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When Shelby Robin was 12 years old, she was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare cancer that attacks and warps the bones. Surviving cancer is a brave struggle all on it’s own, but Shelby Robin took things a step further.
In 2010, she returned to the same cancer center where she received treatment for her disease, MD Anderson in Houston, as a student in their pediatric inpatient unit. It’s a good thing she did. As a result of her outstanding work, Robin has been able to advance through her studies to becoming a clinical nurse and charge nurse working in the very same pediatric ward that she was once a patient in.
As an award for her outstanding service and for her passionate commitment to treating patients, she has been awarded the 2015 Brown Foundation Award for Excellence in Oncology Nursing. This award is the highest honor that can be given to one of the several thousand nurses at MD Anderson, and it is a testament to the quality of her work ethic and to her dedication to patient care.
For Robin, her childhood with cancer has had a unique impact on her reasons for becoming a nurse, and as an experience she draws on when caring for her patients.
“The nurses held my hand, made me feel normal, talked me through everything and helped me to not be afraid. To me there’s no higher honor than to become one of those people for the children at MD Anderson,” said Robin. Robin’s experience may be unique, but her attitude towards nursing at MD Anderson is one shared by her coworkers and by practitioners across the world. As a reward for her shining example to the nursing community, Robin will receive a plaque and pin commemorating the award and a $15,000 prize.