Schedule Your Mammogram Houston Methodist offers nine convenient imaging locations across Houston: • Houston Methodist Hospital 713.441.6550 • Houston Methodist Breast Imaging Center-Kirby – 713.441.PINK (7465) • Houston Methodist Imaging Center-Katy Freeway – 713.797.XRAY (9729) • Houston Methodist San Jacinto Hospital 832.556.6300 anyway,” she explains. “I’m a team player and encourage everyone to be all they can be. Because when you’re doing that, you get the most satisfaction out of your job.” One moment Mitchell remembers so fondly is when she approached her VP Katherine Walsh, also a breast cancer survivor, about her diagnosis. Walsh took an inspirational bracelet from her own arm and put it on Mitchell’s. “She grabbed my hand and said it would be OK. We’ll get through this,” Mitchell says. “I wear that bracelet every day.”
“None of us is perfect, but I think we see a lot of people rise. If you give people a challenge and give them backing, they’ll rise. We spend a lot of our time at work, so let’s make our workplace a great place.” – Alison Mitchell
• Houston Methodist St. Catherine Hospital 281.599.4570 • Houston Methodist St. John Hospital 281.333.8858 • Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital 281.274.7170 • Houston Methodist West Hospital 832.522.1234 • Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital 281.737.1900 For easy and convenient online scheduling, visit houstonmethodist.org/online-scheduling.
She also received a phone call from Roberta Schwartz, executive vice president of HMH, who survived breast cancer at a young age and founded the Young Survival Coalition, which now includes more than 25,000 members worldwide. “That is a true mentoring of leadership,” Mitchell says. “Your goal should be to replace yourself. That’s why the TNP award was so special—I had mentored the last two presidents. “None of us is perfect, but I think we see a lot of people rise. If you give people a challenge and give them backing, they’ll rise. We spend a lot of our time at work, so let’s make our workplace a great place.” Mitchell says that going through breast cancer hasn’t changed the way she approaches her job: “I’ve always felt you should treat your patients like family.” But she says it’s important to be open to the support that’s out there, allow vulnerability and be encouraged to ask for help — and most of all, be grateful. “The more time you spend being grateful, the happier it makes you,” she continues. “It’s all these things we take for granted, it makes you grateful. We have some really bad days as nurses — really bad days — but we do it together.”
‘BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING’ Lisa Amosu-Smith, owner of My Trendy Place, which also houses Houston Lace Front Wigs, had a calling to help cancer patients so she volunteers for the American Cancer Society. She comes to Houston Methodist Hospital every Wednesday, visits the cancer center to deliver free wigs to patients. She feels “blessed to be a blessing,” and loves building up the confidence of the patients. LEADERS IN NURSING 11