Alice Maupin, MSN, RN, OCN, AGCNS-BC
Alice Maupin, MSN, RN, OCN, AGCNS-BC
Clinical Nurse Specialist – Oncology Services
Duke University Health System
Oncology clinical nurse specialist Alice Maupin, MSN, RN, OCN, AGCNS-BC, based at Duke Cancer Center Durham (main campus), received two separate nominations from colleagues — one from clinical nurse specialist Meg Helsley, MSN, RN, AOCNS, and one from clinical educator Karla Lambson MSN, RN, OCN.
Maupin, who joined Duke/DCI in February 2017, is considered a clinical and subject matter expert in many areas of oncology nursing, wrote Helsley, including evidence-based practice process, genitourinary and gynecologic cancer care (inpatient and outpatient), head and neck cancer, team member well-being, standardized symptom management, and education.
Helsley noted that in addition to "mentoring and coaching others in achieving their professional development goals," Maupin "continues to advance her own personal knowledge and demonstrates what it means to be a lifelong learner, especially in palliative care, end-of-life, telehealth, triage, chemotherapy and immunotherapy for the disease groups she supports."
She’s been invited to speak to local and regional organizations on burnout and well-being in health care and nursing and has been serving in a national focus group on telehealth practices in oncology since the COVID pandemic began. This past year Maupiin served as co-chair for a large interdisciplinary head and neck cancer task force and a DCI-wide well-being committee.
The mother of two young children is becoming a certified death doula so she can ensure more people have access to a supportive and peaceful death.
“Alice exemplifies what it means to be a superstar! She is a highly skilled, extremely knowledgeable, compassionate oncology clinical nurse specialist who consistently displays and promotes Duke values,” wrote Helsley. “She has recently dedicated time to providing clinical support in the Outpatient Treatment Center on days where staffing shortages would impact patient care. She volunteers for a community hospice to provide respite care for the family. She sits with the dying who do not have family at their bedside.”
Lambson, in her nomination, drew attention to Maupin having “led a transformative education redesign with the GU nursing team in Clinic 5-1” (including instruction on GU fundamentals and weekly in-services, in collaboration with the pharmacist, covering all classes of medications the nursing staff would see in the clinic) — a move necessitated by an influx of many new nurses to the team.
She added that Maupin also made sure that the medical assistants in addition to the nurses could partake in this clinical education.
“This format is currently being adapted in other areas of the Cancer Center and the knowledge gained by the nurses will have a direct and positive impact on the patients cared for in the Cancer Center,” wrote Lambson.
On December 7, Maupin entered DCI's Seeley Mudd conference room with Helsley expecting it to be a business meeting. She was instead greeted by her six-year-old son — bearing flowers — her husband, parents, and a room-full of colleagues, including Lambson; Monica Cfarku, RN, MSN, BMTCN, CCM, NE-BC (assistant vice president and chief of Oncology Nursing Services for DCI); Jennifer Frith, MSN, RN, OCN, NE-BC (director of clinical operations for Duke Inpatient Oncology and ABMT); Kerri Dalton, MSN, RN, AOCNS; and Laura Sample, MHA (assistant vice president for Clinical Programs, DCI).
DCI executive director Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, read excerpts from both nomination letters and then, with DCI chief administrator Robin Famiglietti, PhD, presented Maupin with her Superstar Achievement Award.
Therese Hennig, PA-C, MPAS (director of Oncology Advanced Practice, DCI), Ashley Schneider, RN, Nicole Allen, BSN, RN, NE-BC, Carolyn Krisko, RN, Mary Susan Moss, MA, BSN, RN, OCN, and Cindy Bohlin, RN, joined the festivities via Zoom as did Maupin's Aunt Joel, Jeff Chitester, MS, MA (chief human resources officer, DCI) and Cheyenne Corbett, PhD, LMFT (senior director, Cancer Support and Survivorship, DCI).
When asked to say a few words, Maupin said, “I’m completely taken aback and I couldn’t do it without the support from my amazing friends and colleagues, leadership and the most important people in the world to me, my family. I started out 14 years ago as a nurse on 6300 and never in a million years did I think that I would just stay and ride this wave and what an amazing journey it’s been.”
Event organized and led by: Corinne C. Grodski (assistant to Michael B. Kastan, MD, PhD; Jeff Chitester; and Therese Hennig, PA-C, MPAS) and Tina Piccirilli (program manager, DUH Facilities and Logistics)
Photo by: Shelby Boyd, APR, Integrated Marketing & Communications Consultant, Duke University Health System