A Richland woman has received national recognition for her work as a cancer nurse.
Registered nurse Christie Santure, 63, is the winner of the 2020 Extraordinary Healer Award for Oncology Nursing presented by CURE Media Group, a multimedia platform devoted to cancer updates and research that reaches more than 1 million patients.
Santure, who works as an infusion nurse at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh, recently received the award for the Caring for the Caregiver program she launched to provide a support group for people caring for someone undergoing cancer treatment.
Santure said she came up with the idea for the program during an interaction with a caregiver.
“A woman told me that she was struggling to manage working and caring for a loved one but didn’t want to ask for help because she didn’t want to place a burden on her family,” Santure said. “She wasn’t taking care of herself and was feeling so fatigued, so we found an outside support group because we didn’t have anything like that on-site.”
That encounter led Santure to survey caregivers at Hillman to gauge interest in a support group and the types of issues with which they were dealing.
Many responded that they could benefit from such a program.
“I thought to myself: my goodness, the caregivers are right here sitting in the treatment room,” she said. “This would be a perfect opportunity to bring them together to share what they are going through.”
Santure said a caregiver’s physical and mental health can often suffer because they don’t want to leave the side of the person for whom they are caring.
“The biggest thing we try to convey in the group is that caregivers have to take care of themselves,” she said. “I did some research while developing the program and found it astounding that so many caregivers forgo their own medical appointments and suffer from not sleeping or eating well.”
The program, which meets twice a month at the cancer center and is being developed for other UPMC sites, also helps caregivers deal with stress by providing practical tools.
“We teach them about mindfulness and how to relieve stress with simple things such as yoga and breathing exercises,” she said. “We also can make referrals for behavioral health and other outside sources if they are continuing to struggle.”
Gary Marzolf of Swissvale said Santure’s program helped him get through some trying during the months while he was caring for his partner David Swatler following surgery for esophageal cancer.
“It’ was very useful to meet people who experienced many of the same things that came up when I was caring for David,” Marzolf said. “I think the most important thing they stressed was to take care of yourself while you’re the caregiver and to accept help when it’s offered or ask for it when you need it.”
Marzolf said Santure’s program also was able to connect him with a nutritionist who advised him how to prepare nutritious meals that Swatler needed to consume each day through a feeding tube.
“David was already a small guy, but after the surgery, his weight dropped from 135 pounds down to 104 pounds,” Marzolf said. “The nutritionist was able to help me create meals that provided the calories he needed without all the sugar.”
Swatler is cancer-free and has regained much of the weight he lost, Marzolf said.
Santure said she became interested in nursing while volunteering as a candy striper as part of a community service project in high school.
“I fell in love with the nurses and the compassion they had,” she said. “I knew nursing was my calling.”
Following the advice of her father, Santure skipped the nursing diploma programs that were available and instead attended the nursing school at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.
“My dad told me I needed to go to college and get a bachelor’s degree because I would really need that in my career someday,” she said. “I thank him for having such great insight.”
A native of Saginaw, Mich., Santure moved to Pittsburgh a dozen years ago when her husband took a job here.
In addition to Santure, CURE Media also honored Elizabeth Farrat with its Finest Hour award, which recognizes “the selfless achievements of an extraordinary nurse working to provide care during the Covid-19 pandemic.” Farrat works as a preoperative nurse liaison in the operating room at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
“We are pleased to give Christie and Elizabeth these awards for their tremendous dedication, expertise and helpfulness in caring for patients,” said Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences, the parent company of CURE Media Group.
“They have gone above and beyond to make a difference in the lives of patients, their families and their caregivers, and we cannot thank them enough for all that they do every day,” he said.
Brent Pfeiffenberger, senior vice president and head of U.S. Oncology for Bristol Myers Squibb, which sponsors the awards, said it is important to recognize the people who provide care to those battling cancer.
“Nurses play a critical role in a patient’s cancer journey, which often extends beyond diagnosis and treatment to providing support and guidance through every challenge and triumph experienced during care,” Pfeiffenberger said.
Santure and Farrat were recognized Sept. 17 during the 2020 Extraordinary Healer Award for Oncology Nursing virtual celebration, which was held in conjunction with the Oncology Nursing Society’s virtual conference.
