CARE Award Recipients

Oncology nurses provide important care to their patients, and Cancer Nursing Today seeks to remind and affirm for these nurses that resilience and role modeling are not only necessary but essential to providing high-level patient care. These nurses have been recognized for their commitment to this incredibly important profession through the CARE Award.

Inaugural 2023 CARE Award Recipient

Elly Sangermano, BSN, RN

Elly has been a registered nurse at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, for more than 30 years. She earned her BSN from Northeastern University and started her nursing career as a staff nurse in the Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. During her years at Tufts, she has worked in a variety of nursing roles, all within the oncology setting: inpatient staff nurse, ambulatory infusion nurse, nurse educator. She is currently working in the outpatient setting as an oncology nurse navigator. Elly is passionate about providing patient-centered, quality care while being mindful of her patients’ individual needs.

On receiving the Award, Elly said, “After 30 years of caring for oncology patients, this award validates the reason I became an oncology nurse and my continued commitment to my patients and their families through their cancer journey. I hope I’m able provide them a little bit of comfort and reassurance that they are not alone.”

Kathleen Coughlin, ANP-BC, BMTCN, also of Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, nominated Elly for Award consideration. Upon learning Elly had won the award, she added, “I have worked with Elly for over 20 years. She has a way with patients to make them feel supported and cared for. This award is all about who she is as a professional and a colleague. Well deserved.”

Cancer Nursing Today established the CARE Award to remind and affirm for these nurses that resilience and role modeling are not only necessary but essential to providing high-level patient care.

“It is important for us to recognize the essential work oncology nurses do and the significant contributions they make to patient care and the oncology community,” said JC Landry, CEO of Mashup Media. “The CARE Award is a way for us to show our support for these indispensable members of the health care team.”

2023 Runners Up

Denise Furtick, MS, BSN, RN

Denise is the Administrative Nurse Manager at OhioHealth for Infusion and Radiation Oncology at the Marion General Cancer Center, located in Marion, OH, not far from Columbus (GO BUCKS). She has been with the organization since January 2021. Denise has more than 35 years of nursing experience, which includes backgrounds in critical care, open heart surgery, and, most recently (past 16 years), oncology. She works in hematology with leukemia and post bone-marrow transplant patients.

Janet Shaffstall, BSN, RN

Janet works in the melanoma clinic at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH. She has more than 15 years of experience in oncology nursing. Janet is an excellent mentor to early career nurses and constantly seeks ways to improve patient care. She developed the method for testing cancer genomics now employed at the OHSU melanoma clinic.