Barb Buturusis: Medical initiatives

In the nearly 37 years Barb Buturusis has been a nurse, she has seen a lot. While at Loyola University Medical Center alone, she has worked in home care and hospice, medicine and subspecialty medicine clinics, preventive and rehab services, the Cancer Center, neurosciences, and cancer-affiliated programs. Today she serves as executive director of Cancer Services.

But among her experiences, the hardest--and perhaps most inspiring--has been witnessing a colleague and friend die of cancer.

Fanchon Knight was a 52-year-old head and neck cancer specialty nurse working with Buturusis in the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. Knight died within a year of being diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. "Fanchon was an exceptional nurse who even after her diagnosis was determined to care for her patients as long as it was possible," says Buturusis. "It was horrifically painful for everyone who worked with her when she died."

"Because," she continues, "when someone you work with experiences a terminal disease, you see it progress. You see them leave, you see them die. It becomes incredibly personal and calls you to do something on their behalf."

After her death, Knight's family established the Fanchon Knight Endowment Fund for nursing and patient education. "That made me realize we need to do more," says the 57-year-old Buturusis. "If you believe in an organization, and you want others to give, you should give yourself."

Buturusis has believed in Loyola for a long time. When she decided to go back to school for a master's degree, it was her first choice. "I felt Loyola was the best nursing program in the city," says Buturusis, who earned her MSN from the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing in 1985, years before she was employed at Loyola. Her husband, a retired school associate principal, attended Loyola's School of Education; their daughter earned a bachelor's in education.

In addition, "Loyola has treated many members of my family," Buturusis says, "and I know that we strive for excellence. And we achieve it. That's why Loyola is worthy of whatever our family can afford to give." In addition to contributing to the School of Nursing, the Buturusises also support the Knight Endowment.

And now, Buturusis is targeting research. "We have to build research to support our education and care," she says. "Without research, there are no cures, no new treatments. It's incredibly important work."

But that's what goes on at Loyola, "For me," Buturusis says, "I am even prouder today to be a part of Loyola than I was when I selected it for my graduate education."