April 29, 2020 – As an oncology nurse at UCLA Medical Center’s Santa Monica Hospital, Dallas Lawry (’14 BS Nursing, Minor Psychology) does her best to dodge the coronavirus every day.
“I work on the oncology floor where a majority of the patients are very immunocompromised. I am impressed with the emergency preparedness actions UCLA is taking, and I feel safe to work there during such an uncertain and truly scary time,” Lawry explains. “The hospital is taking extra precautions to prevent the possibility of any COVID-19 patients from coming into contact with UCLA’s cancer population.”
Although she continues to work with hospitalized cancer patients, administering chemotherapy and managing oncologic emergencies, she knows as the crisis ramps up, she can be reassigned to another unit at any time.
“It is quite possible that all medical-surgical nurses will be caring for these [COVID-19] patients regardless of specialty,” she says.
In addition to her nursing job, Lawry is a part-time “open sim lab” instructor at CSUCI. If that wasn’t enough to keep her occupied, Lawry is also pursuing dual graduate degrees— Doctorate of Nursing Practice and Family Nurse Practitioner— through Loyola University New Orleans.
You can read Dallas’ full story by visiting https://www.csuci.edu/news/spotlights/alumni/dallas-lawry.htm.
For more information contact the Communication & Marketing department at csuci.news@csuci.edu.
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