Being a “Last Responder” to Patients With Cancer With Melinda Mayorga
Season 1 Episode 6 · Dec 24, 2025, 10:00 AM
Share
Subscribe
Melinda Mayorga, RN, MSN, CNS, AGCNS-BC, OCN, describes her work as a last responder to patients with cancer.
Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call, the new podcast from Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers (formerly Jackson), DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time.
This episode’s guest, Melinda Mayorga, RN, MSN, CNS, AGCNS-BC, OCN, a clinical nurse specialist at Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Southern California in Los Angeles, discussed end of life care and those she calls “last responders.”
Mayorga described an experience in which she accompanied a patient through the last 32 minutes of her life, which, if not for the nursing staff, would have otherwise been spent alone—an occurrence altogether too familiar for many nurses.
Inspired by this experience, Mayorga developed a volunteer program that pairs individuals with those at the end of life to avoid patients dying alone, as well as an interdisciplinary toolkit that involved a chaplain, mental health professionals, the arts, and even environmental manager. The program provides QR codes to instantly reach prayers prepared by the chaplain along with videos on stages of grief, battery-operated candles to light, and the option to paint a rock in someone’s memory.
This episode’s guest, Melinda Mayorga, RN, MSN, CNS, AGCNS-BC, OCN, a clinical nurse specialist at Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Southern California in Los Angeles, discussed end of life care and those she calls “last responders.”
Mayorga described an experience in which she accompanied a patient through the last 32 minutes of her life, which, if not for the nursing staff, would have otherwise been spent alone—an occurrence altogether too familiar for many nurses.
Inspired by this experience, Mayorga developed a volunteer program that pairs individuals with those at the end of life to avoid patients dying alone, as well as an interdisciplinary toolkit that involved a chaplain, mental health professionals, the arts, and even environmental manager. The program provides QR codes to instantly reach prayers prepared by the chaplain along with videos on stages of grief, battery-operated candles to light, and the option to paint a rock in someone’s memory.