Nurses play an essential role in educating cancer patients about clinical trials. They spend a lot of time with patients, building a relationship of caring and trust. In her lectures to acute care nurse practitioner students at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Joan King emphasizes the unique position they are in to serve as a resource to patients. Nurses can help patients weigh their options for treatment and dispel the myths that surround cancer clinical trials.

“People need to know they will receive above the standard of care in a clinical trial,” Joan says. “Frequently, the oncology nurse is the one to help folks know the next steps and the opportunities that are out there.”

A lot of cancer clinical trials are underway at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, so Joan’s students have an opportunity to see how the studies work as they spend time in each of the hospital units. Many of Joan’s former students have chosen oncology as their subspecialty.

Joan has used her own experience as a cancer survivor in her lectures to her students. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 and had a mastectomy and follow-up radiation therapy. As a nurse practitioner she was familiar with cancer, but being the patient was a completely different experience. As for many people who survive cancer, Joan’s experience was not entirely negative. “I was able to walk through that phase of my life and realize that cancer was not the end,” Joan says. “It was the beginning of looking at the world through a different set of eyes.”

Joan shares her cancer story with patients at Vanderbilt as well. She sees patients in the pre-anesthesia clinic who are scheduled for surgery, and if they are newly diagnosed with cancer, she lets them know she, too, is a survivor. “I tell them that I understand it is a difficult time for them right now, but that there is hope,” Joan says.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope™ is an opportunity for Joan to help the public become more aware of clinical trials. And it is a chance for her to demonstrate to her acute care nurse practitioner students how important it is for them to support cancer research.