My Scope of Practice: Have Program, Will Travel

   If people tell you No, you haven't asked the right way. - Beverly Hampton

   Hopefully, Beverly G. Hampton, RN, MSN, CWOCN, CS, likes Willie Nelson.

   When one hears about Beverly's activities, the song "On the Road Again" comes immediately to mind. Recently notified that she will receive the Ohio State University Professional Achievement Alumni Award, one of her first reactions was "I'll get to go see the OSU/Penn State game!"

   But there is no mistaking her sense of pride and accomplishment in creating alternative learning experiences for nurses pursuing ET certification. The Ohio State alumnus earned her MSN at the University of Texas, Houston, with a triple focus in oncology, gerontology, and research. Her association with MD Anderson (affiliated with the University of Texas), the largest cancer hospital in the world, made going somewhere else difficult (the Texas Medical Center where MD Anderson is located encompasses two medical schools, numerous healthcare facilities, and four collegiate nursing programs). She had become a nurse in 1959 and began moving through different areas such as emergency room head and neck, hematology, and gynecology. Beverly eventually found that things "got routine." 

   Considering her alternatives, she decided that ET people "always looked happy." Anderson already had four ETs but needed two more. She applied and was selected to attend the MD Anderson ET Nurse Education Program for her ET/WOCN (now CWOCN) instruction. She became a staff ET, serving from 1979 to 1983, and then Head of ET Nurse Education in 1983. "In the 1990s, I saw some things that needed doing," Beverly says. "One was to create educational programming that better fit the needs of our nurses. The fact is that in 50% of all cases, women are heads of households. Programs are not readily accessible in many areas. We needed an alternative forum for education that fit the criteria and philosophy of the institution."

   Beverly convinced the nursing department to support her proposal for offsite programs. Offsite Coordinators must be Masters of Nursing-prepared and ET certified; Gail Marculescu, a colleague and former student located in Mountainview, Calif. was qualified to help. Marculescu's hospital, El Camino, ever forward-looking (the hospital was the first in the nation to go into computer charting), hosted the first offsite program, providing nurses, physicians, and administrative support for the educational program. The event also included a Vendor's Day to give ETs exposure to new products and programs and draw in the larger community. "Our first offsite class had 19 students," Beverly remembers. "The next year there were more. In our third year, the Mountainview hospital was in flux, so we moved to San Jose with the help of Coni Ellis, a nursing outreach director and WOCN program coordinator (she was one of four people supporting Beverly for the OSU award). At about the same time, we went to the University of Kansas, which has a strong Anderson connection, and to Colorado Springs (in conjunction with Rocky Mountain Rehab). The program offered a great way to work in an interdisciplinary atmosphere and do training."

    Numerous health institutions throughout Texas and other states have hosted the educational students by precepting. The programs included 4 weeks of lecture and 160 hours clinical time over 8 weeks. Beverly made sure staff could attend some individual lectures free of charge. At the completion of the program, participants could elect to take the certification examination. From feedback, Beverly learned that more than 80% of her students earned their certification. Another traveling opportunity involved the Rural Mobile Nursing Education Program sponsored by MD Anderson. Nurse instructors visited 50 to 110-bed hospitals in rural Texas providing cancer, wound, and ostomy information." Beverly's last offsite program was in Fort Worth at the end of the 1990s. She explains, "The many changes in nursing, influenced in part by managed care and hospitals combining, compelled nurses to seek other employment. It also was a difficult time for nurses with specialty training because the thought was 'Anybody can do their jobs'. I was considering retirement and wanted to move nearer to my children. Plus, by 2000, I'd become a patient with two forms of cancer."

   Clinicians who expected Beverly to quietly submit to their ministrations soon discovered that she was not about to let her medical condition or medical staff control her life. "They tried to keep me captive," she complains. "Now that I was a patient, I was reminded that nurses need to be supportive. The things I didn't think would bother me - hair loss and restricted activities - did. I challenged my medical staff to figure out how to make me happy." They responded to Beverly's wishes. They allowed Beverly to continue her educational duties. She started doing consulting for the local hospitals. She went to Europe with her daughter-in-law. She created a jaunty "sparkle cap" for women who have lost their hair. She already is involved with the American Cancer Society doing group support; the breast surgeons at the University of Texas, Dallas now want her to educate breast cancer patients on recovery.

   Beverly says one of the career-related problems inherent to nursing is its cyclic nature- needing, not needing, needing nurses. "I've gone through that cycle three times. Nursing shortages are a matter of people being uninformed. When nurses are let go, you need to think about who will care for the elderly, for example." Beverly is also adamant that all nurses should be trained at the baccalaureate level, saying "We have one level for medical doctors and podiatrists." She also believes that nurses should be clinically active and have patient experience to be effective consultants and direct source guides. "Like most ET nurse educators, I've worked with the cream-of-the-crop students," Beverly says. "To participate in educational programs, they are inconvenienced, they need to give up their salaries to attend programs, and they have to study a great deal in a short time. But they also recognize the rewards - they enjoy their independent role as well as the input from staff on care issues. More than 1,000 students have graduated from the MD Anderson program during my 20 years."

   This "Who's Who in International Nursing," "Who's Who in American Nursing," and "Who's Who in American Women" honoree says she "adores the response from patients with whom I've had on-going relationships." Her ties have withstood the challenges of time and distance... only small obstacles to a woman who has incorporated so many miles and experiences into her scope of practice.