Student Gains Life-Changing Experience at MD Anderson Cancer Center

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Kylie Weston, right, with one of her supervisors at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Kylie Weston, a University of Arkansas student majoring in nursing, spent the summer doing an internship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, an experience she said changed her life.

While not the internship she thought she would end up with because she didn't have any oncology experience, Weston said it was something she wanted to try.

"Going in, I didn't know what to expect at all, but I was open to the new experience and I ended up getting put on the stem cell transplant unit," she said.

Weston, a senior in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, was at MD Anderson for 10 weeks and worked 40 hours each week.

Patients being treated in the stem cell transplant unit have some form of blood cancer, she said. The process involves transplanting stem cells so that healthy cells may start to grow again.

"It's a very brutal process," Weston said. "It's pretty much having to hit rock bottom to try to get back up. It's definitely not something you just do without having (tried) other things. This is their last option."

Weston said the experience was inspiring. While initially concerned that it might be depressing, Weston said she actually had the opposite experience.

"They were the most positive people I have ever met in my entire life," she said.

Weston said the internship allowed her to individualize her care and get to know patients on a personal level. Patients were there usually three to four weeks minimum, and the staff was very caring toward patients.

"I've never seen a staff that is so patient-oriented, even the ones that don't work directly with the patients," Weston said. "I knew from my first day of orientation that it was a very caring environment."

The internship was an experience that changed Weston's life.

"It changed my entire outlook on life," she said. "Just being able to sit and talk with these people who had these awesome stories and these spirits that were pretty much unbreakable. They just made the most of every day."

Working with the patients at MD Anderson taught Weston to live more in the moment. She tries to make the most of more moments than she used to.

"I feel like it made me appreciate life more. I feel like I've changed the way I live each day," Weston said. "I feel like I used to just go through my routine, and now I feel like I focus more on living, and not taking it for granted, and appreciating everything I have."

Weston recently accepted a job at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Medical ICU.