 Matthew Stasik speaks to University of Maryland School of Nursing Students at USG on 11/22 |
Matthew Stasik, a Springfield, Virginia native and teenage cancer survivor, made headlines in The Washington Post in 2003 when he took five of his oncology nurses to senior prom. After being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, followed by leukemia, beginning at age 11, Stasik felt closer to his nurses than any particular girl at school. Nearly 10 years later, with cancer behind him and a thriving healthcare career in front of him, he visited a class of pediatric nursing students at USG on November 22nd to share his story and emphasize the impact that they will have on their patients' young lives.
During his talk, he discussed the influence that his nurses had on him in the day-to-day setting and on his long-term development. He explained that their individual personalities contributed to his comfort in the hospital, and that their role in his treatment helped guide him toward a career in the healthcare field. He shared stories of jokes and joyful moments that he experienced with his nurses, amid the years of harsh chemotherapy, physical pain, and emotional turmoil.
Today, the contagiously upbeat and supremely personable Stasik is a graduate of Penn State University and an emergency medical technician at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia - the same hospital where he experienced years of treatment. With his personal and professsional experience, he is considering further education in the medical field.
Like his nurses, the students he spoke to at USG were interested to know more about his life as a young cancer patient. They asked several questions about the quality of his social life, his experiences in school, and the behavior of his family during treatment.
To Stasik, these kind of questions suggested that they have what it takes to be great nurses.
“Pediatric oncology nurses have the hardest job in the world,” he said. “The best thing you can do for the patient is to build a rapport and get them to open up to you about their lives.”
The Washington Post recently published a follow up feature about Matthew’s story.
Read it here.