Focus on TeamWork

When Courtney and Katie met nearly a decade ago, one was a young attending and the other was new to oncology care (but not nursing) and was pregnant with her second child.

In a way, their “newness” nurtured what became a strong partnership, or dyad, that has lasted nearly a decade. Dr. Gibson remembers the early days as a process of learning each other’s style and growing their practice together. “I didn’t have a clear idea [as a new attending] of how to run my clinical practice, and was just developing my own style for managing the various disease processes of my patients,” said Dr. Gibson, an endocrine surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery at YSM.

Katie remembers the early days similarly. “When Dr. Gibson and I first met, I was new to our health system and eager to help grow the practice. I came with years of outpatient clinic experience albeit not in oncology. My eagerness to learn about endocrine diseases and support Dr. Gibson grow her clinical practice helped us bond,” said Katie, who has been a nurse for 20 years and at Smilow for nine.

“Dr. Gibson and I share the same passion for helping our patients through their journey and it is reflected in the care that she provides as their surgeon and me as their nurse,” Katie said. “There really is an almost tangibility to our understanding of one another and the common goal that our patients come first.”

It’s apparent to their colleagues (who nominated them for this feature) as well as their patients.

”I can’t count the number of times that patients have said they can tell we’ve worked together for a long time, or stated ‘how smoothly’ their process went because of our excellent communication with them and with each other,” Dr. Gibson said.

Direct Connect is a newsletter for the community of Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.