Erin Peone Where Science Becomes Hope® Spotlight

For Erin Peone, RN, MSN, OCN, NEA-BC, the phrase “Where Science Becomes Hope” perfectly describes Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University — and her own job there.

“The term science suggests to me that we’re taking a very measured, specific data-driven approach to whatever we’re doing,” she says. Peone, the assistant director of patient care services at Winship’s Clifton campus, explains that nurses also take a data-driven, scientific approach. “We do that when we’re planning on new interventions or new care models or new ways of delivering nursing care to our patients,” she says.

As for hope, Peone says it invokes the future. “So when I put the phrase together — 'where science becomes hope' — it tells me that we’re taking a very measured approach. We’re building today for the future for that hope — hope for our patients, hope for our staff, hoping ourselves out of a job, we hope."

Peone says that what inspires her most about working at Winship is the people she works with. “I love working with oncology nurses,” she says. “Everyone who is here is here because they want to be here. I have a lot of staff who drive a long distance through Atlanta traffic past half a dozen other hospitals they could choose to work at. But they all choose Winship, and they choose it constantly, because they want to be here. They believe in what we’re doing and what we’re building. They are part of the vision, and they want to be here when we see the next breakthrough.”

Patients, too, often come a long distance to Winship. “I think that patients come from a long ways because they can trust us,” Peone says. “They can trust our innovations. They can trust that if there’s something out there that can help them survive, help them have a better life, help compliment the care they’re getting, they can come here for it.”

Peone is amazed as she reflects on the changes in cancer care she has seen in the years since arriving at Winship. “I frequently reflect on what cancer care looked like in 2011, not that long ago, and what we can offer people now that we were not able to offer when I started. Then I think about what I’m doing here today right now that I’ll be able to look back at in 10 years and say, ‘Wow, we’ve come so far again.’” The other thing that inspires her “is when I see on television an advertisement for a drug that I know my teams were involved in developing — and just knowing a little bit of my blood, sweat and tears are in that.”

The combination of science and art is what drew Peone to nursing. She loves the science background the profession requires. The other part, the art, is about “touching patients, bringing that kind of scientific background to a person and translating it into what they really need” to know to take care of themselves and what to do next. She calls nursing “the perfection of the balance between science and art.”

That balance suits Peone perfectly well. “I’ve been here at Winship for a long time and it feels like home to me,” Peone says. “I am very committed to the vision here, and I love that I get to work with other people who share that love and vision.”