Relationships are “the glue” that connects caregivers and cancer patients at Ohio State. “It’s at the center of everything we do, it’s seeing patients as people,” nurse Amy Rettig, APRN, DNP, MALM, says of Relationship-Based Care (RBC) at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. “It’s seeing them as people with their own lives and hopes and dreams. They’re not their disease.” Rettig shares more details about Relationship-Based Care at The James on our Cancer-Free World Podcast. Listen via the video player above or on Soundcloud.  The concept of RBC is at the center of the work of Rettig and her colleagues at The James, where patients benefit from established therapies and techniques, as well as innovative research — all of which are tailored to each patient’s unique situation. “In a very meaningful way, we recognize that it takes a village to care for a cancer patient,” she says. “A patient can interact with 20 to 30 of our team members, and it takes all of us. Every patient has a care team, and all the members of those care teams interact with each other to ensure that every patient gets the best possible care.” The RBC concept extends beyond the boundaries of the hospital, throughout the central Ohio community and the state. “In oncology, we have a special charge to help people — to prevent cancer through screenings, through smoking cessation programs, through preventative measures people can take,” Rettig says. “We have a responsibility to the community we serve.”