Chapter 08: Recognizing Nurses and Nursing: The Brown Foundation Outstanding Nurse Oncologist Award
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Description
In this segment, Ms. Houston talks about winning MD Anderson’s first award for an Outstanding Nurse Oncologist (1982). (She has also served on the section committee.) She briefly recounts the history of the award then describes some of the peculiarities: it carried a $10,000 cash award (now $15,000), given at a Board of Visitor’s dinner, but awardees had to keep the honor secret (no longer the case). She describes the criteria used to select the Outstanding Nurse from among the names presented by nomination: going beyond MD Anderson’s very high standards for patient care and also making an impact developing programs and materials.
Identifier
HoustonDA_02_20120727
Publication Date
7-27-2012
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Institutional Processes; Career and Accomplishments; MD Anderson History; Institutional Processes; MD Anderson Culture; Giving Recognition
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
00:00.00 Okay. We are recording. I am Tacey Ann Rosolowski. I am sitting here in the Fannin Bank Building on the eighth floor with Debbie Houston. We are about to have our second interview session. It is July 27, and the time is about seven minutes of two.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
We were talking just before the recorder went on, and you said that you had wanted to talk a bit more about the Arceneaux Award. Maybe you could tell me what the origin of that award is, and you also won it, so maybe you can me about all of that.
Deborah Houston:
Well, okay. The first year that award was given out was in 1982. The original name of the award was the Brown Foundation Outstanding Nurse Oncologist Award; I think is what they called it. It was aimed at a clinical nurse or someone with clinical—a clinical assignment.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now is that an institution award?
Deborah Houston:
It is an institution award.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay.
Deborah Houston:
Sponsored by the Brown Foundation. They still sponsor the award—the Brown Foundation does. When it started, it was a $10,000 award that was tax-free, but the tax laws have changed since then. The first year it was done very much in secret. There was a little thing in the newspaper about it being done, and there was something in the hospital’s newsletter that went out that this was being done, but it was—there was a committee but there were no nominations by staff or anything like that. It was all done in secret.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Why was that?
Deborah Houston:
Because it was a big deal, I guess. I don’t know. I remember joking with my mother—with my family—about “Ha ha ha, wouldn’t it be funny, you know, if I won.” They were like, “Yeah, right.” Well, I did. I was very shocked, but I did and was nominated by the physician—one of the physicians that I was working with at the time.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And who was this?
Deborah Houston:
Clifton Mountain, who was the head of the Thoracic Surgery Department. The first few years they gave the award to two nurses. Then, it went to—really they gave it—there were some nurse managers that won it. Nobody at the director level. They did give it to nurse managers. Then, they went to one nurse a year. Then, the award changed to the Ethel Fleming Arceneaux Outstanding Nurse—Oncology Nurse Award. Ethel Arceneaux was a nurse at MD Anderson for many, many years—very much focused on clinical nursing, worked here twenty-five plus years. Actually, passed away here from pancreatic cancer after she had retired. They have now named the award after Ethel. It’s very, very nice. Her daughter had worked here, as well. It now continues on with an annual award. It’s a $15,000 a year award now. With the tax laws, you have to pay taxes on it. The foundation was gracious enough to extend the award so that it covers your tax burden. Now, the award is very clearly for bedside nursing staff—people that have—for several years, there were a lot of advanced practice nurses that won because it had a lot about your publications and presentations, which was—and they’re all very fine nurses and very deserving, but it was felt like we were missing the bulk of the staff, which was the bedside, care-giving nurse, so the award now is aimed at that type of staff. The nomination is—a lot nurses are involved in the nomination. There are some physicians that are on the committee, but it is a very nurse-run committee and selection. To me, it means more. Well, it meant a lot when I won it—no question—and it’s meant a lot to everyone that’s won it, but the fact that your nurse colleagues are the ones that are reviewing the nominations. It’s been recently awarded, this past year, to a nurse that works in one of our regional care centers, so it’s been really nice.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now why do you think it was decided at this time in 1982 to start this kind of an award? What was happening in the hospital or maybe in medicine in general that made it time to—
Deborah Houston:
Well, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know exactly how the—Joyce Alt was the director or—the head of nursing at the time—whether she was out trying to recruit donations or other the foundation came to us to reward—to say, “Let’s honor nursing.” I’m not sure. There had always been lots of awards, of course, for physicians throughout the years. There had never been anything for nursing staff of that caliber. I think it was a real testament to the institution to take that donation and put it toward nursing, and it has continued today. Now, the Brown Foundation does a similar sort of award at other hospitals within the Medical Center. I know they do it at Methodist. That was a real special time. The other nurse that won, whose name was Eufemia Chua—we knew about it. We found out about it, but we couldn’t tell anybody. The only person that knew about it was the head of nursing. We couldn’t tell anybody, and they gave the award to us at a Board of Visitors Dinner. It was a very fancy, formal dinner and all that. They don’t do that anymore.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
You couldn’t—
Deborah Houston:
We couldn’t tell our staff. I mean, I could tell my family. We couldn’t tell anybody yet. They were coming around taking pictures of us, doing things, you know, because there was a lot of publicity about it in the paper when the first one was given. That was kind of weird.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
When were you actually able to announce it generally to people?
Deborah Houston:
After the Board of Visitors dinner.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
How interesting that they handled it that way.
Deborah Houston:
Anyway, it was exciting.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. How did that—how did the establishment of that award affect kind of the morale of nurses?
Deborah Houston:
I think everyone was very, very excited because it was like, “We’re finally being recognized for the contributions that we give to patient care and that they’re seeing that there’s value in what we do.” I think it was great. Today, it is—every year when we have the award the former winners that are still here—even some that have retired come back. It is wonderful to see these people and the staff that now win the award—several of them have mentored some of—older staff have mentored people that are winning the awards now. It is really nice to see that kind of relationship that has been built over the years. You may reward a nurse that works on a particular unit, but with the publicity that she gets within the institution—it’s like people come up—they’re treated like they’re special, which is really nice—and they are. It’s really, really nice.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Have you ever been involved in the selection committee or—
Deborah Houston:
Yes, I have. The last couple of years.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What kind of criteria does the committee look at for the selection of those winners?
Deborah Houston:
Well, we look at things that they do—well, obviously, we get recommendations from physicians, from their co-workers, from their supervisor, from patients. It is stories that are written about them, and they write a profile as to what being an oncology nurse and what working at MD Anderson means to them. We really try to look at things that they have done in their career here—or elsewhere—but primarily here that have made an impact on the profession of nursing or on the patients that they take care of. Being an excellent nurse, a caring nurse, follows up with their patients, provides good education, gives wonderful care, gives me my medicine on time—to me that’s an expectation of all nurses, but what are those things that made you special that you went above and beyond with the patients on. Some of it has been with programs nurses have—even clinic staff nurses have done—or special material they’ve developed or things patients have told us about interactions with them that really make it special.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s really exciting.
Deborah Houston:
There is a review process and a scoring—we review everyone’s packets. They’re all—all the nominations are blinded. Only the chairman knows who--and her secretary that helps her do the packets—are the only people that know who the people that were actually nominated, so you can’t be biased on where they work or who they are or their title even—well, I think we left their title in. We knew they were a clinical nurse or whatever, but you didn’t know where they worked necessarily. They’re scored. We usually narrow it down to three, the top three finalists. Everyone agrees on who those 3 are. Then, we have lunch—the last few years we have had lunch with those people—just an opportunity to talk to them. Their work and their resumes have sort of reflected what they’ve done, so it’s just an opportunity to get to know them. We then fold blindly, individually, and come up with who the winner will be. We had excellent candidates this year, again.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Who was the winner this year?
Deborah Houston:
A nurse from the Regional Care Center in Sugarland, whose name—she is from Lebanon, so it’s unusual— [Claudine] Jreissaty—and I can’t think of her last name.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
We can find it.
Deborah Houston:
Who worked on the main campus in the Breast Center and then moved to the Regional Care Center at Sugarland.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Do you remember anything special about her that convinced you she was the one who should be the winner?
Deborah Houston:
She had done a lot of development of materials for the staff about breast—I think it was about breast cancer and chemo—things like that that are being used as training materials in all of the regional care centers now.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Wow.
Deborah Houston:
She had a real wonderful story about how cancer had touched her life with family and how she had always wanted to be a nurse and be at MD Anderson and how she finally got to this country and got the ability to do that. It was really special. It’s a great award and, hopefully, it will continue for many, many years.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Was there anything else from last time that you wanted to revisit or—?
Deborah Houston:
I don’t think so. I’m sure something will come up.
Recommended Citation
Houston, Deborah A. and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 08: Recognizing Nurses and Nursing: The Brown Foundation Outstanding Nurse Oncologist Award" (2012). Interview Chapters. 891.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/891
Conditions Governing Access
Open
