Omaha Mayor John W. Ewing Jr. stopped by the One Stop Cancer Shop on Nov. 7 to speak to the approximately 50 UNMC nursing students who had volunteered for the event, the third and final of 2026.
Mayor Ewing thanked the students for their efforts in support of the event, which is a collaboration of the One Stop Cancer Shop, a community organization; Nebraska Medicine; the NCI-designated Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and the UNMC College of Nursing.
Nursing student Nathan Nguyen said he was pleased to see the mayor take the time to attend the event.
“That made me feel good,” he said.
Events such as the One Stop Cancer Shop are important, Nguyen said, because they provide an example of how nursing students can impact their communities following graduation.
“It makes the whole process – school, clinicals, paperwork – a lot easier when you can see us doing something good, taking time to help people,” he said.
More than 50 people received cancer screenings at the event, for a total of approximately 150 people screened in 2026 across three events, two in Omaha and one in Lincoln. Volunteers at the event included clinicians and other staff from the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and Nebraska Medicine.
Alyson Hanish, PhD, assistant professor in the UNMC College of Nursing, said that including the weekend’s event, more than 150 nursing students had volunteered for the One Stop Cancer Shop this year.
“It’s important that our students learn about community health, because a lot of them spend their time in hospitals and clinical settings, whereas in the community we get to see how people live their day-to-day life,” Dr. Hanish said. “By being in the community setting, we can work with people where they are, where they live, where they get healthcare, and we can help them better get primary and preventative healthcare.”
Dr. Hanish, who teaches the college’s health populations course, also was excited about the mayor’s message to the students.
“That was really special,” she said. “It shows that Omaha as a community is very invested in community health and sees that as a high priority. It meant a lot for him to be here and to show support for our nursing students.”