UT School of Nursing oncology researcher believes in treating patients’ spirits as well as bodies
HOUSTON – (April 16, 2009) – When Terri Armstrong, Ph.D., enters the room of a brain cancer patient in the outpatient clinic at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, she wants to bring more than her medical expertise. She wants to bring hope.
Terri Armstrong, Ph.D.
Armstrong, associate professor of the Department of Integrative Nursing Care in The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing, feels it’s important to treat the whole patient, including their mental well-being, giving them the will to carry on and face adversity.
“I’ve entered some of their rooms and they have a calendar indicating how long they have left to live,” said Armstrong. “They’ve had someone tell them they have six months to live and they think they’re going to die on that date. We have no way of knowing that.”
For her efforts in furthering the role of the oncology nurse and her dedication to making her patients’ lives better, Armstrong has been named the recipient of the Oncology Nursing Society’s Clinical Lectureship Award. She was scheduled to speak at the ONS Annual Congress in San Antonio on May 1.
“This award provides me the chance to share what I have learned and done with my patients and colleagues and to impart my knowledge and experience to other nurses who may only see a few brain cancer patients each year,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong’s latest research efforts look at side effects from treatments and/or drugs prescribed for brain cancer patients and quality-of-life issues for the patient and caregivers. She has focused on understanding symptoms from the patient’s perspective and has begun work to describe longitudinal changes in symptoms over the course of the disease and the impact of biologic correlates of symptoms.
Armstrong is especially sensitive to the needs of the patient and family members due to her mother’s battle with leukemia several years ago. “Personal experience showed me the importance of making people better even if you can’t completely cure them. Instead of telling people they are going to die, I can agree to work with them for as long as I can,” said Armstrong.
She points to one patient who was diagnosed in 1996 and is still doing well. “New treatment approaches and agents such as temozolomide have lead to improved survival. In the past, patients with the most malignant tumor, glioblastoma, did not survive five years. Today, nearly 10 percent will. Treatment options continue to expand and improve and I hope that we can improve how the patient lives life as we go forward,” she said.
Treating the symptoms is also important to the well-being of the patient’s family members, according to Armstrong. “We’re now recognizing how devastating it is for the families. Whatever the patient is going through, that’s what the family will remember. If you can control the symptoms, it helps the family too,” she said.
Armstrong sees 15 to 20 patients one day per week, working with Mark Gilbert, M.D., deputy chair of neuro-oncology for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where Armstrong serves as an adjunct associate professor and advanced practice nurse.
Armstrong, who has been active in teaching and research for the past 18 years, has been published in, or in press for, 27 peer-reviewed journals. She has been awarded 11 research grants and contracts in the last five years. She also has contributed to books, manuals and teaching aids, and has served on seven editorial boards for nursing-related publications.