Nurses are the backbone of our health care system. From lending an empathetic ear to administering medications to sitting with us when it feels like the world is falling down around us, they are there—making us feel human while seeming superhuman themselves. The nurses within these pages are the ones you nominated for their lasting influence, and they are truly the champions of our West Virginia centers of care. Read their stories, discover what inspires them, and be inspired yourself.

Keshia Bowen

RN, Clinical Trials Research Nurse Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cabell Huntington Hospital Specialty: Oncology

Keshia Bowen’s first clinical experience as a nursing student took place on the oncology floor at Our Lady Bellefonte Hospital in Kentucky. It was an experience that would ultimately shape her future. Bowen found herself so connected with the patients and comfortable with the team that she applied to work there as a nursing assistant. “I learned how to do everything from the ground up,” she says. “It was one of the best decisions I ever made.” After graduating as a registered nurse, Bowen would continue working at the hospital for the next 14 years.

She had a couple stops along her nursing journey, but she was called back to oncology when she joined Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center at Cabell Huntington Hospital in 2010 as a nurse in the chemo infusion room. Working with oncology patients is bittersweet, Bowen says. “Sometimes, it’s the least you can do to help them through it. They’re going through a lot.”

She was offered a position as a research nurse at Edwards in 2013, and she has remained there since. As a research nurse, she’s responsible for identifying patients who would be good candidates for research studies, then she assists them throughout the duration, answering questions and coordinating their care alongside physicians involved in the study.

“I’ve been able to see a patient get a treatment study that made all the difference in the world for their condition. It may not have cured them, but it gave them more years with their family. Knowing you had a part in that is very rewarding as a nurse,” Bowen says. “All the treatments we have today to treat cancer were once upon a time part of a research study. That’s how you figure out the gold standard of treatment. The information we gain today will help people in the future.”

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