Children who need to be admitted to the hospital are referred to the Thomas Jenkins Oncology Unit at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, named after a Nemours oncologist (cancer doctor) for his dedication and research to children with cancer.

If your child needs chemotherapy and other infusion procedures, you’ll go to Sacred Heart’s Pediatric Infusion Center (a partnership between Nemours and Sacred Heart), where your child can receive care and treatment in a pediatric setting (for children) with specially trained pediatric and oncology nurses.

When kids have cancer, healing their minds and hearts matters as much as healing their bodies. That’s where some of our other special team members come in. The compassionate professionals who will help with mental and physical well-being (yours and your child’s) include:

• psychiatrists and psychologists – From  the start, these sympathetic experts make sure you and your child understand what’s happening throughout your cancer journey and help you cope with the diagnosis and the effects of the disease and treatment.
• pediatric oncology licensed clinical social workers – These integral care team members can do wonders for you and your child’s outlook on cancer, treatment, and life after diagnosis. A social worker will be involved from the very first visit on and will help you and your child prepare for the inpatient stay as well as a provide assistance with other resources, including financial support.
• Child Life specialists (located at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital) — These helpful souls can lift your child’s spirits and help with your child’s psychosocial and emotional needs during hospitalization. Child Life specialists provide supportive and educational services to promote positive coping strategies and help children (and their families) understand the entire hospital experience.
• pastoral care – who can help you and your family spiritually

We also offer activities that can help comfort and soothe children with cancer, such as:

• pet therapy – Weekly visits from specially trained dogs offer children and families a calming, loving distraction from the disease and treatment.
• beaded journey – In this unique project for children with cancer, children receive a special bead that acknowledges a milestone throughout their journey with cancer. Volunteers come to the Clinic with sewing machines and work with children, helping them sew on the beads to create fun pillowcases, puppets, and other keepsake items.

At the Nemours Children’s Clinic, Pensacola, we’re part of the Nemours Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. This program connects all of the oncology and hematology resources throughout Nemours in Florida and the Delaware Valley — and allows our specialists to pool their resources and expertise to provide better care to children with all types of cancers and blood disorders (including bone marrow failure and sickle cell disease).

As part of the Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research (NCCCR, our research arm), doctors and other scientists throughout Nemours — and beyond — collaborate to study cancer and investigate potential new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat children with cancer. As a children’s health system, we take great pride in research at Nemours so that we can better serve children with cancer and blood and bone disorders today and in the future.

The mission of our pediatric cancer specialists and scientists is to build one of the nation’s top childhood cancer research centers — developing strategies to improve prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of childhood cancers.

Our overarching goal is to achieve a 100% cure rate of childhood cancers — and with minimal side effects. We aim to do “whatever it takes” to support research into finding new and better treatment options. Our center is a place where scientists, doctors, patients, families, and the community can come together to improve children’s health.

• Learn more about our comprehensive research efforts that work hand-in-hand with our cancer care

Our comprehensive team of cancer experts at Nemours Children’s Clinic, Pensacola and Sacred Heart includes:

• board-certified pediatric oncologists – doctors who specialize in cancer
• specially trained oncology nurses
• a pediatric cancer care coordinator – who’s assigned to you and your child and will help navigate your child’s care from diagnosis to survivorship, providing resources and education needed to assist with ongoing treatment, even when your child leaves the hospital
• radiologists – doctors who uses imaging to diagnose and treat disease
• dietitians – who can help with your child’s nutritional health

Depending on your child’s individual needs, other specialists who may be on your child’s cancer care team could include:

• endocrinologists – doctors who help treat problems relating to the endocrine system or glands
• nephrologists – doctors who treat problems with the kidneys
• neurologists and neurosurgeons – doctors who treat problems with the brain and nervous system
• orthopedists – doctors who specialize in the bones, muscles, and joints
• pulmonologists – doctors who treat problems with the lungs
• gastroenterologists – doctors who treat problems with the digestive system
  

Every member of your child’s care team will have secure access to your child’s medical information, with just the click of a button. Our award-winning electronic medical record makes it easy for everyone to always stay on the same page about your child’s care – at the same time.

Many children with cancer also get the benefit of our “tumor board” — a group of pediatric specialists representing various specialties who meet every week to discuss children with complex cancer cases. And members of a special brain tumor clinic collaborate on treatment decisions for children with brain tumors. It’s like getting a second opinion without making an appointment.