The ONS Podcast

"It's really an exciting time to be in the field of oncology because we can have these specific drugs that target these specific variants rather than, back in the day, when we had to use kind of generic cancer therapies that weren't specific for an individual's cancer," ONS member Suzanne Walker, PhD, CRNP, AOCN ® , senior advanced practice provider and coordinator for thoracic malignancies at the...

"Like all emergencies, they're unpredictable. I have seen them at the very beginning and sometimes, unfortunately, that can be the patient's first sign or symptom that they have cancer. It can be something like they've lost the ability to walk, or their breathing gets difficult. I've also seen it during the middle of their care continuum where we finish a round of radiation and they develop metast...

"These patients have very intense regimens of chemotherapy. They're tired a lot of the time. Between their oral chemotherapy, their IV chemotherapy, their hospitalizations, and then coming in. Everything takes longer than we would like it to for these patients. They are long days to come in for a procedure," ONS member Rebekah Rabinowitz, RN, BSN, OCN ® , neuro-oncology nurse at Emory University H...

What is it like to guide a professional association that serves more than 100,000 oncology nurses? ONS Chief Executive Officer Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, and 2023–2026 Directors-at-Large Susan Brown, PhD, MSN, CENP, Jessica MacIntyre, DNP, MBA, APRN, AOCNP ® , and Trey Woods, RN, MSN, NP-C, discuss the ONS Leadership Development Committee's appointment process for the ONS Board of Directors,...

"Since gastrointestinal complications are so broad, you will see these types of complications in really any oncology setting,"  ONS member Kara Freedman, MS, RN, AGCNS-BC, PCCN, OCN ® , clinical nurse specialist in ambulatory GI surgery/medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS ® , oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a d...

"If we're not driving our own research agenda and we're not asking the questions we see as important, we are not realizing the full potential of nursing. We know, because we are with patients, what the issues are for patients, for families, and for communities. We have to be able to say, 'Nope, this is the question.'" Margaret (Peg) Rosenzweig, PhD, FNP-BC, AOCNP ® , ONS's scholar-in-residence and...

  " I think the take - home message here, though, is to have very specific guidelines at your institution to manage both CRS and ICAN S. The protocols should be readily available to all practitioners who may participate in the care of these patients," ONS member Phyllis McKiernan , MSN, APN, OCN®, advanced practice provider at the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center...

"We need to continue to remind everyone that reporting culture improves safety, that events are usually because of a system or process gap, and there is a clear difference between a system gap and neglectful or at-risk behavior," ONS member Klara Culmone, MSN, RN, OCN ® , assistant nurse manager at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, NY, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS ® , oncology...

 "Sometimes you think, 'Oh, these are just bladder patients; it's different.' But it might not be different. They still have a cancer diagnosis; this is still going to be a very fearful and unsettling time for that patient and their caregivers," Tiffany Kurtz, MSN, RN, OCN®, manager of outpatient oncology at Summa Health Cancer Institute in Akron, OH, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®,...

"The mental and physical health of the healthcare team, especially the nurses, has to come first because if you are not physically and mentally and spiritually in a good place, you cannot help other people. We're going to have less good health care, we are going to have more errors, we're going to have less safety, and we are going to have another 100,000 nurses leaving the field," Matthew Loscalz...

An essential act of well-being, the practice of storytelling creates a social connection that fosters a sense of community and mutual support in both the storyteller and listener. During the Second Annual ONS Storytelling session held at the 48th Annual ONS Congress ® in April 2023, ONS members Sarah Lewis, MNE, RN, OCN ® , palliative care nurse navigator at Oregon Health and Science University in...

"Being an ally means you're coming from a place where you know what issues are going on, you stay up to date about what's happening in the world, and just because you don't identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, doesn't mean that you can't teach about what's going on," Beau Amaya, MSN, RN, OCN®, associate director of patient and caregiver education at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in...

"Just like with anything we do in oncology, a lot of education is required. Nurses and coordinators are critical to start the education and provide effective resources that are reinforced throughout the treatment," ONS member Beth Faiman, PhD, MSN, APN-BC, AOCN®, BMTCN®, FAAN, FAPO, advanced practice provider at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinica...

"I think it's important to ensure that you consider each person uniquely. Because no matter how much I know or the nurse knows about the population, everybody is a little bit different. It's really important to personalize every approach and ask them what they know and meet them where they are," ONS member Rene é Kurz, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, director of clinical research operations at Rutgers Ca...

"I think there's a big misconception that health literacy means someone's ability to read or write, and really it's much more than that," ONS member Regina Carlisle, MS, BSN, RN, OCN®, senior cancer information nurse at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, OH, and member of the Cleveland ONS Chapter, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at...

"The reason that oncology nursing developed at the moment it did was from you and the other few people who were real leaders in your field. . . . It happened in that particular moment because of you and [the other founding members of ONS]," George Hill, MD, MA, DLitt, Captain, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy Reserve (retired), told Cindi Cantril, MPH, RN, OCN®, CBCN, founding board member and first vice...

"The bell can have so much more meaning and significance than just the end of treatment. So, work with your patients to define what the significance of that bell can mean," ONS member Monica Cfarku, RN, MSN, BMTCN®, CCM, NE-BC, associate vice president and chief of oncology nursing at Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, NC, and member of the North Carolina Triangle ONS Chapter, told Jaime Weimer, MSN...

"When someone is faced with a cancer diagnosis, you want to really try to work to make that patient an active part of their care team. Understand that there are things out of their control, but there are also things that are within their control. You can teach them how to manage fatigue associated with anemia, or how to prevent falls. These are the things you can do to prevent infection; these are...

Oncology nurses provide remarkable care every day, without even realizing the impact it has on their patients and families. Organizations like the DAISY Foundation provide a meaningful way for patients and nursing peers to recognize and thank the inspiring oncology nurses who've gone beyond their typical role. Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, EBP-CH, chief clinical officer at ONS, sat dow...

"Certification increases nurses' knowledge, ensures that they are up to date on cancer care, and helps them to be prepared to effectively manage symptoms associated with cancer and cancer treatments. They will acquire effective therapeutic communication skills while caring for people with cancer, their caregivers, and other members of the interprofessional team," ONS member   Kerstin Scheper, DNP,...

"Nursing ethics is relationship centered because when your friend, family member, or colleague becomes a patient, that relationship can't be uninformed by how you know that person before they got sick. The first thing is to recognize you know them, and caring or them poses some fairly unique challenges in terms of, 'How do I maintain professional boundaries?'" Lucia D. Wocial, PhD, RN, FAAN, HEC-C...

"Before you even get started, you have to do your checks. Just like you do with a regular systemic infusion. You're going to be doing your physical assessment prior to starting your patient, looking at your orders to make sure everything looks right, looking at the lab work," ONS member Emoke Karonis, MSN, RN, CRNI, clinical nurse specialist fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New...

"The idea of early palliative care was really a strategy for preventing people from going through unnecessary and unwanted suffering, treatments, and things that were not consistent with their values and preferences. . . . For people who have a serious illness, it's not good to wait until you're facing these very critical decisions. You need to plan upfront," ONS member Marie Bakitas, DNS, APRN, F...

"Sometimes when we talk about skin toxicities, it can get lost in translation for these patients when we start talking about nausea, vomiting, all those other things. . . . They don't take into consideration how serious these skin toxicities can be and how they can quickly get out of control if they're not reported to the medical team in a timely manner," ONS member George Ebanks, MSN, RN, OCN®, a...

"We as oncology nurses have to understand who is this patient, where do they come from, and who is going to touch that patient, so that we can provide comprehensive, good care without these barriers, or at least to eliminate as many of these barriers as much as we can," ONS member Idalina Colburn, RN, OCN®, ONN-CG, nurse navigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, told Jaime Weime...