Michelle Bigg, RN, BSN, is a women's oncology coordinator at Sunrise Cancer Center. She began her medical career in 2003 as a medical research intern at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College (NYP-WMC) in New York City. During this period, she gained a passion for medicine and decided to pursue a career in medicine. While obtaining her bachelor’s in health sciences and subsequent associate degree in nursing, Michelle worked at both NYP-WMC and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a research coordinator. During this time, she helped to run several National Cancer Institute clinical and investigator initiated trials for women’s oncology and gastroenterology. She was responsible for institutional review board submissions, patient recruitment/eligibility, ensuring proper safety and compliance with protocols, documentation of all pertinent research patient information, and working closely with patients as she went through their research protocols.
Michelle obtained her nursing license in July 2010 and continued to work at NYP/WMC as a clinical practice nurse to a multidisciplinary cancer center at the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health. She worked with a care team consisting of physicians, specialists, surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, nutritionists, genetic counselors, and social workers to help specialize care plans for patients undergoing various cancer treatments and surveillance. Additionally, she saw patients with a woman’s health/genetic gastroenterologist and helped to device recommendations for gastrointestinal screening and surveillance for women in conjunction with the NYP/WMC Iris Cantor Breast Center.
In November 2016, she transferred to the Breast Center at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas as a nurse navigator to breast and gynecological cancer patients. She assists patients during their cancer journey by providing patient-centered care with education of their disease and treatments, coordination of appointments, identifying and decreasing barriers to care with providing support and community resources, and being a support to both the patient and family members. She started her master’s in Nursing-Family Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in September 2018 and looks forward to continuing to help cancer patients throughout their journey and survivorship.