from her parents’ California home, earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and a position at UCHealth, first as a volunteer then to positions as a CNA, nursing tech and, after her May 2017 graduation, as a registered nurse working in inpatient oncology at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central. She currently works in outpatient infusion oncology at UCHealth Memorial Hospital North.

The path as a single parent who worked and went to college was difficult. Money was tight, giving Chung another life experience, that of being poor.

“UCHealth gave me an opportunity,” Chung said recently. “They took a chance and it became a stepping stone. I’m grateful.”

As an infusion nurse, Chung administers heavy doses of potentially life-saving drugs to three or four patients at a time throughout an eight-hour shift. Her goal is to make each patient feel like they are the focus of her attention, or even a member of her family. She’s quick with a joke, to flash a picture of son, Jacob, now 11, or share the newest family addition, a golden doodle, Mochi. When appropriate, she’ll engage in conversations of a spiritual nature, leaning on her own faith and the experience of growing up as a minister’s daughter.

Her approach varies with the patient and where he or she is in their cancer journey.

“The patient is never ‘the taxol patient,’” Chung said, referring to a chemotherapy drug she may administer. “They are people. I connect with them at a personal level. I want them to relax and to realize they are my focus, my entire focus.”