McMURRAY – Lee Ann Dobson is a breast cancer survivor, being cancer-free for more than 35 years. She knows she’s one of the lucky ones.
A registered nurse with a master’s degree in professional leadership and health service education, Dobson, now 58, is one of only two nurses from Western Pennsylvania credentialed as a Certified Breast Care Nurse. The certification was awarded by the Oncology Nursing Certification Corp., an affiliated organization of the Oncology Nursing Society.
“It was the end of my career when I got into it, but I love it,” Dobson said. “I was working part time as an operating room nurse, but with three kids in college, I had to get a full-time job.”
She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from West Virginia University.
Dobson applied and was hired to work in the office of Dr. Donald Keenan, a breast cancer surgeon on staff at Canonsburg General Hospital and with an office in Peters Township.
Still able to recall the day she first felt the lump in her breast while applying suntan lotion more than three decades ago, Dobson knows the importance of good breast care.
“I’m dedicated to trying to get myself educated and up to date,” Dobson said of her reason to seek the certification. “Things are always changing.”
She is there to help women – and men – deal with the knowledge they have breast cancer.
“We can provide the patient with the education and empower them to make good decisions. We have the education to get them through the shock and the horrible wait period,” she said.
When she began working with Keenan in 2002, Dobson said there wasn’t much literature available. Now, there is the Internet.
The test to receive CBCN certification took almost four hours to complete and was made up of eight sections. Testing is open only to registered nurses and was offered for the first time this year.
“First, let me say that to those of us who know Lee Ann, this test was just a formality,” Keenan said. “She has spent the past eight years not just showing up for work, but learning as much as she can so that she can function as a true physician extender and patient advocate.”
Dobson, who resides in Dormont, participated in the Mother’s Day Race for the Cure with several family members, including her newly married daughter. As one of five sisters, Dobson is the only one to have had breast cancer.
“Some people thing it’s hereditary, but there are only two criteria: age and female,” she said.
As a nurse, breast cancer survivor and CBCN, Dobson stresses monthly self-breast examinations and mammograms.
“You learn (about your breasts) through the feel of them,” she said. “Keep a check on them, and if you’re not sure, see a breast surgeon or your gynecologist or your physician.”