Nurse Champions of Patient Safety, Dignity and Leadership

Three nurses are being celebrated for their exceptional dedication to patient care, safety and advocacy.

Hygiene Champion and Patient Safety Advocate

Maria Hicinbothem is a staff nurse in Dermatology and Plastic Surgery at Fox Chase Cancer Center and works at an outpatient clinic that performs Mohs skin cancer surgery.

One of her main roles is focused on patient safety and quality. Infection prevention is important at any medical facility, but it becomes particularly consequential for patients receiving a Mohs skin cancer procedure. Hicinbothem has gone to extraordinary measures – up to and including dressing as a bottle of hand sanitizer – to disarm and educate patients and colleagues alike.

On a more serious note, she developed a procedure around a persistent gap in patient “pre-photo” collection. That is, since most of her patients are referred from elsewhere, they often arrive without the prerequisite pre-photos prior to surgery. In her role, Hicinbothem is acutely aware of patient needs, particularly for her clinic’s population, which skews much older.

She has earned her reputation for excellence in anticipating patient needs and preparing in advance for their visits. Her patient advocacy – with a focus on hand sanitization – is also exhibited in the processes she has put into place to improve patient education and preparedness prior to Mohs procedures. Her efforts yielded positive results on our patient experience surveys, conducted by a third-party organization. She authored an abstract on her processes that was accepted to Oncology Nursing Society Congress 2023, and she presented her work at this national meeting.

Maria Hicinbothem is genuinely a lovely person who makes a very serious topic more human – and therefore more consequential – for patient understanding. For this reason, I nominate her for this award.

A Champion for Patient Dignity

Wandaris “Wandi” Ortiz, is, simply put, an extraordinary healer and worthy of an award of that title. Ortiz is a special, rare type of nurse that Fox Chase Cancer Center is fortunate to have in relative overabundance: a compassionate caregiver who is also an agent of change.

After an early career in inpatient medicine and the wound ostomy team, Ortiz has become a fixture in Fox Chase’s Department of Radiation Oncology, where her focus is on patients with gynecological cancers.

What distinguishes Ortiz from her colleagues, who are all accomplished professionals in their own right, is her focus on patient dignity. As someone who has experienced trauma herself, she strives to make patients feel safe at foremost and respected overall. She has worked extensively with our patient advocacy team and senior leadership to craft a trauma-informed care model. This model hinges on taking a patient-eye view of how to avoid what might trigger fears, shame and feelings of helplessness in patients.

Ortiz has always been focused on the little, positive touches that could mean a difference to a patient, such as when she provided a birthday party to a young mother who was too sick to manage one on her own. It is these kinds of touches that also make a huge difference in terms of patient dignity — for example, how Ortiz championed a process change so that patients would meet their doctor before being asked to undress and to put on a gown. It is a small act that preserves patient dignity and enhances their comfort level.

Science and data-driven medicine are priorities at Fox Chase, so Ortiz has collaborated with our researchers to bring attention to trauma-informed care and study care models related to the topic.

Wandaris Ortiz is an extraordinary person and a healing caregiver, which is why I would like to nominate her for this award.

The Embodiment of Service Leadership in Patient Care

Sandi Wetherbee is an exceptional, highly educated, experienced nursing professional who feels most comfortable at the bedside of our patients. Throughout her career, she has shown herself to be a capable manager and effective leader, but time and again, she chooses to express her leadership through direct service to patients. She is a fierce patient advocate and effective communicator who has earned the respect of all members of our clinical care team.

Wetherbee is a frontline nurse in our inpatient surgical oncology unit at Fox Chase Cancer Center, where she has become the champion of our biggest surgical service, Urology. In fact, Wetherbee’s career has coincided with the expansion of our Urology practice, which has grown from a modest group when Wetherbee joined Fox Chase in 2000 to the nationally recognized program it is today.

She constantly seeks to enhance her expertise with Urology and associated surgical technologies, particularly in terms of infection risks to patients. Her efforts have led to her becoming the face of our Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) team, and she has recently had an abstract accepted for poster presentation this year at the Oncology Nursing Society meeting and for publication in their journal on protocols to reduce CAUTI.

As an experienced, dedicated professional, Wetherbee has become an amazing resource for Fox Chase. Many nurses start their careers in her unit and under her mentoring. As Fox Chase’s Urology program has expanded to affiliated hospitals within Temple University Health System, Wetherbee has become a key resource in training nurses at our new Fox Chase Urology services at Temple University Hospital – Jeanes Campus and Temple Health – Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Indeed, nursing education has become increasingly important to Wetherbee, and she naturally excels in the role of educator. As our resident expert in urology nursing and ostomy care, she has become an integral part of the training we provide to nurses from all around the United States who come to Fox Chase.

Wetherbee is incredibly detail-oriented and thorough in her documentation and care planning. This translates to the highest possible quality care delivery. She also partners seamlessly with physicians, fellow nurses and other members of the care team. Her communication skills allow her to advocate effectively for her patients.

In summary, Sandi Wetherbee’s clinical expertise, patient-centered approach, attention to detail, passion for education and collaborative spirit make her an extraordinary nurse.

Nominations are open for the 2025 CURE Extraordinary Healer award.

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