Celebrating Nurses 2008 : Robin Bass
The 'ray of sunshine'
Robin Bass brightens the day of those fighting cancer
Special to the News & Record
Cancer patients are fighting a battle, and Robin Bass is fighting right along with them.
A registered nurse with the Moses Cone Health System Regional Cancer Center, Bass, 49, graduated from the nursing program at Rockingham Community College in 1980.
She worked at Wesley Long Community Hospital years before it became a part of the Moses Cone Health System.
Bass worked with the intravenous teams in the hospital, feeling drawn to cancer patients. Eventually the 28-year career veteran switched to oncology full-time to work with patients undergoing chemotherapy.
"People say, 'Isn't your job sad?' I tell them these people have become family," Bass says. "I help them have the best life they can for their remaining time. We help them fight the disease or live longer with it."
Bass says she doesn't know anyone whose family has not been touched by cancer, including her own.
Her father, one of six children, saw three of his siblings struggle with cancer. And her grandfather died of the disease. Fighting cancer is personal for Bass not only because of her own family, but because of the many families she has welcomed into her heart while on the job.
"I try to look at my patients and try to put myself in their place. I try to give the best I have. I know I'm not perfect, but I try my very best," she says.
She is pretty near perfect in Louise Bullard's book. Bullard's husband, Eugene, was diagnosed with lung cancer just six months after Louise had been treated by Dr. Donald Murinson for anemia.
Then the Bullards met Bass.
"When she entered our room, she was like a ray of sunshine," Bullard wrote in her nomination of Bass. "She welcomed us with a big smile, warmth and compassion. We immediately felt at ease."
After Eugene's alarming diagnosis, his wife called Bass about Dr. Murinson being Eugene's oncologist. Bass works with Murinson on scheduling and treatments in the chemotherapy room.
"She helped us get an appointment much earlier than we had expected," recalls Bullard. "With the new diagnosis of cancer, we had a lot of fears, concerns and questions. Robin was so kind to help us. No matter how small or how great they were, she was always willing to help."
"The patients are very scared and nervous at first," says Bass.
She notes that a chemotherapy session can vary in length, from less than an hour to a six-hour stint.
After working as a registered nurse for 13 years, Bass returned to school in the evenings and earned her bachelor's degree in nursing, a difficult task while working full time.
She often takes her patients' numbers home with her and continues to try contacting them in the evening if she has not reached them during the day. Her patients have become her family away from home. She celebrates their victories and cries with them when news may not be what they were hoping and praying to hear.
"They always say they feel better when they leave," Bass says. "I always take a part of them with me, too. My life is better for having known my patients and having been their nurse."
- Marlene Baruch, Comprehensive Women's Center
- Robin Bass, Moses Cone Cancer Center
- Kathy Cosgrove, Northwest Pediatrics
- Susan Geubtner, Randolph Hospital
- Steve Mabe, Wesley Long Regional Cancer Center
- Della Nance, High Point Regional Health System
- Suzan Rand, Alcohol & Drug Services
- Brenda Staley, The Alliance Urology Center
- Donna Thomas, Rockingham County Dept. of Public Health
- Maggie Turner, First Presbyterian Church
