Survivor receives MD Anderson's highest nursing honor

Brown Foundation Award recognizes Shelby Robin

BY Allison Ignacio

Shelby Robin, a pediatric nurse and former sarcoma patient at MD Anderson, is the 2015 recipient of the Brown Foundation Award for Excellence in Oncology Nursing.

Formerly known as the Ethel Fleming Arceneaux Outstanding Nurse-Oncologist Award, the recognition is the institution’s highest nursing honor among MD Anderson’s nearly 3,000 nurses. The Brown Foundation, Inc. established the award in 1982 to recognize excellence in nursing. Since the foundation’s inception in 1951, it’s awarded more than $1.4 billion in grants for public charitable purposes, primarily for support, encouragement and assistance to education, the arts and community service.

A selection committee of MD Anderson’s clinical faculty, patient care administration and nursing staff reviewed peer and patient nominations before narrowing the choice to three finalists.

Shelby Robin

“I’m blown away at winning this award. MD Anderson has the best nurses out there,” says Robin, who works in Pediatric Intensive Care Services at MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital. “I was actually treated on the same floor where I work now. The nurses held my hand, made me feel normal, talked me through everything and helped me to not be afraid. To me, there’s no higher honor than to become one of those people for the children at MD Anderson.”

Robin accepted the award in June at a ceremony in the Onstead Auditorium at MD Anderson’s George and Cynthia Mitchell Basic Sciences Research Building. She received a cash prize of $15,000, a crystal plaque and a commemorative pin.

“It’s so nice seeing a foundation like The Brown Foundation share MD Anderson’s view of nurses and to recognize the special role we have here,” says Robin.

"I was actually treated on the same floor where I work now. The nurses held my hand, made me feel normal, talked me through everything and helped me not to be afraid. To me, there's no higher honor than to become one of those people for the children at MD Anderson."

Shelby Robin

survivor

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