Norwood Woman Honored in Boston Globe 'Salute to Nurses'

Judy Dynan, of Norwood, and Sharon Valle, of Braintree, were recently honored in the Boston Globe’s 2012 “Salute to Nurses,” a special section published annually which celebrates dozens of outstanding men and women in nursing across Massachusetts.

Nurses included in the issue are nominated by those who know them, and whose lives they have memorably impacted.

Valle, a nurse at Ellis Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Norwood, and Dynan, an oncology nurse at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, were both trained in the Practical Nursing Program (Postsecondary Programs Division) at Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton. Valle graduated in 2004 (she went to high school at Blue Hills Regional as well, studying Health Services and graduating in 1983), and Dynan in 1991.

Valle is the Chairperson of the Practical Nursing program’s Advisory Board, which keeps the faculty informed of current trends in the profession and ensures the timeliness of the curriculum. She continues to work with Blue Hills’ nursing faculty and students during their rotation at Ellis.

“I always wanted to be a nurse,” said Dynan. “I saw an ad for the Blue Hills nursing program in the newspaper. [Enrolling in it] is the best thing I ever did."

Dynan has been a keynote speaker at the Practical Nursing program graduation, and she comes back to Blue Hills twice annually to give lectures to the nursing students.

After Blue Hills, Dynan went on to become a registered nurse by enrolling at Massasoit Community College, then earned her bachelor’s degree at Curry College in Milton, and eventually her master’s at Curry.

She worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for five years, and has been at Dana Farber for nearly ten.

Dynan, who works with ovarian, lung, and head and neck cancer patients, said, “We’re taking care of the whole being and whole family. We try to make it as easy as possible.”

For Dynan, the biggest challenge is trying to help each patient get through his or her ordeal.

“It’s almost like being a cheerleader,” she said.

“I love my patients,” Dynan said. “Working with them is fabulous.”

Sharon Valle echoed Judy Dynan’s sentiment about always wanting to be a nurse. When Valle graduated from the Blue Hills program, she said, the economy was in a slump and nursing jobs were hard to find. Then, when her mother became seriously ill years later and had a hospice nurse who was “so kind and caring,” the experience re-ignited Valle’s desire to enter the profession.

“That hospice nurse had no idea what an impact she had on us,” Valle said. ”If I can help another person and their family like she helped us, that’s what I wanted to do, so I did.”

Valle, who has worked at Ellis for eight years, said, “It’s not the type of job you take to collect a paycheck. You’re there because you care about people. You have patients for so long that you bond with them and their families. The biggest reward is in knowing that I helped someone through a really difficult time to make their transition to long-term care.”

She often develops strong emotional bonds with her patients. 

"The patients become part of your family,” Valle said. “There’s a little bit of every one that I think about all the time.”