Susan Caramico

By Brian Sodoma

Friday, May 1, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Nevada Cancer Institute doctors sometimes call Susan Caramico the cruise director. The title may seem odd in such a setting, but after awhile, one sees why it’s appropriate.

The clinical oncology nurse has held supervisory positions in her past jobs in medical oncology departments at University Medical Center at The University of Arizona in Tucson; a bone marrow transplant physician’s practice in Berkeley, Calif.; and at the Nevada Cancer Institute, where she briefly served as manager of its medical oncology unit.

But just because today Caramico simply goes by the title of clinical nurse doesn’t mean her impact is any less meaningful at the Nevada Cancer Institute. The 19-year nursing veteran is happy to do plenty of behind-the-scenes work to help doctors stay focused on patients and research.

“I try to take away the bumps in the road to make things move smoothly. I want to make sure there are no delays,” she said. “I can get on the phone with a medical director at the insurance company and tell them what (our doctors) would say. In those situations, just the slightest thing can be off, and you can get denied.”

In the case of aggressive cancers like lymphoma, the time savings her behind-the-scenes work can provide is crucial for patient care.

Caramico also is highly valued for her ability to train other nurses. When she arrived in Southern Nevada three years ago, she partnered with human resources staff to write job descriptions for the hematology team of Nevada Cancer Institute’s medical oncology clinic. Today, Caramico enjoys training new nurses, putting them through her three-month orientation program and also teaching the 13.5-hour chemotherapy classes as well.

“I always gravitated toward teaching and mentoring new nurses, even when I was young,” she said. “All nurses don’t have the patience to teach. But with the high turnover, we should be nursing our new graduates along.”

Caramico gravitated toward oncology because of some of the unique differences in care for cancer patients.

“When you’re an oncology nurse, you really get to see the whole patient and whole family through the continuum of care,” she said. “They come in, most of the time, with their bone marrow fairly healthy and strong. Then, for the treatment, they kind of deteriorate and come back up because their care is so involved with all the systems. You really get to bond with the patients, and the family becomes a care team. Those patients really need you all the way through.”