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Cancer unit social worker focuses on service

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Contributed by: Deborah Gosling on 3/20/2008

Editor's note: Visit our Faces of South Metro page, where YourHub.com staff and readers can introduce you to more people who make this part of the metro area what it is.

Most people can't imagine how Noelle Vignola works as a social worker on a cancer unit. Being in the company of death and the dying seems an unlikely way to find job satisfaction for most people.

"I'll admit I have tough days," Noelle says. "Watching someone with young children lose the fight to cancer is one of the toughest things to experience. It never seems fair. But death, surprisingly, isn't the worst thing that will happen to any of us, though we imagine it just the opposite. In death's company you can find the most extraordinary people living incredible lives.

"Like any star that blasts its light just before it goes out, there is brilliance in the struggles we have before death," she continues. "There is transformation of thought, feeling, and character not only for those that are dying, but too, for those left behind to grieve. These transformative elements are a lot like steel thrust into hot coals. It's painful while you're in it but you can mold into just about anything when you burn so brightly. Death can, in its own way be nothing short of miraculous in how it changes our very natures."

Every day Noelle gets to see people at their worst and at their best, and there is nothing dull or sad about that. It's the human condition all unwrapped and exposed, and stunningly beautiful in all its complexity.

From listening to someone's life story or simply being present to their suffering so they do not travel the road alone, Noelle's job gives her endless ways in which she can be of service to others. She understands that her role is often as the "go-to person" for all the details people don't have the emotional energy to work out. She is the person who keeps watch on the big picture, when all attention has narrowed to a single focus for a patient and a family. And, Noelle is happy to simply be the face patients and families associate with problems solved.

Service is the key component to a job like Noelle's.

"Most of my patients and their families were otherwise healthy, coping, normal people until this tragedy entered their lives," Noelle explains. "They're used to having control over the events that shape their day and the direction their lives are taking. Then cancer hits and it's all out the window. A cancer social worker is someone who can have enormous value in helping people find a path through the medical jargon; help prioritize what is important now and what can wait, or how to access community resources. It's a job where I never have to guess at my purpose or my value."

She also realizes that this kind of job attracts only certain kinds of people.

"I'm honored to work with amazing human beings," Noelle says. "I work with people gifted in medical skill, but also possessing wells of compassion and love. So yes, I spend my day in the company of the sick, the dying and the deeply grieved, but at the same time, I am also with the living, the courageous and the most beautiful. Truly this is a great job."

Deborah Gosling is the Public Relations & Marketing Manager for Swedish Medical Center.

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