Cynthia D. Kusler, FNP
Family Nurse Practitioner
Our nurse practitioner is not only extremely familiar with the care of cancer patients, she’s also no stranger to the Community Cancer Center.
In her former career as a registered nurse, Cindy Kusler spent half of her 16 years in Missoula, Mont., caring for oncology and radiation oncology patients. After becoming a nurse practitioner in 2007 and practicing in Lewiston, Idaho for a year, Kusler moved with her family to Roseburg in 2009, where she most recently was a family nurse practitioner at Evergreen Family Medicine.
Now she joins a Community Cancer Center team as their Oncology Nurse Practitioner. “I’m really excited to be able to specialize in providing cancer care; it feels like I’m coming full circle back to something I really loved and enjoyed before,” Kusler says. Even though her focus at Evergreen was on general family care, Kusler says she had many opportunities to put her cancer expertise to use. “Unfortunately, cancer is not very uncommon, so I have a lot of experience caring for patients early in their diagnosis and treatment,” she says. “It’s a very scary and trying time for them, and I’m looking
forward to now being able to follow patients and support them through their radiation care.”
As a nurse practitioner working directly with patients in treatment at the Community Cancer Center, Kusler says she will have the opportunity to expand the care she can provide them. “I have vast experience working with people with multiple medical issues, including cancer. I think I have always done a good job reading between the lines, meeting people where they are and providing emotional and physical support. Now I can do more for them, like ordering X-rays or lab work or medication care.”
In her off hours, Kusler and her spouse like to camp, canoe, kayak and generally enjoy the outdoors. She also loves reading and volunteering at her church. The Kuslers have the good fortune of living in the same community as their adult daughter and son, who both left Roseburg but have returned to pursue their careers, hers in nursing and his in engineering.