The ONS Podcast (Oncology Nursing Society)
Explorez tous les épisodes de The ONS Podcast
| Date | Titre | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Dec 2019 | Episode 81: The Argument Supporting Medical Cannabis | 00:27:02 | |
ONS Congress speaker, Eloise Theisen, RN, MSN, AGPCNP-BC, president-elect of the American Cannabis Nurses Association, adult geriatric nurse practitioner, and cofounder of Radicle Health in Walnut Creek, CA, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer/producer, to discuss medical cannabis use in practice, common misconceptions associated with the drug, and ways nurses can discuss cannabis with their patients. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 07 Jun 2024 | Episode 315: Processing Grief as an Oncology Nurse | 00:55:10 | |
“I think the reality is that we as humans are having a human experience, some of which is incredible and some of which is terrible. And to deny ourselves the opportunity to feel any of those emotions would be to deny our own human experience. And so processing feelings, and I think the bigger ones in particular, like grief, especially in the work that we do, it’s not only good to do, but it’s part of just what it means to, I think, be a human,” Ann Konkoly, MBA, MSN, APRN-CNM, chief executive officer of Authentic Koaching LLC and Kultivate Women’s Health LLC, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about processing grief in a healthcare context. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 1.0 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by June 7, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to processing grief. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “Processing is just what we do with these big feelings or these small feelings that come up and how we work through them. And it really depends on the individual and what coping tools and mechanisms that they use. But usually for a lot of people, what we see is that when there is some sort of feeling—like grief—that comes along, one of the most important things that we can do is just to, number one, acknowledge that we are having some sort of a feeling and to then subsequently name it.” TS 2:05 “The brain, usually the limbic system, is driven by these three main things that it wants you to do at all times: It wants you to seek pleasure—number one. Number two, it wants you to avoid pain. And number three, it wants you to conserve energy. … And so from an evolutionary standpoint, it totally makes sense that when faced with a feeling like grief, the limbic system drives us to say, ‘Let’s avoid all that pain, because that feels really heavy and hard, and it’s going to take a lot of energy.’ And so many of us from a purely, you know, as a human approach to things that cause pain, we usually turn away from them.” TS 17:18 “For those of us out there who find we’re somewhat ill equipped and our partners or our colleagues are saying, ‘Boy, what’s going on?’ and we don’t know, the next step is to say, ‘Well, wait a minute. Who can help me kind of figure this out?’ And I think whether it’s therapy, whether it’s a coach, whether it’s a trusted mentor or colleague that you could have a very honest conversation with, whether it’s your employee assistance program that provides you with some resources and support, there’s no right or wrong way to go about it.” TS 26:45 “We have good data to say just the act of naming a feeling can be so helpful, can decrease our symptoms of that emotion by about 50%, which is crazy. Just from naming it, just from acknowledging that there’s a vibration there in your body and then naming it as like, ‘Oh, that vibration, that feeling that I have in my body that equates to grief or shame or discouragement.’” TS 32:58 “Are you willing to train your brain to see it differently and to make it work for you, and to find a way that it can work for you, and that you can think differently and that you can change your mindset? Because if you can do that, if you can learn to allow your feelings to come up and process them like grief when they come, if you can observe what you do in certain situations and what you don’t do—if you are willing to do that, you could go anywhere and do anything.” TS 43:06 | |||
| 24 May 2019 | Episode 50: Difficult Decisions in Childhood Cancer Care | 00:38:57 | |
ONS member Pam Hinds, RN, PhD, FAAN, 2019 ONS Congress Mara Mogenson Flaherty lecturer, director of nursing research and quality outcomes at Children’s National Health System, and professor of pediatrics at George Washington University in Washington, DC, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss navigating difficult decisions in pediatric oncology, working with parents of seriously ill children, and how nurses support families during this cancer journey. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 31 Jul 2020 | Episode 114: Intravesicular Chemotherapy Considerations for Oncology Nurses | 00:23:33 | |
ONS member Clara Beaver, MSN, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, clinical nurse specialist at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI, member of the ONS Metro Detroit Chapter, and secretary/treasurer for the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation (ONCC) Board of Directors, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss intravesicular chemotherapy, how it differs from other chemotherapy treatments, and safe handling recommendations that oncology nurses should be aware of. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 04 Nov 2022 | Episode 232: Managing Fatigue During PARP Inhibitor Maintenance Therapy | 00:37:45 | |
“For those without cancer or other illnesses, we often have a resolution or relief of this fatigue. ‘Oh, I’m just going to go to bed early and get a couple more hours of sleep tonight.’ Or ‘I’m going to have a cup of coffee.’ But for people with cancer, it’s not an easy fix. People with cancer describe fatigue as something much more long-lasting,” ONS member Paula Anastasia, MN, RN, AOCN®, clinical nurse specialist for UCLA Health in Los Angeles, CA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Anastasia discussed fatigue in patients with cancer undergoing PARP inhibitor maintenance therapy, management strategies, and nursing considerations. This podcast episode is supported by a sponsorship from AstraZeneca. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Fatigue is not necessarily life threatening, so I think unfortunately, it’s underplayed at how disruptive it can be in somebody’s quality of life and day-to-day life.” Timestamp (TS) 03:10 “For those without cancer or other illnesses, we often have a resolution or relief of this fatigue. ‘Oh, I’m just going to go to bed early and get a couple more hours of sleep tonight.’ Or ‘I’m going to have a cup of coffee.’ But for people with cancer, it’s not an easy fix. . . . People with cancer describe fatigue as something much more long lasting.” TS 04:02 “I think it’s really important when we educate our patients to let them know that this is a common side effect. Research tells us, and also patient experience, that fatigue does plateau after about four to eight weeks. It’s not zero, but it gets much more manageable for our patients. So, I think priming our patients with what to expect can be very helpful.” TS 07:48 “I want patients to have some sort of physical activity. It doesn’t have to be hours or marathons. Just a 10-minute walk in the morning and then maybe a 10-minute walk in the afternoon. Things like that. We try to, if possible, refer patients to a physical therapy-type setting initially, and that will help give them tools on how to be active and safe activities, and also gets them motivated. So, that’s really helpful for patients.” TS 09:41 “I think it’s important to assess the cause of the fatigue. Ruling out anemia, hypothyroidism, vitamin deficiencies, things like that. So, that is ruled out and we know what we’re doing to our poor patient with the interventions; they’ve had surgery, they’ve had chemotherapy, now we’re going to put them on a PARP inhibitor, all of these lifestyle changes.” TS 12:20 “I think since COVID-19, there’s a lot more awareness of how much people have anxiety and depression. I think we’re more in tune with that and how stressful life is, and that’s not even having cancer and all of the challenges with that. So, I think that plays into it. Depression and anxiety can contribute to fatigue.” TS 16:53 “One of the biggest misconceptions about fatigue is that there’s nothing that you can do about it. Just accept it. And I totally disagree with that. It’s an undervalued side effect. It’s not necessarily life threatening, but it’s definitely something that can interfere with patients’ day-to-day quality of life. So, we really need to address it. We need to assess, communicate, and plan for it.” TS 28:39 | |||
| 17 Mar 2023 | Episode 251: Palliative Care Programs for Patients With Cancer | 00:38:33 | |
“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, FAAN, AOCN®, professor and associate dean for research and scholarship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about implementing palliative and supportive care for patients with cancer. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to palliative care for patients with cancer. Episode Notes:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Now we think of palliative care as really the umbrella—it’s a medical specialty, it’s a nursing specialty field that you can get certified in. And hospice and comfort care are a subset of palliative care. Think of palliative care as the umbrella, and then toward the very end of life, hospice care—which is often guided by a very limited prognosis time frame of six months or less—and then within hospice care, comfort care is that care that is provided typically at the very end of life.” Timestamp (TS) 03:13 “For us, the idea of early palliative care was really a prevention strategy for preventing people from going through unnecessary and unwanted suffering, treatments, and things that were not consistent with their values and preferences. We took a page out of the childbirth movement playbook and said, ‘If you’re pregnant, you don’t wait until 8 months and 29 days, to say, ‘Oh, I’m having a baby. Maybe I should think about how to plan for that.’’ Similarly, 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 up-front. That was the genesis of our program that we call Project ENABLE.” TS 07:18 “ENABLE was about at the time people were diagnosed, meeting them there and helping them to learn skills of symptom management, communication, problem solving, advance care planning. So that when they were ill and facing these issues, they had the skills and preparation to do so.” TS 08:17 “I think the health equity issues are ones that we can overcome. We have to be aware of them. In particular with palliative care, we need to offer these treatments in ways that have been determined to be culturally acceptable.” TS 11:20 “We need to be doing what we call primary palliative care, and that is that every clinician who interacts with an oncology patient who has advanced cancer, metastatic disease, or high symptom burden, has these skills of communication. Oncology nurses are the lead for pain and symptom management. But there are many communication skills that are really important and prioritizing these kinds of conversations and this kind of content being presented at the front end when people are newly diagnosed.” TS 26:34 “I think it’s really beneficial for individual nurses to understand to get their own individual information, but I know we all have the need to do quality improvement projects and other kinds of efforts in our clinics and organizations. This might be something that you prioritize for the year: What aspects of palliative care—this extra layer of support—can we provide? . . . We should continue to educate ourselves about the differences and the ways to present and talk about palliative care so that it removes some of the mystery, reduces some of the perceptions. . . and skillfully say, ‘Hey, this is an extra layer of support for you and your family.’” TS 29:46 | |||
| 10 Feb 2023 | Episode 246: Create a Culture of Safety: Fair and Just Culture | 00:26:13 | |
“I love the motto, ‘If you see a problem, you can solve a problem.’ So, no matter what level you fall on on the clinical ladder or within your administration, you always have the opportunity to promote and create positive change and do that with the leadership support,” ONS member Klara Culmone, MSN, RN, OCN®, assistant nurse manager at the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about the factors involved in creating a fair and just culture. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. This episode is part of a series on creating a culture of safety, we’ll add a link to future episodes in the episode notes after the next episode airs. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to creating a just and fair culture. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “A fair and just culture includes encouraging and supporting people to discuss safety-related events or information with one another. This culture really includes a transparent, nonpunitive approach to reporting and learning from adverse events or close calls and even unsafe conditions. The goal is to prevent and minimize events that may cause harm.” Timestamp (TS) 02:15 “Oncology nurses are critical in the establishment of this type of culture. They are leaders and often role models within their institutions. Oncology nurses understand policies, standards of care, and up-to-date evidence-based practice. Being on the front lines, oncology nurses see how these three things can come together and directly affect our patients and also the work environment. This global understanding positions the oncology nurses to be the liaison between patients, members of the healthcare team, and leadership.” TS 02:43 “In health care, we really need to look at these different safety steps we have in place to prevent patient harm. It’s really important to remind oncology nurses that we report safety events so that we can prevent them from happening again.” TS 12:15 “Leaders need to support a questioning attitude from oncology nurses. They should stop and resolve using thoughtful, two-way questioning. We really encourage nurses to report anything that doesn’t seem right so we can work together to ensure patient safety.” TS 13:19 “Oncology nurses are equipped with knowledge and skills to create this culture. They can be familiar with current practices and standards of care for oncology patients and recommend changes if applicable. Oncology nurses can also participate in quality improvement projects, peer-to-peer education or re-education, and applicable competencies on their unit. Oncology nurses can also do team daily huddles at the beginning of their shifts to review their schedules for the day and perhaps any potential complications or safety issues that they may anticipate and come up with a plan.” TS 19:01 “I love the motto, ‘If you see a problem, you can solve a problem.’ So, no matter what level you fall on on the clinical ladder or within your administration, you always have the opportunity to promote and create positive change and do that with the leadership support.” TS 21:22 | |||
| 12 Jul 2024 | Episode 320: What It’s Like to Be a Peer Reviewer or Associate Editor for an ONS Journal | 00:21:09 | |
“In my role as an associate editor, I truly felt like I was bringing the voices of nurses who were new to oncology or new to writing forward. I was able to provide a venue for those oncology nurses who also wanted to bring forward some of the cool quality improvement projects that they were working on. I was really happy to share that knowledge through this role, so that all the other institutions can learn and maybe implement some of those solutions,” Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN®, charge nurse at Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center Delnor in Geneva, IL, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during about her experience volunteering as a peer reviewer and associate editor for the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing (CJON). Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by July 12, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the role of a peer reviewer and associate editor for an ONS journal. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “I review an article for relevancy and accuracy, score the article, provide detailed comments and feedback on sections that need improvement or the sections that look wonderful and can go straight to publishing. After that, I submit the article to the editor. You have to meet the deadlines that are given. So, I could say an article on an average takes me about one to two hours to review, which is not bad. And you’re given about three or four days to review an article, so it’s very attainable.” TS 7:23 “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to be picked for the associate editor position because I did not have any prior experience when I applied. But then soon after I applied, I got a call from the editor of CJON that she had reviewed my resume, she had reviewed my application, and she would love for me to join the team. She couldn’t see me on the call, but I was jumping up and down.” TS 9:24 “It’s fun, it’s rewarding, and I promise it will help you at some point in your career or your personal life. Whether you’re helping to lead a project at work or helping your child to write a paper for school, it’s going to come in handy; I promise you.” TS 17:00 “I feel like one of the biggest common misconceptions is [that volunteering as a peer reviewer] is a lot of work and it’s boring. That’s what I hear some of the nurses say. I disagree with that. I feel like it’s a lot of fun, and it’s rewarding, and it’s a great opportunity. I feel like everybody should try it.” TS 18:47 | |||
| 17 Sep 2021 | Episode 173: Oncology Nurses’ Role in Stem Cell Transplants for Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease | 00:38:37 | |
ONS member Ellen Olson, RN, MS, CPNP, BMTCN®, CPHON®, bone marrow transplant pediatric nurse practitioner at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Aflac Cancer and the Blood Disorder Service in Emory University’s Department of Pediatrics, both in Georgia, and member of the Metro Atlanta ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss stem cell transplantation as a treatment option for pediatric sickle cell disease. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 23 Sep 2022 | Episode 226: Patient Education for Next-Generation Sequencing to Guide Cancer Therapy | 00:47:01 | |
“Nurses can bridge the information gap and help patients better understand that the information received from next-generation sequencing (NGS) can really help to determine which treatment they will respond best to, if there are therapies that won’t be effective, or if there are clinical trials that are open to them based on the results,” Danielle Fournier, RN, MSN, APRN, AGPCNP-BC, AOCNP®, CORLN, advanced practice RN in the department of thoracic surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, told Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Fournier discussed the advancements being made in NGS technology and how it can be used to care for patients with cancer. This episode was produced by ONS and sponsored by Foundation Medicine. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “With next-generation sequencing (NGS), multiple biomarkers can be evaluated using one test. So, in cancer care, we’re learning that any given tumor may harbor a variety of variants. So, if we’re considering using in situ hybridization (ISH) or fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to identify biomarkers, multiple assays may be needed and may need to be performed in order to test for multiple variants.” Timestamp (TS) 10:21 “There are multiple testing strategies that can be used with NGS technology, which is kind of what makes it so versatile. What type of testing is most appropriate really depends on the patient’s risk factors, their diagnosis, their cancer stage, what testing has previously been completed, and what tissue is available for analysis.” TS 12:00 “Within oncology care, there is a role for NGS in the identification and management of both solid tumors and hematologic cancers, and this role is likely just going to continue to expand. So, really there’s been an increased focus on genomic pharmacotherapy and targeted therapy, and this is playing an ever-greater role in the treatment of cancer. So, NGS will really continue to serve as a means to take a closer look at a patient’s cancer at the molecular level and hopefully match patients with treatments that will be most effective at treating their cancer.” TS 20:54 “In reality, there’s an expanding role for NGS testing in the diagnosis of many complex diseases. So, I think more than likely what we’re going to see is that the indications and utility of NGS is only going to continue to grow in both the oncology setting as well as the non-oncology setting.” TS 23:08 “The oncology nurse really plays a key role in several important steps along the way. The first place they may be involved is in the informed consent process. Many—but not all—hospitals require patients to sign consent for genetic and genomic testing and this is just acknowledging that the patient is making an informed and autonomous decision related to their health care. Nurses may also play a role in the collection of a tissue sample or blood sample. And once testing has been completed, nurses may play a role in discussing the NGS results with patients.” TS 24:03 “Nurses really can help to somewhat bridge this information gap and help patients better understand that the information received from NGS can really help to determine which treatment they will respond best to, if there are therapies that won’t be effective, or if there are clinical trials that are open to them based on the results. And these are all really important considerations for cancer treatment.” TS 36:21 | |||
| 19 Jun 2020 | Episode 108: Misconceptions About Radioactive Targeted Therapies | 00:27:04 | |
ONS Member Pam Grubbs, APRN, CNS, MS, AOCNS®, clinical nurse specialist and assistant professor in nursing at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, MN, and member of the ONS Southeast Minnesota Chapter, and Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, discuss radioactive targeted therapies, safety recommendations, and common misconceptions. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 02 Jun 2023 | Episode 262: LGBTQ+ Inclusive Nursing Care Begins With Using Supportive Language | 00:39:35 | |
“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 New York, NY, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Amaya discussed the nursing considerations when caring for LGBTQ+ patients with cancer. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by June 2, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to caring for patients with cancer in the LGBTQIA+ community. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Sexual orientation and gender identify data is important because it really tells you the history and what’s going on with the patient. Some patients may identify as a woman, but their sex assigned at birth may be male. The patient may be presenting as a trans woman or as a woman. You’re not seeing their full health history because you may not know all of the different information about them. So, sex assigned at birth is really important to know really the full medical history and what the patient is really needing to be cared for.” Timestamp (TS) 05:10 “It is not the community’s duty to gain the trust from the providers. It is our duty as providers to make a safe space so patients can come to us to get care. When you have mistrust and fear of going to healthcare providers, it’s not going to do well for the community. They’re not going to get screened; they’re not going to get diagnosed early. They’re just going to have poor outcomes.” TS 14:16 “We’re the most trusted profession, and patients really get in tune with us. If they feel safe with the nurse, they really start to feel safe within the healthcare system, and you can really tackle a lot of the feelings and worry the patient has by just being there for the patient and by really acknowledging who they are, who their families are, who their caregivers are. And it’s something that is so powerful. As nurses, we sometimes forget that we have that power.” TS 16:00 “I have talked to many people, and they feel, ‘I can’t do a Safe Zone training. I can’t talk about LGBTQ issues because I’m not part of the community.’ And I always combat that and say, ‘Well, I don’t have cancer. I have never experienced that, but I teach about cancer. I take care of people with cancer.’ 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.” TS 26:32 “I wouldn’t make assumptions about people. And I think this goes for all people. This isn’t just an LGBTQ issue, this is a patient issue. . . . Don’t assume things about patients. Ask about our patients, learn about our patients. Ask open-ended questions to really learn about people.” TS 30:10 | |||
| 29 May 2020 | Episode 105: U.S. Representative Donna Shalala on How Nurses Advocate for Peers and Patients | 00:32:05 | |
ONS Chief Executive Officer Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, and members of the ONS Board of Directors from across the United States share a conversation with U.S. Representative Donna E. Shalala (D-FL) on Shalala’s role in the Institute of Medicine’s historic Future of Nursing report, how the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic influenced global perspectives on nurses, and ways that nurses can advocate for improved healthcare policy reform. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode: | |||
| 21 Jun 2024 | Episode 317: AYAs With Cancer: A Patient’s Experience | 00:47:21 | |
“I was in this really unique space of being 19. So I’m over the 18 cut-off of peds but diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, but I was an adult. I was able and supposed to be making my own decisions but treated in a pediatric setting. And not everybody in that setting is expecting to talk to someone who is educated and understands what's going on,” Alec Kupelian, a cancer survivor and operations and program development specialist at Teen Cancer America in Los Angeles, CA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about advocacy for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer and his own cancer journey. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by June 21, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the experience of AYA patients with cancer. Episode Notes
To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “I joke a lot of the times that cancer was actually one of the best years of my life, and that’s not because it was good necessarily. It’s because that next year, after cancer, was probably the worst year of my life, and that drop-off into that early survivorship was a really brutal experience for me, and from talking to other cancer survivors, for them as well.” TS 3:25 “I talk to a lot of clinicians and a lot of young adult cancer survivors, and the more that I hear other people’s stories, the more clear it is to me that you never know who a patient is going to disclose information to. A lot of those symptoms or side effects or secondary issues that come about from cancer, which complicate every part of your life, it may not come to the [physician]. I was most comfortable with my nurses because I spent time with them.” TS 9:15 “You put your nose to the grindstone, and there’s a good guy, which is you, and a bad guy, which is cancer, and you just get through it. It’s very clear. And you have so much attention and dedicated support. And then when treatment’s over, everybody pats your back, dusts their shoulders, and says, ‘Congrats, go get out there.’ And all that structure goes away, and you are left floundering, trying to reconnect to what you were before and what life looked like. And it’s not always the same. … Most AYA patients would say treatment was the easy part. And those first two years after treatment were the hardest part of cancer—that reintegrating into life, that trying to contend with what just happened when you’re no longer in survival mode.” TS 26:14 “An AYA patient may have another 50 years of life after that. How does survivorship work for that? What is sexual health? Fertility? What is palliative care? … What does end-of-life care look for a patient who hasn’t gotten a chance to live their whole life? It’s really important stuff, and that is too much to ask any one person to figure out. And so Teen Cancer America wants to provide some of that framework.” TS 31:03 “Allowing nurses to say that, ‘There is going to be stuff that I don’t know, and that isn’t a failing on my part. Saying I don’t know something helps my patient have more confidence in me.’ I hear all the time clinicians are like, ‘I don’t bring up sexual health because I don’t know what to say, and I don’t want them to lose confidence in me.’ They don’t. They don’t lose confidence in you because you don’t know something. You’re a human, also. They lose confidence in you when you stop caring about them.” TS 43:44 | |||
| 03 Dec 2021 | Episode 184: Oncologic Emergencies 101: Tumor Lysis Syndrome | 00:32:41 | |
ONS member Diane Cope, PhD, ARNP-BC, AOCNP®, director of nursing and oncology nurse practitioner at Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute in Fort Myers, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss tumor lysis syndrome and its current prevention and management strategies. This episode is part of a series about oncologic emergencies; the previous episodes are also linked in the episode notes. The advertising messages in this episode are paid for by clonoSEQ. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 24 Apr 2020 | Episode 100: Use Your Resume to Stand Out in a Competitive Job Market | 00:15:37 | |
Anne Bunting, 2019 ONS Congress Career Fair presenter and senior recruiter for nursing at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, joins us to discuss how to build a successful resume, common misconceptions about resumes, and ways nurses can stand out in a competitive job market. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out some resources relevant to today’s discussion:
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| 30 Jun 2023 | Episode 266: Create a Culture of Safety: Reporting Culture | 00:20:15 | |
“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 clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about oncology nurses’ and leaders’ responsibilities in a safety-focused reporting culture. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. This episode is part of a series on creating a culture of safety; the others are linked in the episode notes below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by June 30, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to creating a culture of reporting errors and safety issues. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “A reporting culture is where people report their errors and near misses. Adverse events and near misses are common in health care; however, unfortunately, they are underreported.” Timestamp (TS) 01:36 “I think that nurses may hesitate because of fear of retaliation or getting in trouble. Even if that error was because of a system problem or it was an honest mistake, there’s still that fear. So, leaders in healthcare settings really need to create and promote a psychologically safe environment.” TS 03:23 “Oncology nurses are really positioned in a great place to participate in debriefs and root-cause analysis and share their expertise as appropriate to, perhaps, update current policies and procedures to prevent this from happening again.” TS 08:36 “We all have a role to play in identifying and reporting potential hazards. So, that could be a piece of equipment that needs maintenance or a slippery floor that needs attention. We can all prevent harm and keep our patients safe.” TS 17:16 “It is so important for all of us to foster a culture where all employees feel empowered to report and address concerns without fear of repercussions.” TS 19:14 | |||
| 22 Jan 2021 | Episode 139: How CAR and Other T Cells Are Revolutionizing Cancer Treatment | 00:26:19 | |
ONS member Cecily Snyder, BSN, RN, OCN®, BMTCN®, transplant case manager of the blood and marrow transplantation program at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha and member of the Metro Omaha ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss T-cell therapy and how it’s changed approaches to cancer treatment and patient management for oncology nurses. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by January 22, 2022. The planners and faculty for this episode have no conflicts to disclose, and the episode has no commercial support. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 22 Mar 2024 | Episode 304: Nursing Roles in FDA: The Drug Labeling and Package Insert Process | 00:17:52 | |
“The prescribing information is really a reliable data-driven and comprehensively reviewed tool. That’s not just for healthcare providers when writing a prescription, but also, for example, it is a tool that can be used to generate educational content for healthcare systems as they update formularies and create drug information,” Elizabeth Everhart, MSN, RN, ACNP, associate director for labeling at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Silver Spring, MD, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about drug package inserts and labeling. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by March 22, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to FDA drug labeling.
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “Nurses can be involved in several ways in creating the labeling. They can be members of the FDA multidisciplinary team that reviews the information submitted by the drug maker. Also in the review and development of the patient package insert or medication guide or the instructions for use that are used to help a healthcare practitioner, patients, or family members use the drug safely and accurately.” TS 2:08 “[Nurses] can use the sections to guide their teaching and instruction to patients, particularly about dosing and any tests that will be done to monitor for adverse reactions and any needed changes in the dosing, like whether they need to hold the medication or take less of it. They can also use the information to describe what the expected and serious adverse reactions for the drug are and how frequently they occurred in clinical trials.” TS 9:12 “The patient package inserts and medication guides that I mentioned are written in patient-friendly language and are good resources for nurses to use to educate patients and their caregivers or family members about what the product is used for, what its main and most serious side effects are, as well as what to expect in terms of the need for any special tests.” TS 11:04 “In the FDA’s public Prescribing Information Resources page, there are several excellent resources for healthcare providers to learn more about specific sections of the label, as well as to find good educational material for patients and their caregivers. There are also several presentations and videos available related to many sections of the label that are excellent resources for oncology nurses.” TS 14:26 | |||
| 28 Mar 2025 | Episode 356: A Nurse’s Guide to the 2024 NIOSH List of Hazardous Drugs | 00:34:46 | |
“And so you have different kinds of hazards with the drugs that you’re using. That means that in the past, when a lot of oncology drugs, antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer would have been added, you may see that a lot of oncology drugs either weren’t added or they’re added in a different place on the list than they were in the past. That’s due to some of the restructuring of the list we’ll probably talk about later,” Jerald L. Ovesen, PhD, pharmacologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about the latest update to the NIOSH list of hazardous drugs. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “So we look for a carcinogenic hazard. So does this molecule, does this chemical, this drug, have the ability to increase the risk of cancer? A lot of the time that will also tie with genotoxic hazards, but not always. There are some drugs on the list that are carcinogenic through other mechanisms. Sometimes carcinogenicity can be related to hormone signals, can lead to increased risk of cancer. There’s some nuance there, but is it a carcinogenic hazard? That can get it onto the list. Is it a developmental and reproductive hazard?” TS 10:48 “NIOSH can’t say what’s right for every situation, but some organizations have suggested further precautions such as temporary alternative duty for workers who are pregnant or are looking to become pregnant. NIOSH can’t say what’s best for any given facility, but other organizations have given some good suggestions you may want to look into.” TS 13:18 “The list doesn’t really rank hazard. I know a lot of people have kind of treated it that way a lot of times. We don’t say that something is less hazardous if it’s only a developmental or reproductive hazard, because if you’re trying to have a child, then that’s an important hazard to you. And we don’t necessarily say something that’s carcinogenic is more hazardous.” TS 14:34 “Some standard setting organizations have set standards for handling. Really in the oncology setting, particularly oncology pharmacy setting, it’s really changed how some of the handling happens there because some of the standards come out of the pharmacy world. And what’s happened there is some drugs that are oncology drugs, they might have been on table one before just because they were used in the treatment of cancer. They were antineoplastics, so they were on table one. Now, because they’re not identified as a potential carcinogen and they don’t have manufactured special handling information, they are now on table two.” TS 23:39 “Occasionally, if a drug comes out and has manufacturer special handling information, we’ll go ahead and add it to the list. And since we won’t add it into the publication, we typically have a table on that page that puts that there. If a drug is reevaluated and we find that the hazard is not as bad as expected or it’s not a hazard, actually, and we can remove it from the list; sometimes we get new information and that happens.” TS 30:30 | |||
| 20 Dec 2018 | Episode 28: Resume Writing Tips to Tell Your Professional Story | 00:29:38 | |
ONS Congress presenter Heather Costa, PHR, SHRM-CP, recruiter from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, joins ONS staff writer Chris Pirschel to discuss what nurses need to know about resume writing, how to make yourself stand out to potential employers, and much more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 15 Nov 2019 | Episode 77: A Turning Point for Safe Handling Practice | 00:49:08 | |
ONS member Seth Eisenberg, RN, ADN, OCN®, BMTCN®, professional practice coordinator of infusion services at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Washington and member of the Puget Sound ONS Chapter, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer/producer, to discuss the important aspects of safe handling in oncology nursing, what the upcoming USP chapter <800> launch will mean for practice, and how healthcare professionals can advocate for safety in their institutions. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 16 Aug 2024 | Episode 325: What Changed in the 2024 ASCO/ONS Antineoplastic Administration Safety Standards | 00:38:15 | |
“These evidence-based standards provide a great framework for best practice in cancer care and the 2016 publication is extensively referenced. However, patient care mistakes and medication errors still happen. So, it’s imperative that we review the current literature and look for new evidence that’s been published,” ONS member MiKaela Olsen, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCNS®, FAAN, clinical program director of oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Health System told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about the new Antineoplastic Therapy Administration Safety Standards for Adult and Pediatric Oncology from ASCO and ONS. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by August 16, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to increasing safety of antineoplastic medication administration. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “The target population for these standards are, first, our patients—adult and pediatric patients with cancer who are receiving antineoplastic therapy—but as well as those who care for patients with cancer. And we’re not distinguishing between the healthcare worker, the caregiver, all people who care for patients with cancer, including those practitioners or healthcare workers that are not in a traditional oncology setting.” TS 3:25 “The audience is, first of all, oncology clinicians. We spent a lot of time on this panel writing the definition, so it was very clear who people were as we use terminology in the standards. So, an oncology clinician, when we refer to that in the standards, that's a licensed nurse, like a nurse or pharmacist, a licensed clinician, or it could be a non-licensed clinician like a patient care assistant or tech. So, we refer to people as clinicians that are licensed or unlicensed.” TS 4:14 “We need to define all types of therapy for cancer, and chemo is one type of treatment modality. The explosion of new therapies that include cellular therapies such as CAR T and other exciting emerging treatment options are not our traditional chemotherapy. And so the term antineoplastic was agreed upon for all these therapies to treat cancer. That definition in the standards is, and I quote, ‘All antineoplastic agents used to treat cancer regardless of the route.’ And that’s important because the previous guidelines were not as inclusive about that.” TS 6:58 “Another high-level change was the new language about the location of administration to include new healthcare settings. We know that antineoplastic medications are given in a variety of settings, not just your typical inpatient or ambulatory oncology infusion center anymore. We’ve got health plans that are increasingly developing strategies to direct patients to more convenient and less costly sites of service, such as the physician’s office or home infusion, unregulated sites, and more care is being given in these settings. So, it’s really important that we adapt the standards to make sure those patients treated in the home or in a freestanding center are given the same opportunity for safety and quality.” TS 8:39 “The other thing in Domain 1 that I think is crucial for nurses to understand, because it’s a big change, and we made this change based on the literature, looking at patient safety events related to inaccurate weight and height measurements. Domain 1 has a standard 1.7 that says weight and height are measured and documented in the medical record in metric units only. And I see that a lot when I’m going around the country. People still have their scales and pounds and their height in inches, and we’ve got to change that. We shouldn’t be converting things. Both the measurement and the documentation are verified by two individuals, one of whom is a licensed clinician. Prior to preparation and administration of a newly prescribed antineoplastic treatment plan.” TS 13:32 “That third verification is an independent safety check and, in my opinion, should be done in a quiet place where you can go through and do the safety checks that are listed in the standards quietly and thoughtfully, without being in the presence of the patient or caregiver. Those are done in an attempt to do some preliminary safety checks to make sure that when I go in the room to do my safety checks—we often call those bedside safety checks—that if I have an error before that with a dose or something, I’ve caught that before I get to the patient’s side.” TS 20:52 | |||
| 20 Sep 2024 | Episode 330: Stay Up to Date on Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs | 00:28:04 | |
“The reality is that we are responsible for creating a culture of safety together for everybody in the clinical area. We have to think not only about ourselves and our personal risk, but how exposure to these hazardous drugs persists in the work environment for everybody. And we have to be part of the solution for everybody, even if it’s not something that we’re personally really worried about being exposed to,” AnnMarie Walton, PhD, MPH, RN, OCN®, CHES, FAAN, associate professor at Duke University School of Nursing in Durham, NC, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about updates to the fourth edition of Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs, one of ONS’s book publications. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by September 20, 2026. AnnMarie Walton serves in a compensated consultant role with Splashblocker LLC and as a compensated speaker for BD. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learner will report an increase in knowledge related to safe handling of hazardous drugs. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “We know that this book is used in practice sites across the country and increasingly around the world, and we have the privilege of answering lots of questions of ONS’s members routinely. And we’ve also been part of writing guidance documents for ONS. And so, we utilized, as well, some of those questions that have come to us, and we know what people want to know more about. So we’ve made sure that we’ve developed a book that would be the most helpful in clinical practice settings.” TS 2:42 “We ensured that the book was in alignment with all of the most recent organizational position statements, standards, and recommendations. And there have been some big ones between the publication of the third and fourth book. So USP 800 is one that everyone knows about, and that became enforceable in November of 2023. … The ONS/HOPA [Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association] position statement, which was most recently updated in 2022, was also folded into this book. NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] came out with two new guidance documents in 2023, and I had the opportunity to serve as a reviewer on one and a contributor to the other. Those two NIOSH guidelines have been folded into this book And then the ONS Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice, which MiKaela Olsen was a lead editor on and I was an author for, have also been folded into this text.” TS 7:01 “We’ve understood the NIOSH hierarchy of controls for years, and if we look at that hierarchy, it tells us that PPE is important but also the least effective when it comes to controlling exposure. And what’s slightly more effective is administrative controls, which are things like changes in our practices, more education, and training. And then even more powerful than administrative controls are engineering controls, and these are your closed-system transfer devices, for example, that are really important in minimizing exposure.” TS 10:31 “[Toilet pluming] is a place that I, for better or worse, spend a lot of time. And I have a colleague, Tom Connor from NIH [National Institutes of Health], who likes to joke when people ask him about his work. He says, ‘Oh, it’s in the toilet.’ And so I’m going to steal that from him and say a lot of my research is in the toilet, too.” TS 13:16 “I feel like people don’t know how contaminated toilets are and how contaminated floors are. And I’ve already told you my tip about leaving your work shoes outside. But I think if people were more aware that the toilets and the floors are often the most contaminated places on a unit, there would be more attention paid to people who are coming into contact with those surfaces and bear a lot of the exposure risk.” TS 22:51 | |||
| 16 Sep 2022 | Episode 225: Central Line Dressing Changes: Get It Right the First Time | 00:34:08 | |
“Really knowing these steps can save our own nursing time and save our patient’s skin from all the dressing removals. If we’re not doing these dressings as much, we’re all going to be happier,” MiKaela Olsen, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCNS®, FAAN, clinical program director in oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Health System in Baltimore, MD, told Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion on the importance of properly changing central line dressings and recommendations in practice. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode by completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “One of the most important points at which a line can become infected is at the insertion site. So that central line dressing is of the utmost importance. We cannot ignore it and we have to inspect it frequently and teach our patients to do the same so that they don’t have an infection caused by bacteria getting into that insertion site.” Timestamp (TS) 04:28 “If we don’t get the dressing right and we don’t do a good job with it, it’s not going to be clean, dry, and intact. It’s going to come off too soon. We really want our transparent, highly moisture-permeable dressings that we put over our central line catheters to stay on and meet the guidelines to stay on for seven days, and then we need to do a dressing change. If they come off sooner and you’re having to change them more frequently, then that can increase the risk of central line–associated bloodstream infections.” TS 12:07 “It’s really important that when you are doing these dressings, you have a very simple procedure in place to validate skill for the staff, and they do the same steps every time. But it’s very important that they do all the steps and that they always make sure that they have good dry time in between every step.” TS 13:10 “Bleeding is definitely a challenge, and sometimes it’s related to the way the line was inserted, if they used a cutting mechanism at the site instead of using a dilation. Sometimes the root of the problem can be that you have to go back to the people who inserted the catheters and tell them about the downstream effects and tell them some of the techniques.” TS 20:05 “If you stack dressings on top of your transparent dressing, it can no longer breathe. And now, it is going to trap moisture under there and cause infection. How you apply each of these chemicals, the dry time—there is definitely a science behind doing a dressing change. So really knowing these steps can save our own nursing time and save our patient’s skin from all the dressing removals. If we’re not doing these dressings as much, we’re all going to be happier.” TS 29:37 | |||
| 29 Nov 2019 | Episode 79: Nurses Need Biosimilars Education and Resources | 00:30:12 | |
This episode was supported by funding from Mylan. ONS member Kristi Orbaugh, RN, MSN, RNP, AOCN®, nurse practitioner for Community Hospital Oncology Physicians in Indianapolis, IN, and member of the Central Indiana ONS Chapter, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer/producer, to discuss the recent biosimilar focus group held at ONS, the key takeaways from that meeting, and how the Society will support nurses as they encounter more biosimilars in practice. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 04 Apr 2025 | Episode 357: ONS 50th Anniversary: The Evolution of Cancer Treatment: Stories From the Front Lines | 00:45:22 | |
“There have been many changes since the ’70s that have shaped the nurse’s role in administering chemo, and in supporting patients. The major change early on was the transition from that of nurses mixing chemo to that of pharmacists. Regulatory agencies like NIOSH and OSHA defined chemotherapy as hazardous drugs, and professional organizations became involved, leading to the publication of the joint ASCO and ONS Standards of Safe Handling,” ONS member Scarlott Mueller, MPH, RN, FAAN, secretary of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Board and member of the Oncology Nursing Foundation Capital Campaign Cabinet, told Darcy Burbage, DNP, RN, AOCN®, CBCN®, ONS member and chair of the ONS 50th Anniversary Committee during a conversation about the evolution of chemotherapy treatment. Along with Mueller, Burbage spoke with John Hillson, DNP, NP, Mary Anderson, BSN, RN, OCN®, and Kathleen Shannon-Dorcy, PhD, RN, FAAN, about the changes in radiation, oral chemotherapy, and cellular therapy treatments they have witnessed during their careers. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode Hillson: “I remember as a new grad, from back in ’98, walking up to the oncology floor. We had patients with pink labels on the chart and that was the radiation oncology service. I hadn’t heard of such a thing before. … I’d gone through nursing school and hospital orientation and unit orientation without ever hearing of these therapies. At the time, both the management and the union had no interest in specialist nurses, and the really weren’t any books that were targeting the role. And it was very isolating and frightening. I was very glad to find ONS when I moved to the U.S. Right now, the Oncology Nursing Society Manual for Radiation Oncology, Nursing Practice, and Education, it’s in its fifth edition and a sixth is underway. There’s nothing else like it. Most books are very much geared towards other professions.” TS 5:34 Mueller: “We mixed our chemo in a very small medication room on the unit, under a horizontal laminar flow hood, which we later discovered should have been a vertical laminar flow hood. Initially, we did not use any personal protective equipment. I remember mixing drugs like bleomycin and getting a little spray that from the vial onto my face. And to this day, I still have a few facial blemishes from that.” TS 14:28 Anderson: “As the increasing number of these actionable mutations continue to grow, so will the number of oral anticancer medications that patients are going to be taking. And we are already seeing that there's multiple combination regimens and complex schedules that the patients have to take. So this role the oral oncolytic nurse and the nursing role, like you said, it cannot be owned by one individual or discipline. So it’s not a pharmacist; the pharmacies aren’t owning this. The nurses are not owning this. It takes a village.” TS 32:12 Shannon-Dorcy: Then as immunotherapy comes into the picture, we start to learn about [cytokine release syndrome]. All of a sudden, we had no concept that this was a deadly consequence. ONS was on the front lines, convening people across the country together so we could speak to the investigative work with science and find ways that we could intervene, how we can look for signs of it early on with handwriting testing.” TS 39:58 | |||
| 21 Feb 2025 | Episode 351: What It’s Like to Develop Symptom Intervention Resources | 00:22:29 | |
“It is very much a collaborative group process. There are group meetings where we come to consensus on our different ratings. There’s so much support from ONS staff, even amongst our different groups, even when you’re assigned to one peer reviewer. Let’s say you go on vacation, sometimes we’re paired with other people, too. So there is some flexibility in the opportunity as well,” Holly Tenaglia, DNP, APRN, AGCNS-BC, OCN®, lecturer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about what oncology nurses need to know about volunteering as a reviewer for ONS’s symptom intervention resources. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “As far as how it would help oncology nurses, we try to make it honestly simpler by doing the legwork of reviewing the evidence, synthesizing what the rating of the evidence and what it means. And then as you’ll see on the symptom intervention resource, you’ll see kind of a snapshot of what our recommendations are for applying it to practice.” TS 7:46 “I am a clinical nurse specialist and now that I work in academia, this is a very important skill for me to build and have in my profession. Also, those group meetings that we have, I really appreciated being able to learn from others and then being able to teach that to others. So in this second round, for example, the thing that I’ve really enjoyed personally is actually being able to mentor somebody that maybe hasn’t done it as often and just being able to watch them grow and improve in their skills while you provide feedback.” TS 9:05 “We get a new article about every two weeks, and this involves about a week for myself and then about a week or less than that for my partner to go through this process as well. So being able to manage your time to afford your partner the time to solidly look through the article as well. And then being able to collaborate and receive feedback from your peers.” TS 13:06 “There have been times where the evidence has not given us the results that I think we were assuming we would see. And so while the standardized tools mitigate some of the bias, we do recognize that it won’t remove the bias entirely, but it does help make your view more objective. What are some common misconceptions about developing symptom intervention resources? I’d say personally, I don’t know if I had misconceptions before I was part of the team as much as I just didn’t know what the process entailed.” TS 18:18 “ONS is really committed to the growth of its members. I’ve really enjoyed being part of this volunteer opportunities and the other ones that I’ve been a part of. So truly, if you have a passion for something and you have the skills, ONS would love to have you and you will meet some of the greatest people in doing these opportunities. I’ve made some of the best connections and friendships through the volunteer opportunities I’ve done.” TS 21:35 | |||
| 19 Jan 2024 | Episode 295: Cancer Symptom Management Basics: Pulmonary Embolism, Pneumonitis, and Pleural Effusion | 00:37:12 | |
“So much of this is just knowing what is their diagnosis, what medications are they on, what could be the root cause of this—where is their disease to begin with? There's really a lot of differential diagnosis and workup that has to be thought about, you know, when you're dealing with shortness of breath and pulmonary toxicities,” Beth Sandy, MSN, CRNP, OCN®, thoracic medical oncology nurse practitioner at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about just a few of the pulmonary toxicities oncology nurses may encounter in patients receiving pharmaceutical cancer treatments. This episode is part of a series on cancer symptom management basics; the rest are linked below. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD), which may be applied to the nursing practice, oncology nursing practice, symptom management, palliative care, supportive care, or treatment.ILNA categories, by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by January 19, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge of pulmonary complications from cancer treatment. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Your lungs are what is needed to have the gas exchange within your bloodstream. So, when we inhale, we're inhaling oxygen, and we need that gas exchange to occur in the alveoli, which are the tiny, little bubble-like structures within the periphery of the lungs. And they're communicating with tiny, itty-bitty little blood vessels. And that's where the gas exchange occurs, where you get rid of the carbon dioxide from the blood and you get oxygen to the blood. And what ends up happening is there is, for whatever reason it may be, that gas exchange can’t occur, and that can result in so many different forms from different toxicities, whether there's an inflammation causing the alveoli not to work correctly, whether there's an obstruction where there's literally something obstructing the air getting into the lungs, or whether there's compression from an external source like a fusion or something like that that is pressing against the lungs where that gas exchange cannot occur.” TS 2:36 “Pulmonary embolism, I'll tell you, is one of the most common things that we see in cancer. As a matter of fact, often patients are diagnosed with cancer because they present with a pulmonary embolism into the E.R. (emergency room) and there's really not a lot of reasons why healthy-otherwise patients develop a PE [pulmonary embolism]. So, we start looking for cancer. So, just having cancer in general puts you in that hypercoagulable state. . . . And then, being on chemotherapy increases that risk.” TS 6:38 “I think we need to really make sure that they're compliant. We need to make sure they're not having bleeding. Are you having significant bruising anywhere? Are you having unprovoked nosebleeds? And by that, I mean, I always tell people, ‘Were you just sitting watching TV and it started dripping?’ versus, ‘Oh, I blew my nose and some blood came out.’ Okay, well, that is probably pretty common side effect of this and should stop quickly.” TS 12:06 “The problem is the majority of these patients have metastatic disease or an incurable cancer. So, we prefer not to stop it [PE medication] in those patients because if you think about it, their risk comes from the cancer. And we're not getting rid of that if they have metastatic disease. I think for those patients with metastatic disease, as long as they're tolerating it, they're not having bleeding events, we will typically tend to just keep them on it.” TS 13:09 “The main difference with the targeted therapies is it tends to be worse, and it's not something that you can rechallenge. And I think that's kind of one of the most important things to think about here. In immunotherapy, it's like, okay, it's T-cell mediated; we gave you corticosteroids; it calmed itself down. And a lot of times we can rechallenge, and we don't necessarily see it again. Whereas with targeted therapies, you have to be much more cautious. If you look at the package inserts for the EGFR and ALK inhibitors, most of them are going to tell you this is not something you ever rechallenge. Any kind of symptomatic pneumonitis, you're going to permanently discontinue the drug. Because if you give it again, it's going to recur in a pretty bad way, where corticosteroids may not even be helpful again even if you rechallenge them.” TS 17:52 “What can happen in cancer, typically, thoracic cancers—so lung cancer, mesothelioma for sure, thymic cancers like thymomas and thymic carcinomas—often will have pleural effusion or pleural disease as well. But when cancer cells get into that fluid, there's irritation which causes an increase in the amount of fluid there. And then what happens is when that space, that pleural space, is now enlarged with fluid or engorged with fluid, a few things occur here. Patients are short of breath because it's a pressure gradient there. So, you're trying to inhale against this fluid-filled cavity that's making it hard. So, often patients will describe it as it feels like someone's giving you a really tight hug and they won't stop.” TS 21:59 “There is another procedure called a talc pleurodesis, where you can have a procedure where you inject some powder in there that will kind of dry it up. The downside of that is that it kind of fuses the pleura to the lung, so there can be some complications there, some pain, and decreased lung function just from doing that, but it can be an easy fix that you certainly don't want to have an indwelling catheter there.” TS 25:11 “So, patients need to know, if they are short of breath at all, call us; let us know. The other thing that's important is know with their baseline vital signs are, especially their pulse ox. You know, some people, their pulse oximetry may be in the low 90s or upper 80s at baseline. We need to know that because there’s a big difference if a patient has, you know, they’re living at 99% versus 91% normally. Because if they come in and they live at 99 and they’re 91, that’s a huge drop. But if they come in and they were 91 to begin with and they’re 90, that’s not a big difference. So, we really do need to make sure we know what their baseline is before they’re starting any treatments.” TS 29:18 “This is not something that you want to downplay. You can’t sit there and say, you know, ‘Oh, they smoke a lot, so it’s probably that.’ Or, ‘They have this type of cancer, so it's probably that.’ I think this is something that you have to take shortness of breath seriously, and you have to work up and understand and know your patient. But for the most part, this is not something you're going to just triage to the next day or to a few days later. You're going to need some kind of urgent intervention or workup to be done pretty quickly.” TS 32:54 “I think the biggest misconception is that they can't be treated even if they're severe. Most of these things can be reversed. Part of it is just diagnosing it at first and then going from there and starting the appropriate treatment strategy.” TS 33:29 | |||
| 31 Jan 2025 | Episode 348: Breast Cancer Diagnostic Considerations for Nurses | 00:39:09 | |
“We know that some women are going to get called back. And it’s just because usually they can’t see something clearly enough. And so in most cases, those women are going to get cleared with one or two images, and they’re going to say, ‘Oh, we compressed that better, we checked it with an ultrasound, we’re fine.’ That woman can go ahead and go. But we don’t want to miss those early breast cancers,” Suzanne Mahon, DNS, RN, AOCN®, AGN-BC, FAAN, professor emeritus at Saint Louis University in Missouri, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about what oncology nurses need to know about breast cancer diagnosis. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by January 31, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to breast cancer diagnostic considerations. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.
“When a woman gets a callback, that is incredibly anxiety provoking, because they’re very scared and they don’t know what it means. And I think that’s a place where oncology nurses can remind—if it’s patients or friends who are asking—that just because you have a call back, doesn’t mean you have a malignancy.” TS 8:16 “We also know that when we call somebody back, that’s very scary and anxiety provoking. And we don’t want to subject women to unnecessary anxiety and stress through the procedure. And if it’s too stressful, they won’t come back again. That is actually a big harm that we don’t want to occur. That’s considered an acceptable amount. So we know that some women are going to get called back, and it’s just because usually they can’t see something clearly enough.” TS 11:26 “I think one of the most important things is to really help that woman understand the biopsy report. So now everybody, with most of the electronic medical records, that woman seeing that biopsy result—maybe before her provider is seeing it, depending on whether they get a chance to call that individual. But, you know, they could get a notification in their medical record, or a new report is available, and they can click on there and they could be looking at something that is very scary, not necessarily a good time, you know, like they’re getting ready to do something. And so that is a problem overall with sometimes getting bad news in oncology.” TS 15:09 “Sometimes it’s really good [for patients to bring] someone who can just be that set of ears or who can answer those questions, who’s emotionally involved but maybe not so emotionally involved, if that makes sense. And I think that that is something we can really encourage people to identify that person who’s going to really be able to support them.” TS 16:42 “When we approach a pathology report, the patient, you know, if they open that on their own, they’re just going to see breast carcinoma, or they aren’t going to look at all of the details of it. They can be quite overwhelming to look at. But I think that it’s important to kind of take the patient through it, step by step, and realize that it’s often a case of repeated measures—that you might do it and then you might do it again the next day or a day later.” TS 20:55 “Breast cancer care has changed so much over the past few decades. And I think people forget, you know, I’ve been in the business a long time, but years ago, everybody kind of got the same treatment if they got diagnosed. And we now understand so much about breast cancer treatment, but I think that has come on the shoulders of so, so, so many women who have enrolled in clinical trials to help us understand pathology better, to help us understand the impact of certain treatments. And so I think, first of all, we need to thank those women who have generously contributed to this base of knowledge. And it’s a place where those clinical trials have really made a difference.” TS 35:46 | |||
| 22 Oct 2019 | Episode 73: Overcoming Challenges as a New Nurse Author | 00:48:58 | |
ONS member Suzanne Mahon, RN, DNSc, AOCN®, AGN-BC, clinical nurse specialist, professor at Saint Louis University and member of the St. Louis ONS Chapter, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss the challenges new nurse authors face, how to overcome barriers when writing and publishing, and how any nurse can become a published author. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 08 Nov 2019 | Episode 76: ONS Guidelines Will Answer Key Symptom Management Questions | 00:28:29 | |
Pamela Ginex, EdD, MPH, RN, OCN®, ONS senior manager of evidence-based practice and inquiry, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer/producer, to discuss the Society’s new symptom management guidelines, the process by which the guidelines were developed, and how they’ll influence practice for nurses and clinicians throughout the oncology community. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 30 Jul 2021 | Episode 166: Cognitive Behavioral Interventions Help Patients With a Spectrum of Cancer Symptoms | 00:30:41 | |
ONS member Ellyn Matthews, PhD, RN, AOCNS®, CBSM, FAAN, professor at Regis University School of Nursing in Denver and member of the High Plains ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss cognitive behavioral interventions, how they can help patients with cancer, and why oncology nurses are ideally positioned to deliver them. Ellyn and her colleagues have evaluated cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in rural breast cancer survivors, delivered both in person and via telehealth. Her team published the study findings in the Oncology Nursing Forum, which we’ve linked in the episode notes. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 25 Nov 2022 | Episode 235: Self-Advocacy Skills for Patients | 01:04:19 | |
“Effective communication with healthcare providers, making informed decisions about their care, and gaining strength through connections to others” are the key aspects of patient self-advocacy, ONS member Teresa Thomas, PhD, RN, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing in Pennsylvania, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, in a conversation about how patients can self-advocate and how nurses can support them. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Upon completion of this activity, participants will report an increase in knowledge related to patient self-advocacy. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Effective communication with healthcare providers, making informed decisions about their care, and gaining strength through connections to others. That’s really how we define the key aspects of what patients do to advocate for themselves.” Timestamp (TS) 04:39 “At the end of the day, if a patient doesn’t feel like the care really is attuned to what is going on in their life and they don’t feel like they’re understood or appreciated, or their self-worth isn’t identified by their care team, then are we really patient-centered?” TS 06:32 “Really, patient self-advocacy is about making sure that your clinical care team knows what’s most important to you, even if the clinician doesn’t ask you, ‘What is it like at home?’ or ‘Tell me about your family,’ or ‘Tell me about what you’re looking forward to getting back to after treatment.’ Put that into the conversation where they understand exactly what your quality of life means to you and they understand what your main goals of treatment are.” TS 12:33 “When patients don’t have that voice to speak up, ask questions, and push a little bit if they don’t understand what’s happening, their care, adherence, health, and quality of life suffer because they don’t know enough to be engaged enough to ask for help.” TS 19:53 “We’re interested in patients’ quality of life, and we see that their emotional, social, physical, religious, and spiritual quality of life just goes down because they’re not themselves and they don’t quite know how to get back to themselves. And that’s the saddest part to see—them going through the physical rigor of going through cancer treatment is one thing, but feeling like you’re not yourself—we’ve had several people call it self-worth, the idea that I’m worth fighting for and I’m worth standing up to my providers and insisting that my pain finally gets a treatment that works.” TS 21:27 “Patient self-advocacy really centers around communication, and the informed decision making comes part and parcel with that because that’s the getting the information and gathering the resources to help communicate those ideas to your providers or whomever. And the connected strength also is about communication, too, since frequently family dynamics also require really good communication skills. So, if there was one thing that we would really want to train our patients in in terms of self-advocacy, it’s that effective communication aspect.” TS 31:42 “We know that cancer puts people at a disadvantage and makes them feel different from who they are. And what we’re trying to do is get them to feel like who they are is the same person they were, maybe slightly different from, who they were before cancer and that their cancer team and their loved ones know and support them for who they are.” TS 57:47 | |||
| 18 Oct 2017 | Episode 1: Experiences With CAR T-Cell Therapy | 00:13:05 | |
Kathleen Wiley, RN, MSN, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, sits down with Megan Harvey, MSN, RN, clinical nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss Harvey's experience with CAR T- cell therapy. Find out more about this immunotherapy treatment in cancer care.
For more oncology nursing information and resources, visit www.ons.org
Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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| 24 Jul 2020 | Episode 113: Manage Cancer-Related Hot Flashes With ONS Guidelines™ | 00:29:14 | |
ONS member Marcelle Kaplan, MS, RN, a breast oncology clinical nurse specialist, and a member of the panel that developed the ONS Guidelines for Cancer Treatment–Related Hot Flashes in Women With Breast Cancer and Men With Prostate Cancer, and member of the ONS Long Island/Queens Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss ONS's new guidelines and what nurses need to know about the different interventions for managing hot flashes, especially how they differ in patients receiving hormone-depletion therapies compared to the general public. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 12 Aug 2022 | Episode 220: Oncologic Emergencies 101: Febrile Neutropenia and Sepsis | 00:33:14 | |
“It’s actually the nurse who most often first identifies the subtle signs of sepsis in patients. Trust your clinical judgement,” ONS member Laura Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN®, nurse practitioner at the University of California, San Francisco, told listeners during a conversation with Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Zitella explained the nursing and management considerations for febrile neutropenia and what to do if it transitions into sepsis. This episode is part of a series about oncologic emergencies; the previous episodes are also linked below. You can also earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode by completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “We know that fever and neutropenia in combination needs to be treated immediately. This is a high-risk oncologic emergency. Our patients who have febrile neutropenia are at very high risk of having a severe infection or sepsis.” Timestamp (TS) 03:44 “Patients with cancer are at an increased risk for infection because of the inherent immunosuppression of the cancer itself and also the treatment.” TS 08:28 “There are some very, very basic things that patients can do [to decrease risk for infection]. The most important is good handwashing. I explain to patients that your skin is the best barrier against getting an infection. If there’s no break in the skin, then infection cannot get in. So, if your hands get contaminated and you wash them before you touch your eyes or your mouth or your nose, then that is a good way to prevent infection.” TS 11:42 “Even if a patient does everything perfect, most of the time when you’re neutropenic, the infections that develop come from endogenous organisms. So, our body is colonized with probably 10 times as many microbes as human cells, and when the immune system is suppressed, it allows these organisms sometimes to cause infection. So, it’s very important for patients to know that if they have signs of infection that they should let us know so that we can start immediate treatment to treat the infection.” TS 14:01 “If patients are higher risk or they have any organ dysfunctions, or other symptoms—like they’re unwell, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, any symptoms like that—they should be admitted to the hospital, and we would initiate IV antibiotics.” TS 17:37 “It’s actually the nurse who’s most often the person that first identifies sepsis in patients, so I think it’s really important to trust your clinical judgement. When you look at a patient, it’s really easy to tell when something is wrong. When they’re starting to breathe too heavy or they’re a little bit off and they’re starting to get some altered mental status, or suddenly their heart rate is elevated for no reason even though they’re just lying in bed. So, nurses are really positioned and are most often the ones who first pick up on these subtle signs.” TS 27:17 | |||
| 15 Nov 2024 | Episode 337: Meet the ONS Board of Directors: Haynes, Wilson, and Yackzan | 00:36:44 | |
“The gravity of the responsibility was realized when you walked into the boardroom and you’re there to make decisions, and the perspective you have to take shifts. Of course, I bring to the table my expertise and my perspective, but the decision-making and strategy behind it is really geared at sustaining the organization and moving us towards our mission, which is to advance excellence in oncology nursing and quality cancer care. Being able to reframe your perspective a little bit around those decisions is something that you don’t realize until you’re there to do that,” ONS director-at-large Ryne Wilson, DNP, RN, OCN®, told Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, chief executive officer at ONS, during a conversation with the three new 2024–2027 directors-at-large on the ONS Board. Nevidjon spoke with Wilson, Heidi Haynes, MN, CRNP, OCN®, and Susan Yackzan, PhD, APRN, AOCN®, about their careers, paths to serving on the Board, and passions in oncology. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by November 15, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to the key roles of the ONS Board of Directors. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode Wilson: “After graduating and moving to Minnesota, I immediately joined the Southeast Minnesota chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society and served on the board and a few different positions, as membership chair and as the legislative liaison for the chapter, as well. And I had the opportunity to go to my first ONS Congress®. That really opened my eyes to all of the possibilities and all the really incredible work that so many of our colleagues across the country have been doing, which really was inspiring and really made me want to do more. I took on more volunteer opportunities within society—things like the OCN® Passing Score Task Force with ONCC, as a Biomarker Database expert reviewer, the Symptom Intervention Guidelines reviewer, and several other volunteer opportunities, just to stay connected and build relationships, but also give back to the profession that had really given so much to me.” TS 10:06 Haynes: “What I’ve been learning is how to transfer that passion and leadership experience that I learned at the local level and grow them into bigger-picture skills, sort of switching my hat and supporting our oncology nurses on more of a global level. I would say for those interested in a national Board position but unsure how they would navigate being new to the role, I can tell you the personal support of the new Board members has been wonderful. Brenda, you and the more senior members of the Board and the National ONS team have all been welcoming and willingly share their knowledge. We even get assigned a Board buddy, and I have to give a shoutout to my Board buddy, Trey Woods, who has graciously—more than graciously—put up with all of my questions and pestering along the way.” TS 16:39 Yackzan: “Well, the health of the organization is a responsibility. So that’s what you’re giving yourself over to and the task. The chapter board is just on a much more local and scaled back level. I mean this reaches a different proportion. So, you know, it’s not that it was the prior. I just think the full impact of it sort of comes to you when you’re in the Board meeting and you’re thinking through those things. The budget committee is one of the committees that I’m on, and I’m happy to report that we’re very healthy. And that’s because of the great stewards who came before me, and so, like everybody else on the Board, we feel the impact of making sure that that continues because oncology nursing is essential. We must continue to go forward.” TS 18:18 | |||
| 19 Jul 2019 | Episode 58: The Power of Cancer Rehabilitation | 00:44:48 | |
ONS members Melissa Thess, PT, CLT, director of education and quality, and Amanda Hodges, BSN, RN, OCN®, director of implementation, from ReVital Cancer Rehabilitation, join Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss the role of physical therapy in oncology care, how nurses and physical therapists can work together for cancer rehabilitation, and the importance of physical activity for patients with cancer. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 14 Sep 2018 | Episode 18: Best Practices for Abstract Writing | 00:15:29 | |
Pamela Ginex, EdD, MPH, RN, OCN®, senior manager of evidence-based practice and inquiry at ONS, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss best practices for writing an abstract, the benefits of submitting one, how it can further your career, and much more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode: | |||
| 02 Jul 2021 | Episode 162: What Nurses Need to Know About Central Lines and Ports | 00:49:16 | |
ONS member MiKaela Olsen, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCNS®, FAAN, clinical program director for oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in the Johns Hopkins Health System in Baltimore, MD, and member of the Greater Baltimore and Mid-Chesapeake Bay ONS chapters, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss preventing central line–associated bloodstream infections and other best practices for central lines and ports. Olsen presented on the topic during the inaugural ONS Bridge™ conference in September 2020; an ONS Voice article summarizing that session is linked in the episode. She also studied the use of heparin versus saline flushes for her DNP project. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 1.0 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by July 2, 2023. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 15 Apr 2022 | Episode 203: Oncologic Emergencies 101: Increased Intracranial Pressure | 00:21:32 | |
Elevated intracranial pressure is a life-threatening cancer complication, but oncology nurses can take steps to prevent and recognize it in their patients. ONS member Mary Elizabeth Davis, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, and member of the New York City ONS Chapter, talks with Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, about the latest nursing strategies for increased intracranial pressure, a situation that can occur with a brain tumor, abscess, infection, or other conditions that increases or obstructs cerebrospinal fluid or blood flow in the brain. This episode is part of a series about oncologic emergencies; the previous episodes are linked in the episode notes. You can also earn free NCPD contact hours by completing the evaluation linked in the episode notes. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by April 15, 2024. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 08 Apr 2019 | Episode 43: Sharing Patient, Provider, and Caregiver Resources | 00:29:08 | |
ONS member Tracy Wyant, DNP, AOCN®, CHPN, director of cancer information at the American Cancer Society (ACS), joins Chris Pirschel by phone to discuss the ACS’s patient education resources, healthcare provider programs, available services for caregivers, and much more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 05 May 2023 | Episode 258: ONS Through the Ages: Stories From the Early Days With Cindi Cantril and George Hill | 00:30:49 | |
“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 president of ONS. Hill was a monumental supporter of ONS’s founding and incorporation in 1975, and the duo reflected on their experiences and the history of oncology nursing. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by May 5, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to the early formation of ONS. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “There’s no doubt that the National Cancer Act elevated the whole field of oncology into something that was very different. . . . 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].” Timestamp (TS) 02:48 “In the 1950s and 60s, cancer was a word that was never mentioned. The idea of having something called cancer was so mysterious, so dangerous, so frightful, you could not mention cancer. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City was a pioneer in introducing the word cancer to be able to be used. But most everywhere else, even in oncology, we had to dodge around the term.” TS 09:43 “Throughout America, people need medical care and cancer care close to home. People can often drive many hours just to reach a community cancer center. To reach a comprehensive cancer center such as Memorial Sloan Kettering or MD Anderson would be impossible. So, the idea of developing physicians and radiation therapists and nursing oncologists who can do the job close to home is terribly important, otherwise they just don’t get treated.” TS 12:44 “The opportunity and the goal of working with people of like mind in other countries is well worth doing. And we also learn from them.” TS 28:33 | |||
| 10 Jul 2020 | Episode 111: Use Social Media to Enhance Your Clinical Practice | 00:37:13 | |
Lee Aase, communications director for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and presenter at the 2020 ONS Bridge™ virtual conference, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss various social media platforms clinicians use to enhance their practice, the guidelines and risks to be aware of, and benefits of using social media in health care. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 13 Apr 2019 | Episode 44: How Nurses Innovate in Practice Every Day | 00:39:24 | |
ONS member Rachel Walker, PhD, RN, OCN®, ONS Congress keynote speaker, invention ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss nurse-led innovation, nursing inventors, ways that nurses innovate in cancer practice, and much more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode: | |||
| 01 Mar 2019 | Episode 38: What Does It Take to Be a Successful Leader? | 00:34:15 | |
Marcy Adams, MBA, RN, BHA, ONS Congress Career Fair presenter and deputy director of oncology at Bayer, joins Chris Pirschel to discuss the differences between leadership and management, how every nurse can fill a leadership role, what makes a successful leader, and more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 15 Mar 2024 | Episode 303: Cancer Symptom Management Basics: Ocular Toxicities | 00:27:30 | |
“First, you want to refer patients to an eye care provider prior to initiating therapy, and I think communication at this point is really important. You need to tell the eye care provider why they’re being referred, what treatment they’re getting, the most common ocular toxicities, and also what needs to be done at every visit. They need to do a visual acuity; they need to do a slit-lamp eye exam. And these eye care providers need to know that ahead of time, so they’re doing everything at that visit,” Courtney Arn, APRN-CNP, nurse practitioner at the Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about ocular toxicities and their management in cancer care. The advertising messages in this episode are paid for by Dartmouth Hitchcock Cancer Center. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “The most common ocular toxicities that we see with cancer treatments currently are vision impairment, which can include decreased visual acuity or blurred vision. We also see keratopathy or keratitis, very common to have dry eyes, photophobia, eye pain. Sometimes patients can develop cataracts, conjunctivitis, or even blepharitis, which is inflammation of the eyelid.” TS 2:27 “Fortunately, most of the ocular toxicities that develop when being treated with these treatments are short term, and so most of them are reversible. And they actually resolve relatively quickly after stopping treatment that’s causing the ocular toxicity. So usually within one to two months, the ocular toxicities have significantly improved or resolved.” TS 4:55 “Sometimes patients come in and you’re asking them, ‘Are you having any symptoms, or do you have any blurred vision?’ And they’ll say, you know, ‘I haven't been able to see my computer as well,’ or ‘I’ve noticed when driving, I can’t read the road sign.’ And what I really hear often is watching TV, they can’t see the scores of sports games at the bottom of the screen.” TS 7:43 “The nurses are very important in this process from the beginning of doing the patient education prior to them starting therapy, helping with the referral process to getting them in, making sure the patients have their eye drops, making sure they know how to use their eye drops, making sure they’re aware of the signs and symptoms to be calling and reporting, and then also identifying at their visits, too, if they’re having any new symptoms. So they definitely play a heavy, heavy role in this process.” TS 14:22 | |||
| 14 Jul 2023 | Episode 268: Race in Research: From Subjects to Scientists, ONS Scholar-in-Residence Has a Career Commitment to Racial Equity | 00:41:22 | |
“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 professor at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about her oncology nursing clinical and research career, commitment to equity, and role as ONS’s scholar-in-residence. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by July 14, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to race in research. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “A commitment that we all have to have is toward more diversity in oncology nursing and in oncology research and thinking about what can I do in my world.” Timestamp (TS) 7:52 “Unless we listen to and really fully honor what the nurse can ask about their experience with patients, we’re missing so much in the way that we can help patients’ families and communities.” TS 17:08 “I think we haven’t thought fully enough about the patient in the context of their life. I think we’ve thought about symptoms, but we have to think about the patient baring those symptoms, where they come from, and what they’ve experienced. So, I think incorporating the social determinants of health is very important.” TS 18:00 “White researchers will say, ‘It doesn’t matter. You can hire White recruiters and as long as people are properly trained, that should not matter.’ I feel like that is a bit of implicit bias that we as White researchers just don’t recognize. We think it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t matter to us. But it does matter to Black women.” TS 30:13 | |||
| 21 Oct 2022 | Episode 230: Violence in Health Care | 00:46:29 | |
“A lot of healthcare workers that I talk to say that they are kind of brought up with the culture that violence is part of the job. It’s not your job to take abuse,” Chris Snyder, University of Utah Health security manager for the University of Utah Department of Public Safety in Salt Lake City, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Snyder gave an overview of violence in health care, educational resources for de-escalation strategies, and violence prevention tips. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode by completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “If I have a patient who maybe comes in two or three times a month for an appointment, or maybe they’re inpatient, I do want to focus on their baseline behavior. Because any deviation from that gives me the opportunity to practice situational awareness and know that something is happening.” Timestamp (TS) 07:36 “The number-one rule is you have to give your undivided attention. All too often we are multitasking and doing different things, and we’re in a hurry, or it’s the end of our shift, or we’re working overtime. But when you just stop and drop everything and give that undivided attention and show that individual that you’re there to support them and that you’re listening to them and that you’re there to help them, it makes a huge difference in setting the path for the rest of their journey.” TS 12:45 “Another reason why we don’t see things reported is because a lot of our employees feel like, ‘Hey, it has to be an actual physical act of violence for me to report it. Someone has to actually hit me or grab me or throw something at me.’ But workplace violence is defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other groups as all forms that include verbal aggression, verbal abuse, name calling, intimidation, workplace bullying, sexual harassment, sexual inuendo, in addition to those physical acts of violence.” TS 13:22 “Taking the time to ask questions, explain procedures, even talk about wait times—and in the meantime, tending to a physiological need. . . . Anything like that is a huge step in keeping that person closer to their baseline behavior.” TS 18:50 “We need to trust our intuition because if something doesn’t feel right, it most likely isn’t right. Sometimes our mind does not connect the dots there, but if the hair on the back of your neck stands up, listen to that.” TS 24:03 “[Another important factor is] training and education. You need some kind of training on de-escalation and it dovetails with personal safety. And the reason I say that is because when we talk about personal safety, we talk a lot about how we communicate, and a big piece of that is nonverbal communication. So, safety, communication, de-escalation, all of those things are important.” TS 29:48 “Know before you go. Have you reviewed a patient’s chart? Is there a history? Say we have disruptive behavior—maybe we have a patient who is sexually inappropriate with female staff members. Do all staff members know? Is there a plan in place? . . . Check that patient’s chart information. Are there behavioral indicators that we’re concerned about or any red flags that we want to be aware of?” TS 31:07 “One major rule of de-escalation is that you cannot control somebody else’s behavior. It’s not possible. We can only control our own behavior. And by mastering that, we can influence another person’s behavior. And hopefully, if they’re at the top of that roller coaster, we’re not riding up to meet them. We’re staying down at the bottom. We want them to come down and meet us because that’s when we’re going to actually communicate and have a conversation. . . . And also know what our own boundaries are. We’re human beings. I could be the best at de-escalation and always maintain my composure, but I have a tipping point as well.” TS 32:42 “Another thing that we don’t often discuss is the importance of debriefing. We talk about, ‘Let’s debrief as a team,’ what went right, what went wrong, what were the triggers, what happened, is everybody okay? That includes physical injury and emotional injury, as well. But we are in the habit of only debriefing bad things. How about we debrief a good thing every once in a while?” TS 37:30 | |||
| 05 Jul 2024 | Episode 319: Difficult Conversations About Pregnancy Testing in Cancer Care | 00:34:36 | |
Episode 319: Difficult Conversations About Pregnancy Testing in Cancer Care “For people diagnosed with cancer that are of childbearing potential, we have to consider how [pregnancy] testing could impact them. So we never know what someone has been through, and it’s important to lead with empathy while providing education of the importance of this testing. So someone may find now that pregnancy testing is a dreaded experience instead of what they thought would be a joyous one,” Marissa Fors, LCSW, OSW-C, CCM, director of specialized programs at CancerCare in New York, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about the psychosocial aspects of pregnancy testing in cancer care. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by July 5, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the patient experience of pregnancy testing during cancer treatment. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “In everyday life, pregnancy testing is actually still really complex. It’s more than just the positive pregnancy test and the happy parent we may see on commercials. For those that are hopeful for a positive test, there’s still a lot of anxiety, worry, fear, maybe before, during, or after the results. And I think about how long this person has been trying to conceive and the financial impacts involved, change in family dynamics. What if that test comes back negative? Then I think about the potential disappointment or the heartbreak. I also consider the flipside—those that are scared of a positive result for fears of becoming pregnant for a range of different reasons.” TS 3:40 “I think it’s important to always lead with empathy and kindness and an open mind. So you don’t want to assume you know or understand how a person feels or may respond. Allow your patients to share with you how they’re feeling in a nonjudgmental manner. This could be an incredibly vulnerable moment, and nurses can be a valuable source of support. Take a moment to just listen, normalize their feelings or let them ask questions. And I recognize it can be difficult to know what to say or do, but sometimes just being there for someone in those ways is incredibly meaningful and opens up more effective communication and trust.” TS 8:48 “For the patient that has been trying to conceive, taking another pregnancy test could be so daunting or triggering and bring back so many moments of grief. Seeing the results being negative could be heartbreaking all over again. Some people may find some relief knowing their fetus will be harmed and they won't have to make tough decisions. And then there may be guilt for feeling that way. There’s no one way to feel or right or wrong way to feel. … Let them know their feelings are valid and anything they feel is okay and normal.” TS 13:40 “I think that a common misconception is that if a pregnancy test comes back positive, there are no options for treatment. Education and communication with your healthcare team can help clear up those options you may have and bring back the element of shared decision-making to make these decisions together with your healthcare team.” TS 31:03 | |||
| 13 Dec 2024 | Episode 341: Pharmacology 101: HER Inhibitors | 00:32:06 | |
“Key thing here is that it was discovered that when you have gene amplification of HER2 you get a resultant overexpression of that HER protein and that overexpression leads to a driver for certain cancers. So, when you have an overexpression of HER2, it leads to the cancer being more aggressive,” ONS member Rowena “Moe” Schwartz, PharmD, BCOP, FHOP, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about HER inhibitors. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by December 13, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to HER inhibitor drugs. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “It was discovered that when you have gene amplification of HER2, you get a resultant overexpression of that HER protein, and that overexpression leads to a driver for certain cancers. So, when you have an overexpression of HER2, it leads to the cancer being more aggressive. In fact, when we first started talking about HER2 positive breast cancer, the key thing is, if we look at just the disease, not disease and treatment, that the patients that have HER2-positive breast cancers, they tended to be more aggressive because you had those drivers.” TS 3:30 “Pertuzumab is also a naked antibody, but it binds to a different part of the extracellular domain. It prevents heterodimerization, so where trastuzumab prevents HER2/HER2, this presents HER2 and HER1, HER2 and HER3, HER2 and HER4 dimerization, and then that leads to downstream effects that causes cell arrest and leads to the benefit of inhibition.” TS 6:03 “Key thing here is that we’ve learned, is that sometimes, that drug, when it’s released from the antibody, can be released from the cell and can hit cells around the cancer cell that overexpresses HER2. So that’s called the innocent bystander effect. So we’re learning a lot more about antibody–drug conjugates.” TS 7:35 “The tyrosine kinase inhibitors, they’re interesting in that there are these small molecules, just like we know about other tyrosine kinase inhibitors that target intracellular catalytic kinase domain of HER2, so the internal part. Key thing is we have a number of different tyrosine kinase inhibitors and they target different parts of that family.” TS 7:54 “The infusion-related reactions are really interesting, because one of the things we do with infusion-related reactions is, if we’re giving it in an IV formulation, we use those prolonged infusions for the first dose and then go faster with subsequent doses after we see how they tolerate. And then of course there is the development of these onc products that are given sub-Q that have less of the infusion-related reaction.” TS 15:49 “One of the things that I see, I hear, is people say about these antibody–drug conjugates, which, you know, we use in all different diseases now. I hear so many people say these are not chemotherapy, and the thing of it is, they’re chemotherapy. I think people like to say they’re not chemotherapy because it makes people feel better that they’re not getting chemotherapy. But the reality of it is, is that they are monoclonal antibodies linked to a chemotherapy. So some of the side effects that you get are related to the chemotherapy. I think people need to realize that. You need to know what you’re giving.” TS 18:31 | |||
| 12 Nov 2021 | Episode 181: Oncologic Emergencies 101: Febrile Neutropenia | 00:31:54 | |
ONS member Susan Bruce, MSN, RN, AOCNS®, clinical nurse specialist at Duke Raleigh Cancer Center in North Carolina and member of the North Carolina Triangle ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss febrile neutropenia and nursing considerations for its management and prevention. This episode is part of an ongoing series about oncologic emergencies; the previous episode is linked in the episode notes. The advertising messages in this episode are brought to you by G1 Therapeutics, Inc. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 13 Sep 2024 | Episode 329: Pharmacology 101: BRAF Inhibitors | 00:31:15 | |
“One of the things that’s really challenging with these BRAF inhibitors, plus MEK inhibitors, is that there’s a huge scope of potential toxicity, and they’re not all going to happen. So I think that there’s a real need to educate patients that they need to work with us so that when a toxicity develops, we can help address it. We can help think of strategies, whether it be medication strategies or whether it be other types of strategies, to make them feel better,” Rowena “Moe” Schwartz, PharmD, BCOP, FHOPA, professor of pharmacy practice at James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about the BRAF inhibitor drug class. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by September 13, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to BRAF inhibitors. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “BRAF is a gene found on chromosome 7 that encodes for protein that is also called BRAF. And this protein is really important in cell growth and signaling and promoting cell division, as well as some other functions. When you have a variant in BRAF, this causes that gene to turn on the protein and to keep it on. That means there’s a continual signaling to the cell to keep dividing and there’s no instruction to stop dividing.” TS 2:24 “[Side effects] are things like pyrexia, fatigue, muscle aches, those things. There is definitely rash. And as I mentioned, there are those secondary skin cancers, which are significantly less with the combination with MEK inhibitors. GI [gastrointestinal] toxicities are not uncommon. Different patients, different tolerance in terms of like nausea, taste changes. I think taste changes are one of the ones that are really challenging.” TS 10:17 “How to get rid of the agents when they’re done—I love that our institution has a program where they can bring them back, and we can help them get rid of it, because people just don’t know how to get rid of them when they’re no longer taking them. And you really don’t want them having them around the house.” TS 15:28 “Don’t assume that you can modify formulation. So if there is someone who can’t take oral pills and has to use a suspension, some drugs, there’s clear indications how to do that. Other ones there’s not. So collaborating on that is a really good thing. I hear too much where people will say, ‘Just crush the pill.’ These are not the drugs that you want to do that with.” TS 23:07 | |||
| 28 Aug 2020 | Episode 118: CDC’s Perspective on Cancer Prevention, Treatment, and Care—Even During a Pandemic | 00:27:07 | |
Lisa Richardson, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, joins Lisa Kennedy Sheldon, PhD, APRN, AOCNP®, FAAN, ONS’s clinical and scientific affairs liaison, to discuss CDC’s initiatives for cancer prevention and screening during the COVID-19 coronavirus and flu season. The conversation also covers how oncology nurses can help improve declining screening rates and access a new database of cancer incidence and biomarkers. The advertising messages in this episode are sponsored by Coherus BioSciences. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever regarding their content, use or application and disclaims any responsibility for their application or use in any way. Referenced with permission from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) for Hematopoietic Growth Factors. V.2.2020. © National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Inc., 2020. All rights reserved. Accessed July 10, 2020. To view the most recent and complete version of the guideline, go online to NCCN.org. | |||
| 01 Oct 2021 | Episode 175: Powerful Lessons From the 2021 Mentorship Award Recipient | 00:49:21 | |
ONS member Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, DNP, CNS, CBCN®, AOCNS®, interim director of nursing practice at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and three other ONS leaders join Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss the importance of mentorship in nursing, mentoring approaches and recommendations, and benefits for mentors and mentees. Fischer-Cartlidge is the 2021 recipient of the Oncology Nursing Foundation’s Connie Henke Yarbro Excellence in Cancer Nursing Mentorship Award. The advertising messages in this episode are paid for by Breast Cancer Index. Episode Notes Check out these from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 17 Jun 2022 | Episode 212: When Cancer Care Gets Complex: Those Other Oncologic Emergencies | 00:28:17 | |
When it comes to oncologic emergencies, early identification and intervention achieves the best outcomes, but some emergencies are harder to recognize. “Oncology nurses are often the first to pick up on important symptoms of serious complications,” Laura Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN®, nurse practitioner at the University of California, San Francisco, said. Zitella joined Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to talk about recognizing less common complications seen in patients with cancer, such as adrenal crisis, pulmonary embolism, and malignant small bowel obstructions. She also presented on the topic at the 47th Annual ONS Congress® in Anaheim, CA, on April 27, 2022. The advertising messages in this episode are paid for by Breast Cancer Index. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 13 Aug 2021 | Episode 168: Administer Irinotecan Infusions With Confidence | 00:31:17 | |
ONS member Rae Norrod, MS, RN, CNS, AOCN®, oncology service line manager at Kettering Health Network in Ohio and member of the West Central Ohio ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss how oncology nurses can safely administer irinotecan chemotherapy and manage its associated side effects and adverse events. This episode is part of an ongoing series about outpatient oncology drug infusion. The others are linked in the episode notes. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 21 Feb 2020 | Episode 91: The Seasons of Survivorship | 00:41:45 | |
ONS Past President Pamela (PJ) Haylock, PhD, RN, FAAN, editorial board member for the American Journal of Nursing, member of the San Antonio ONS Chapter, and coeditor with ONS Past President Carol Curtiss, MSN, RN-BC, of Cancer Survivorship: Interprofessional, Patient-Centered Approaches to the Seasons of Survival, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer/producer, to discuss how nurses can prepare patients for cancer survivorship, understand the different seasons of survival, and overcome challenges along the way. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 07 Jul 2023 | Episode 267: Side-Effect Management for CAR T-Cell Therapy for Hematologic Malignancies | 00:31:14 | |
“I think the take-home message here, though, is to have very specific guidelines at your institution to manage both CRS and ICANS. 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 in New Jersey, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. McKiernan’s and Taylor’s conversation centered around the nurse’s role in recognizing and managing toxicities related to CAR T-cell therapy for hematologic malignancies, specifically ICANS and CRS, which was an educational priority that ONS members identified during two ONS focus groups on the topic in March 2023. McKiernan was one of the content experts for those focus groups. This podcast episode is produced by ONS and supported by funding from Janssen Oncology/Legend Biotech. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “All symptoms need to be investigated fully to determine their cause and thus the best management strategy and not just simply assume that they’re related to CAR T.” Timestamp (TS) 9:21 “Accurate grading is really crucial to ensure that the toxicities are identified and managed consistently across the institution.” TS 10:52 “Once the patient shows signs and symptoms of neurotoxicity, they should have a comprehensive neurologic examine, and that should include, a neurology consult, maybe imaging, such as an MRI or CT, and perhaps even a lumbar puncture.” TS 14:12 “Letting patients and their families know what next steps are can alleviate anxiety and give the patients the confidence that the medical team is familiar with these toxicities. And let them know that these toxicities are expected and that there are protocols in place to manage these symptoms.” TS 22:56 “I think that some patients, and even healthcare professionals, who aren’t familiar with CAR T believe that the toxicities are always severe and always irreversible. When, in reality, most of the toxicities are mild and managed with minimal intervention or even just supportive care.” TS 23:55 “Early detection, consistent grading, vigilant monitoring, and standardized care plans are crucial to the success of any CAR T program and can also help reduce the risk of the severe adverse effects and hopefully improve outcomes for our patients.” TS 30:26 | |||
| 17 Nov 2023 | Episode 286: Pharmacology 101: Alkylating Agents | 00:34:52 | |
“When I meet with patients, I try and remind them, ‘Yes, you do have these side effects that can happen’ and make sure that they’re informed, but also try and reassure them that not everyone gets it as severe as maybe the movies and TV shows portray,” Dane Fritzsche, PharmD, BCOP, informatics pharmacist from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center at the University of Washington Medicine in Seattle, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about what oncology nurses need to know about alkylating agents for patients with cancer. This episode is the first in a series about drug classes, which we’ll include a link to in the episode notes. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD), which may be applied to the oncology nursing practice and treatment ILNA categories, by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by November 17, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to alkylating agents. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Alkylating agents are a very interesting class of chemotherapy agents, both mechanistically as well as historically. I remember back in pharmacy school learning this was actually the first class of medicines used to treat cancer, and it actually starts way back in World War I with the use of sulfur mustard gas, in kind of a military fashion, and then noticing some of the responses that soldiers as well as civilians who were actually exposed to that. They would develop things like bone marrow suppression, as well as other antitumor effects. Sadly, it's rough to see mustard gas as being the first agent to lead to something so remarkable, because it was a weapon of devastation, but it did lead to some breakthroughs.” TS 1:43 “The first thing that jumps to my mind when thinking about alkylating agents is their toxicities and then their supportive care agents that we use to make sure that we're treating our patients well and making their care optimum. So, when I, as an oncology pharmacist, would look at these orders, I immediately am jumping to, are we giving them appropriate antiemetics? Because a lot of these agents are highly emetogenic or moderately emetogenic by NCCN. A lot of them have other organ toxicities, like are really harsh on the kidneys. Are they getting their pre- and post-hydration? And then also many of these agents are very bone marrow suppressing, meaning they’re targeting the red blood cells, they’re hitting platelets, they’re reducing our ANCs and making patients at higher risk for infection, you know, so do we need growth factor support here? Are the patients—their current labs—are they able to take another dose at this time or do we need to dose reduce or delay therapy because their platelets are just too low now?” TS 09:54 “Honestly, it's probably one of the most important things is collaborating together to help provide optimal patient care. And to me, kind of the biggest thing that jumps out is just good communication between the various team members. I can't tell you how many times I would learn crucial information either from an infusion nurse chatting with the patient or walking down the hall or giving a call to one of our lovely clinical nurse coordinators here at Fred Hutch. You know, I always wanted to make sure that I go in and have the full picture of where the patient's at, what, if any, challenges there have been with this patient's particular case, just to make sure that I'm up to date about them and able to provide as good of care as I can.” TS 14:55 “Unfortunately, this class of drugs does come with kind of those generic chemotherapy side effects that we think of: hair loss, nausea and vomiting, and bone marrow suppression. That just comes as a function of how these work. These agents are not selective for just cancer. They’re more selective for rapidly dividing cells. So, that leaves our normal cells that rapidly divide like our hair, our GI tract, our bone marrow, you know, to get hit by these.” TS 17:50 “The next thing I always drill my residents on, when I’m teaching them how to provide actionable and helpful information about their regimens that they're getting, is kind of like you're saying, outlining those expectations. How do you prevent these side effects? When do these side effects even start to show up? Like, am I going to immediately be nauseous right when the cisplatin gets turned on? Well, maybe, not super common, but it's more common that we'll see it in, you know, at the end, in the next couple of days and within the next 72 hours or going into the nuances between acute versus chronic nausea and things like that. So, it’s really trying to empower the patients with information. How do they prevent this? What are we doing to help prevent it? And then when should they call us? When is the stuff that we’re preventing didn’t help? When should they call us to get more help?” TS 24:04 “I think that’s a misconception that we as healthcare professionals can really help alleviate with our patients, reminding them that, yes, they do carry risks, but we also have a lot of supportive care agents to kind of help minimize that toxicity. And then we have this whole team of professionals behind you to help carry you through the treatment.” TS 29:34 | |||
| 14 Jun 2019 | Episode 53: Home Care Nursing for Patients With Cancer | 00:27:21 | |
ONS’s Chelsea Backler, MSN, APRN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist and former home care nurse, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss the intersection of oncology care and home care nursing, the role of home care nurses in caring for patients with cancer, and how oncology nurses can support their home care colleagues. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 10 May 2024 | Episode 311: Standardized Pregnancy Testing Processes in Cancer Care | 00:21:49 | |
“Chemotherapy exposure during the first trimester is contraindicated and increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, fetal death, and major congenital malformations. Second- and third-trimester exposure may affect some body systems still developing and can still result in fetal growth restriction, low birth weight, and preterm labor. Yet, I do want to stress that pregnancy can remain a possibility,” Kelsey Miller, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, OCN®, clinical nurse specialist in oncology and infusion therapy at Reading Hospital in West Reading, PA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about policies and procedures for pregnancy testing during cancer treatment. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by May 10, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to pregnancy screening procedures during cancer treatment. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “It’s really crucial to identify [pregnancy] prior to treatment, as this should be considered a patient safety ‘never’ event. We know that exposure to chemotherapy or radiation can cause mutagenic changes in reproductive cells and teratogenic effects in a developing fetus. Women of childbearing potential should have a documented pregnancy test prior to beginning cancer treatment due to the adverse effects of chemotherapy and radiation on a developing fetus.” TS 1:42 “We had a fertility risk checklist that was based off American Society of Clinical Oncology standards, that was not fully operationalized nor built into physician workflows. The checklist was a way of documenting that risks of infertility, fertility preservation, and contraception was discussed, as well as an attestation that referral to a reproductive endocrinologist was made if needed. I had a physician partner at the time who said the only way to get the providers to fill out this checklist is to make it a hard stop, so that’s what we did. The fertility risk checklist is now a hard stop by means of an order validation that will pop up when the provider goes to sign the oncology treatment plan, and it will say, ‘Orders cannot be signed unless the fertility risk checklist is complete.’” TS 9:27 “Whenever I develop teams, I like to share a common vision. We’re all here for patient safety, and we want to prevent harm by pregnancy screening these patients that could potentially become pregnant during cancer treatment.” TS 13:20 “There’s a misconception that all cancer therapy will render patients infertile, and this is not the case. Even though chemotherapy and radiation reduce fertility and may cause premature ovarian failure, many patients still remain fertile. And we know from research that physical intimacy remains important during cancer treatment, and unintended pregnancies may occur.” TS 18:13 | |||
| 13 Sep 2019 | Episode 66: Updates in Surgical Oncology—ONS Congress | 00:26:48 | |
ONS member Lisa Parks, MS, APRN-CNP, ANP-BC, nurse practitioner in the division of surgical oncology at the Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital and Columbus ONS Chapter member, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss what nurses need to know about robotic surgery in oncology, how to help their patients recover in post-op, and much more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 08 Sep 2023 | Episode 276: Support Young Families During a Parent’s Cancer Journey | 00:30:41 | |
“Reassuring doesn’t always mean providing solutions. Sometimes, it’s providing support. There are some key tips that can be helpful for supporting patients when they’re ready, when they’re asking, ‘What about my kids?’ Like, what are the things when you leave this hospital that your kids are going to see, hear, or notice? That’s a great place to start,” Kelsey Mora, certified child life specialist, licensed clinical professional counselor, and chief clinical officer at Pickles Group, a national nonprofit organization that provides support and resources to children and teens whose parents have cancer, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about how oncology nurses can support young families during a parent’s cancer journey. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD), which may be applied to the care continuum, psychosocial dimensions of care, coordination of care, quality of life, and supportive care ILNA categories, by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by September 8, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to supporting young family members during a parent’s cancer journey. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “I think there’s a concern that young kids won’t understand or won’t remember, and what we actually see is that even the youngest kids can really pick up on changes in their environment. So, when there’s a cancer diagnosis, there is inevitably unavoidable change and disruption, whether it be to caregiving routines, availability, schedules, their appearance and ability status, hospitalizations, and certainly observed emotions. Kids are curious at all ages, so they pick up on things and they try to make sense of things on their own. And so, my role is really around helping nurses help parents and parents help their kids understand what’s going on so that they’re not left trying to figure it out on their own.” TS 3:52 “Providing kids with honest and age-appropriate information is about providing them with a narrative to make sense of what’s going on, and so it is honest, but it is age appropriate to kind of tailor it to the age or development of the child.” TS 5:03 “Pickles Group was born out of finding families where kids were saying, you know, ‘I want to meet other kids who can relate to this,’ because the second there is a cancer diagnosis, they feel really different from their friends and their peers. And so being able to connect with others who can understand more of their experience is super important.” TS 5:48 “I always tell parents that ‘I don't know’ is a real answer. That’s an honest answer, right? Being able to say, ‘You know, that's a great question. I don’t know the answer right now, but as soon as I do, I'll definitely talk about it with you.’” TS 9:35 “I think it’s so important to normalize that grief occurs the second that there is a diagnosis, because there is so much change and transition and loss and uncertainty. A lot of times for kids, that’s just like the loss of the way things were before or the loss of being able to relate to peers or the loss of the things that my parent was able to do before or just them not being around as much.” TS 16:32 | |||
| 09 Jan 2020 | Episode 85: Nursing Resilience and Self-Care Aren’t Optional | 00:26:24 | |
ONS member Lisa Blackburn, MS, APRN-CNS, AOCNS®, clinical nurse specialist at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute in Columbus, OH, and member of the Columbus ONS Chapter, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer/producer, to discuss the importance of oncology nursing resilience, ways the THRIVE program helps foster self-care for nurses, and how to incorporate self-care strategies into your practice. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 19 Feb 2021 | Episode 143: Administer FOLFOX Chemotherapy Regimens With Confidence | 00:34:01 | |
ONS member Jennifer Turcotte, RN, BSN, OCN®, clinic manager at New England Cancer Specialists in Scarborough, ME, and member of the Southern Maine ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss safety considerations and what nurses need to know when administering FOLFOX chemotherapy regimens. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by February 19, 2023. The planners and faculty for this episode have no conflicts to disclose, and the episode has no commercial support. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today's episodes:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 02 Feb 2024 | Episode 297: Intra-Arterial Chemotherapy Administration: The Oncology Nurse’s Role | 00:29:44 | |
“What you teach patients about that the side effects may be somewhat different, because it's more of a regional treatment with less systemic toxicities, so it's teaching patients about the drugs, the side effects, and the actual procedure itself,” Lisa Hartkopf-Smith, MS, RN, AOCN®, CHPN, advanced practice nurse at OhioHealth Center in Columbus and ProMedica Cancer Institute in Toledo, OH, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about the oncology nurse’s role in intra-arterial chemotherapy administration. This episode is part of a series about chemotherapy administration, which we’ll include a link to in the episode notes. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD), which may be applied to the nursing practice, oncology nursing practice, or treatment ILNA categories, by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by February 2, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge about the nurse's role in intra-arterial chemotherapy administration. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Intra-arterial chemotherapy has actually been in existence over 70-plus years. It's been around for a long time. There are case reports in the literature as early as 1950 of intra-arterial chemotherapy, one specifically being giving nitrogen mustard, of all things, interactively through a catheter for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma.” TS 1:43 “Retinoblastoma is a common indication at this point in time for intra-arterial chemotherapy and has very good success rates. Intra-arterial chemotherapy is also used in liver cancers, whether it's an unresectable liver metastasis from adenocarcinoma of the colon or it's unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, as an another example where it's used. And it can also be used in hepatocellular or HCC carcinoma.” TS 6:36 “Some of the things, like pretreatment, things that the nurse has to look for in any of those are labs and particularly clotting times. You know, to make sure that a PT and an INR and a platelet count was drawn because this patient is going to have a catheter in their artery and frequently will have heparin, so we need to make sure you know what that is.” TS 8:22 “When you're pulling your drug information, your patient drug information sheets, it may not be appropriate to give the Adriamycin® teaching sheet from OncoLink or ChemoCare or ONS because that's generally the side effects of systemic treatment. Whereas if it's going to be given intra-arterially, they are probably not going to have hair loss and mouth sores, and their blood counts may not be affected.” TS 10:36 “In some cases, the nurse may be actually administering the medication, and in other cases they're not going to be actually administering it. So, if you have the situation where that intra-arterial procedure is done, like within the operating room or interventional radiology, then typically the radiologist or another physician will be administering it, but the RN may be in the room. It's often not a chemotherapy-qualified RN, it's often interventional radiology RN, so this is really a group effort between oncology nurses and those interventional radiology nurses and operating room nurses.” TS 12:03 “But in that case, as far as administration, again, it will probably be the physician, but where the nurse can play the role is with all those steps of verification. So, the dual verification process for chemotherapy needs to not just apply when you're giving it ID and an infusion center or inpatient. But it needs to happen in those off sites like interventional radiology in the operating room. So, the nurse in this suite can work and be part of that dual verification process, you know, comparing the orders with the drug and the patient identifiers. The nurse in that type of situation, in interventional radiology or operating room, can help ensure that safe handling occurs because those employees and physicians may not be as familiar with it. So, making sure that you have the PPE gowns the gloves goggles in the correct ways to dispose of it in those suites.” TS 12:43 “With time, just as it would with a venous port, that catheter can move out of place. So, even with the implanted pumps I was mentioning before, those catheters can move, and so we don’t routinely check placement of the tip. What can happen is if the tip moves into another place, the patient will have those high doses of chemotherapy going systemic and will experience more side effects.” TS 19:22 “Some part of the adverse reactions could be related to the catheter or the pump itself, and then some of the adverse reactions are related to the drug itself.” TS 20:06 “So, other things that can happen with catheters and pumps, whether they're temporary or permanent, is always the risk for hemorrhage because it's in an artery. So, if something breaks or some tubing becomes disconnected, then the patient could hemorrhage. So, it's important that everything is always lured locked, connections taped, and that is being checked frequently to make sure that everything is tight and secure so that there's not that risk for hemorrhage from a catheter, an IV tubing, or needle becoming disconnected.” TS 21:11 “I honestly think this entire topic is something that's not discussed much, and I wish people knew more about it. I also wish people knew more about one of the areas of this topic—hepatic chemoembolizations, also called TACE [trans-arterial chemoembolization]. There are a lot of patients out there that are getting this in different locations, different hospitals, parts of the country, but because we typically are working in infusion centers are impatient areas, we are often not that knowledgeable about it because it happens somewhere else in interventional radiology or the OR. But our patients are affected by it, and we need to know more about it.” TS 26:55 | |||
| 20 Nov 2020 | Episode 130: Manage Cancer-Related Constipation With ONS Guidelines™ | 00:32:56 | |
ONS member Deborah Thorpe, PhD, APRN, founder of and nurse supervisor at the Inn Between assisted living facility in Salt Lake City, UT, and member of the Intermountain ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss the ONS Guidelines™ for Opioid-Induced and Non-Opioid–Related Cancer Constipation, which published in November 2020. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by November 1320, 2022. The planners and faculty for this episode have no conflicts to disclose, and the episode has no commercial support. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 06 Aug 2021 | Episode 167: The Psychiatric Patient With Cancer | 00:40:57 | |
ONS member Barb Henry, DNP, APRN-BC, board-certified psychiatric mental health clinical nurse specialist with a focus on psycho-oncology and member of the Cincinnati Tri-State ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss patients with cancer who have a concurrent psychiatric diagnosis, ways for oncology nurses to coordinate care to manage this unique population, and the importance of nurse self-care to minimize compassion fatigue. Henry presented on this topic during the 46th Annual ONS Congress® in April. If you missed her session, catch Kathleen Murphy-Ende, PhD, PsyD, AOCNP®, speak on a similar topic in her session, Mental Illness and Cancer: Caring for Comorbidity, from 1–2 pm on September 16, 2021 (or on demand through October 14, 2021), during the ONS Bridge™ virtual conference. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 31 Dec 2021 | Episode 188: Oncology Nurse Entrepreneurs Are Innovating Beyond the Bedside | 00:30:36 | |
ONS member Elaine DeMeyer, RN, MSN, AOCN®, BMTCN®, founder of beyond Oncology, which creates educational tools and resources for oncology professionals to help change their practice, and member of the Dallas ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss how oncology nurses can become entrepreneurs and how you can support your colleagues who are developing niche businesses in the oncology arena. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 11 Oct 2024 | Episode 332: Best Nursing Practices for Pain Management in Patients With Cancer | 00:51:16 | |
“Nurses really are the professionals who educate how to take these medicines, why we use multimodal therapies, why it isn’t medicine alone—helping patients to understand that pain is a biopsychosocial spiritual phenomenon, and the pills are just going to hit one little aspect of that entire phenomenon,” Judy Paice, PhD, RN, director of the cancer pain program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about nursing practices for cancer pain management. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 1 contact hour of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by October 11, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to managing pain in patients with cancer. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “Who do patients speak to about their pain? They’re often afraid to tell their oncologist, and studies have backed this up. The patient is worried that if they admit to more symptoms, they won’t be able to enroll in that clinical trial, so they talk to us, the nurse. And part of our role is to encourage that dialog and assess the pain fully.” TS 7:00 “The nonpharmacologic, which is equally important—and I see these as partners in relief, not as one versus the other. But we may have physical measures like [physical therapy] and [occupational therapy] and orthotics, heat and cold. We may have more emotional or psychological kinds of therapies—cognitive behavioral techniques. We may have integrative measures—mindfulness guided imagery, yoga, tai chi. And some of these kind of transcend multiple categories.” TS 15:57 “For breakthrough [pain], we try to again treat the underlying cause. If this is an unstable vertebral body, is a kyphoplasty or vertebroplasty a possibility for this patient? If there’s compression of nerve roots, might an epidural steroid injection or some other interventional procedure help, so that when the patient stands—and that’s often what we see the breakthrough pain occurring—or moves position, maybe we can provide some relief that’s more directed to the site of pain or source.” TS 24:35 “I set expectations. Again, this is where nurses are key. It is so important that you use these medicines for pain. Yes, they’re going to make you feel a little bit less anxious, a little warm and fuzzy, and maybe even help you fall asleep at night, but you cannot use them for that purpose. You can only use these medicines for pain control. We have other medicines to help you if you’re feeling anxious or if you’re having trouble sleeping at night. And if you use your opioids for those purposes, you are going to get into trouble.” TS 41:11 | |||
| 26 Jul 2024 | Episode 322: Nursing Strategies to Reduce Readmission Rates for Patients With Cancer | 00:32:09 | |
“I think poor discharge planning is that top contributor [to readmission]. And by that, I mean discharge planning that doesn’t assess a patient’s educational level, their support at home, what resources they have, like transportation and finances, and then to go further, evaluating if the patient even understand the reason they were admitted and then how to manage their care once they leave. There’s only so much we can treat in the hospital. what happens at home is what we need to prepare our patients for,” Stephanie Frost, MN, RN, OCN®, manager of outpatient clinics at City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago in Illinois, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about preventing hospital readmissions in patients with cancer. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by July 26, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to nursing strategies to reduce readmission rates for patients with cancer. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “Of course readmissions are inevitable, but ultimately, high rates may indicate that there’s a problem. Something is wrong. The quality of our care is not up to par. So looking at the rate of unplanned readmissions encourages hospitals to look inward, to see what’s going on, and find the gaps.” TS 2:31 “The number one thing we can do is review the patient’s social determinants of health. We’re seeing this assessment tool used more and more in the hospital system, and it can truly help identify high-risk patients. … But it really takes into consideration a patient’s environment, and it includes five components—access and quality of education, economic stability, healthcare access and quality, home environment, and then the patient’s community.” TS 5:17 “Recently, we had a patient that was seen in our ED [emergency department] for nausea and vomiting. And then due to that follow-up call the nurse made, she was able to get another set of labs drawn on the patient, found that they had an electrolyte imbalance, and then got the patient set up for fluids in an outpatient setting. So I think that really prevented that patient from going back to the ED, probably for the same reason they were there in the first place.” TS 18:00 “When we reviewed the data, we saw our readmission rates had dropped by 51% at the six-month mark, and same with our ED visit rates. And then our referrals to the continuous care team jumped 155%. … But we were able to discover some other opportunities through the process. So for example, through the chart audits completed, we were able to identify an increased need for our pain management services. There was a large number of patients that the reason for visit was pain, so we ended up expanding our templates for our pain management providers to meet that need and ultimately reduced the admissions for pain.” TS 22:38 | |||
| 29 Jan 2021 | Episode 140: Aromatherapy’s Benefits in Cancer Care | 00:39:09 | |
ONS member Debra Reis, MSN, RN, CNP, program coordinator for the healing care program at ProMedica Cancer Institute in Sylvania, OH, and member of the Toledo Area ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss how aromatherapy can mitigate cancer symptoms and treatment adverse events to help improve patients’ quality of life. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by January 29, 2023. The planners and faculty for this episode have no conflicts to disclose, and the episode has no commercial support. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 07 Feb 2025 | Episode 349: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Safe Handling and ONS’s Legacy in Developing Safe Handling Guidelines | 00:27:46 | |
“What I find most rewarding is connecting with nurses, who now understand the risks of exposure and are committed to minimizing their personal exposure. When I first started speaking about safe handling, there were a lot of nurses who were skeptical about the need for self-protection. I rarely see that now. Nurses are concerned for their own safety and more open to protective behaviors,” ONS member Martha Polovich, PhD, RN, AOCN®-Emeritus, adjunct professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland, told Liz Rodriguez, DNP, RN, OCN®, CENP, ONS member and 50th anniversary committee member, during a conversation about the evolution of safe handling of hazardous drugs and ONS’s role in shaping safe handling policies. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by February 7, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the evolution of safe handling guidelines. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “PPE has always been recommended to reduce exposure because gloves and gowns provide physical barrier to protect against dermal absorption. But what we didn’t know back then was what gloves and gowns were made of mattered. So PVC gloves were often used just because they were readily available in all our clinical settings. Gowns were rarely worn for drug administration, even though they had been recommended since early on, and many considered gowns back then as optional because the wording in the [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] guidelines said ‘recommended’ and not ‘required.’” TS 3:19 “Those early chemo gloves were a bit like wearing gloves you might use to clean your oven. They were so thick and got in the way of taking care of patients or mixing drugs or administering drugs. So the biggest change, I think, is that gloves that are currently available are very thin, and they provide the necessary protection for those who are handling hazardous drugs. We now have a gloves standard that requires permeation studies to demonstrate the protective ability of the gloves before they can be labeled for use with hazardous drugs.” TS 11:56 “ONS and HOPA developed a position statement on safe handling of hazardous drugs. … This came because our two organizations were unable to support some of the other proposed guidelines from another organization. So we got together, and through our cooperation, resulted in language about the importance of safe handling, about supporting safe handling for practitioners, pharmacists, and nurses. Also, I feel really good about this—our cooperation resulted in language about protecting the rights of staff who are trying to conceive or who are pregnant or who are breastfeeding to engage in alternative duty that doesn’t require them to handle hazardous drugs.” TS 17:12 “If there’s no worker safety, then who’s going to take care of the patients?” TS 21:52 “What I find most rewarding is connecting with nurses, who now understand the risks of exposure and are committed to minimizing their personal exposure. When I first started speaking about safe handling, and that’s going back a long way, there were a lot of nurses who were skeptical about the need for self-protection. They had been handling hazardous drugs for years and had no signs of ill effects, and so they assumed that we weren't overreacting with all of the recommendations. They saw the use of precautions and PPE as a speed bump in their busy day and also thought that was unnecessary. I rarely see that now. Nurses are concerned for their own safety and more open to protective behaviors.” TS 23:50 | |||
| 25 Sep 2020 | Episode 122: NCI Director Shares Research and Innovation During COVID-19 | 00:34:48 | |
Norman “Ned” Sharpless, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), joins Lisa Kennedy Sheldon, PhD, ANP-BC, AOCNP®, FAAN, ONS’s clinical and scientific affairs liaison, to discuss NCI’s COVID-19 coronavirus research efforts, how the agency is partnering with oncology nurses to understand the best care for patients with COVID-19 and cancer, nursing innovation during the pandemic, and the implications of delayed screening and care on future cancer incidence rates. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources related to today’s episode:
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| 11 Dec 2020 | Episode 133: Treatment Advancements for Advanced or Metastatic Urothelial Cancer | 00:28:28 | |
ONS member Barbara Zoltick, CRNP, nurse practitioner at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and member of the Bucks-Montgomery Counties ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss nursing considerations for the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. Seagen Inc. provided support for this podcast episode through an educational grant. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by December 11, 2022. The planners and faculty for this episode have no conflicts to disclose. This episode is supported by an educational grant from Seattle Genetics, Inc. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes
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| 14 Jul 2021 | Episode 144: Monoclonal Antibodies to Treat Cancer and COVID-19 | 00:26:39 | |
ONS member Donna Bydlon, BSN, RN, OCN®, network director of infusion services at St. Luke's University Hospital and Health Network in Bethlehem, PA, and member of the Greater Lehigh Valley ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss nursing considerations for monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer and COVID-19 and how her institution responded to the pandemic. This episode is part of an ongoing series about outpatient oncology drug infusion. Other series' episodes are linked in the episode notes. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by February 26, 2023. The planners and faculty for this episode have no conflicts to disclose, and the episode has no commercial support. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 03 Jun 2022 | Episode 210: Oncologic Emergencies 101: Spinal Cord Compression | 00:47:28 | |
“We call it an oncologic emergency for a reason. Even though it’s usually not life threatening, the longer we wait, the more debilitating and devastating the side effects will be,” ONS member Jennifer Webster, MN, RN, AOCNS®, MPH, clinical nurse specialist at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, GA, and member of the Metro Atlanta ONS Chapter, said during her conversation with Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. The nurses talked about the importance of early identification and intervention for malignant spinal cord compression and other nursing considerations for the oncologic emergency. This episode is a part of a series about oncologic emergencies; the previous episodes are linked below. You can also earn free NCPD contact hours by completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 05 Aug 2022 | Episode 219: Use Acupuncture and Acupressure to Manage Cancer Symptoms and Side Effects | 00:49:45 | |
“Using that view of looking at the whole person, we can provide some acupuncture or acupressure to help maybe reduce anxiety, to help them relax a little bit more, settle their thinking down a little bit, and get some improved sleep,” ONS member Susan Yaguda, MSN, RN, RN manager in integrative oncology at the Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, NC, told Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion on using acupuncture and acupressure to manage symptoms and side effects of cancer and cancer treatment. Yaguda also demonstrated example acupressure techniques that nurses can try at home and in their practice. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode by completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “When people have a disruption in their health—and it could be your emotional well-being, physical, or both—in traditional Chinese medicine, it is reflected in that the flow of qi has been disrupted. Acupuncture and acupressure address this by trying to open up and even out that flow, by either inserting tiny little needles called acupuncture needles, or by exerting gentle pressure—called acupressure—on specific acupoints.” Timestamp (TS) 03:22 “What I really love about traditional Chinese medicine is it’s very holistic. It’s looking at the whole person, at systems working together, and it really meshes beautifully with what I think of as nursing practice, as nurses, that we step back and that we are looking at the whole person. And how maybe an imbalance in one area of one’s life can definitely impact other areas as well.” TS 05:27 “We know that patients who receive neurotoxic chemotherapies can develop painful neuropathy that can really be impactful on their quality of life. We have found, and the literature also supports, that if patients can come in and get some sessions of acupuncture, it can be really impactful on their neuropathy.” TS 08:09 “Using that view of looking at the whole person, we can provide some acupuncture or acupressure to help maybe reduce anxiety, to help them relax a little bit more, settle their thinking down a little bit, and get some improved sleep, which as we all know is a very important part of health and well-being and definitely for our patients something that can better help them manage treatment moving forward.” TS 10:56 “Integrative medicine looks at using complementary therapies in a very collaborative way with what we would consider to be more conventional medical treatment, so that it’s coordinated and very intentionally meshed together to best suit the patients’ needs at whatever point along the trajectory of their care.” TS 12:58 “Some cancer centers do have an integrative medicine department, and oftentimes acupuncture is part of that.” TS 15:56 “Not only could our care partners use some acupressure themselves to help with fatigue, anxiety, and their own sleep difficulties, but it gives them something that they can be easily trained to do to share with their loved one. And sometimes, it’s so important for them to feel like they can contribute positively to their loved one’s well-being in some sort of way. I always encourage, if possible, for a care partner to be involved in the process as well.” TS 20:47 “Using battlefield acupuncture, or acupuncture and acupressure of any kind, is not a replacement for appropriate medical management of symptoms—whether it’s pain, nausea, or anxiety, for example. Think about this as another tool in the toolbox to offer to our patients that has very few side effects. . . . It should never be considered a replacement for that type of care.” TS 32:45 | |||
| 02 Aug 2024 | Episode 323: What It’s Like to Participate in an ONS Think Tank | 00:22:52 | |
“Instead of creating silos, how can we work together, create networks, and elaborate more in the future? Because we have such a robust wealth of knowledge and expertise, that ONS is very good at helping to facilitate that,” Jan Tipton, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCN®, clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about her volunteer experience in a think tank held during the 2024 ONS Congress®. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by August 2, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to participation in professional collaboration opportunities. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “Individuals that would be helpful for this type of think tank would be those that view themselves as change agents, those who are willing and motivated to confront uncomfortable truths, persistent issues, that might think of a better way to do things. In addition, people that are highly inquisitive, curious, eager to learn, and those that have out-of-the-box type thinking, flexible, creative, and would work well in this group environment.” TS 3:29 “We all came from very diverse backgrounds, all over the country, and it was a great opportunity to blend our backgrounds in academia, clinical practice, and then be able to share not only some of the dilemmas and hardships that we see, but then to recommend some actions for the future.” TS 6:12 “But things that sparked my interest were things that were very small scale and then things that were very large scale that everyone could benefit from hearing. And one that comes to mind was, in a very small way, how can we collaborate with our various backgrounds and PhDs and DNPs and have more of a meet-and-greet? We’re sometimes in our silos. And how can we create opportunities for each other to learn from each other, to have these meetings, maybe in social venues, to learn about interests, research, collaborations in the future?” TS 6:55 “I think it’s important to challenge yourself to be open to new ideas, to keep an open mind. Consider that your idea may not be agreeable to everyone. So to think through, everyone that you may be participating with and have a heightened awareness of all the differences that we may have in our different backgrounds, gender, characteristics that we believe in, in terms of our practice. So thinking through those things in advance and being open to new ideas, I think, is really important and sort of self-reflecting before the event.” TS 15:41 | |||
| 09 Aug 2019 | Episode 61: Medical Cannabis in Cancer Care | 00:44:16 | |
ONS member Carey Clark, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, associate professor of nursing at the University of Maine at Augusta and president of the American Cannabis Nurses Association, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss medical cannabis’s use in oncology, its potential benefits and side effects, and how oncology nurses can answer patient questions in practice. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 04 Jan 2019 | Episode 30: What Patients Should Know About Medicare and Insurance Cancer Coverage | 00:58:01 | |
In this second live panel discussion from ONS’s Health Policy Summit in Washington, DC, Georgetown University research professor JoAnn Valk, MA, and Judith Gorsuch, JD, vice president at Hart Health Strategies, discuss the differences between private and federal coverage, the complexities of navigating cancer costs, the important Medicare information nurses need to know, and much more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode: | |||
| 18 Aug 2023 | Episode 273: Updates in Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy | 00:38:01 | |
“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 Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about the latest updates in chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments. Walker is one of the editors of ONS’s second edition of the Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice book. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD), which may be applied to the treatment ILNA category, by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by August 18, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to updates in chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “We’ve seen significant improvement in cancer survival over the past one to two decades. And primarily we’ve seen this not only from reductions in smoking and earlier cancer detection, but advancements in some of our treatments, most notably in the realm of immunotherapy and targeted therapy.” Timestamp (TS) 02:07 “With the discovery of the biomarkers, it has brought around the discovery of genomic-driven therapies that are specific to these biomarkers. That’s really changed the landscape of oncology for people that have one of these driver variants.” TS 07:55 “I’ve definitely seen in my practice where therapy has been completed and, especially for some of these immunotherapy drugs, a couple of months later the patient develops a toxicity that is from the prior immunotherapy. Even chemotherapy can have some long-term toxicities, but we do have to even keep it in mind for immunotherapy that once these drugs are finished, there still could be some long-term side effects. Since they are newer drugs, we still are learning about what some of these long-term toxicities look like.” TS 26:56 “There haven’t been a ton of new FDA approvals specific for chemotherapy; however, we have seen chemotherapy still used in practice, particularly in combination with some of these novel therapies. Particularly, we see a lot of chemotherapy and immunotherapy combinations.” TS 27:47 | |||
| 09 Jun 2023 | Episode 263: Oncology Nursing Storytelling: Renewal | 00:28:31 | |
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 Portland; Crystal Johnson, RN, BSN, OCN®, patient engagement liaison at Genmab who lives in Ohio; Susie Maloney, MS, APRN, AOCN®, AOCNS®, senior director of the Medical Affairs Company and principal of Oncology Nursing Advisors, LLC, in Dayton, OH; and Brenda Sandoval Tawakelevu, BSN, RN, OCN®, nursing professional development practitioner at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, UT, engaged in the practice of storytelling around the theme of renewal in the context of oncology nursing. In this episode, the four oncology nurses share their tales with hosts Anne Ireland, DNP, RN, AOCN®, CENP, and Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialists at ONS. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by June 9, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to how nurses learn from one another through storytelling. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode Sarah Lewis “An opportunity presented in spring 2021 to join the outpatient palliative care team as a registered nurse and after much careful consideration, I decided to take the leap. It seemed like it was a good time for a change, it seemed like a ‘dream’ position, and I knew I could always go back to bone marrow transplant if it didn't work out. I was surprised when so early after I switched positions my decision was affirmed, and my oncology nursing career reinvigorated.” Timestamp (TS) 04:06 “I learned early on in my oncology nursing career the power of education but will always appreciate the real-life lesson my patient taught me that day. It not only reinforced my decision to step into this brand-new role, but it also re-energized my practice and spirit to continue to perform this awesome work we oncology nurses have the privilege to do every day.” TS 06:32 Crystal Johnson “Being an oncology nurse, you inevitably become an extension of your patient’s family. Often, we are with our patients throughout every step of their oncologic journey: initial diagnosis, first chemo, symptom management, remission, relapse, progression and, ultimately end-of-life transition.” TS 07:24 “From the moment I cared for my first oncology patient, I knew I had found my calling, but being able to be a part of something and inspire others in a way that is able to reach far greater than the patients I've cared for throughout my career is the reason I continue to show up every single day. Trusting that what we do makes a difference, and we can continue to cultivate a culture of hope within a community that is forever linked together by an unimaginable bond that no one asked to share.” TS 10:44 Susie Maloney “One thing I’ve learned when teaching in countries with different cultures is that it is important to respect the people and be educated on what their beliefs happen to be. It is not our job to ‘teach them our Western ways.’ This can be a challenge, however, particularly when some beliefs or practices are not evidence based.” TS 12:28 “When working in impoverished countries, it is important to consider what is within their achievable means. We would not teach about the latest therapies that are used in the United States if there is no chance of patients having access to such therapies or medications.” TS 15:28 Brenda Sandoval Tawakelevu “Although I have many fond memories or patients and families that I have loved and cared for, I wouldn’t be truthful if I didn’t tell you I’ve also had many doubts about oncology nursing during some of the very rough seasons of life that we all experience. I’ve been at the crossroads, and I have seen the two roads the poet Robert Frost has so beautifully written about. This hasn’t occurred just once but many times through the years as I have experienced the highs and the lows of ‘this road less traveled’ of oncology nursing.” TS 18:40 “Now, eight years have passed, and I keep going day by day in the wonderful field of oncology. The flames of passion continue to grow, and that passion has been shared with hundreds of students and nurses that have been in my path over the years. I invite each one of you to choose to connect, choose to find your own balance in the field of oncology nursing, choose to heal your own wounds life has left upon you, and most of all, continue to choose oncology nursing.” TS 26:26 | |||
| 05 Jul 2019 | Episode 56: Hereditary Cancer Genetics—ONS Congress | 00:50:01 | |
ONS member Suzanne Mahon, RN, DNSc, AOCN®, AGN-BC, clinical nurse specialist and professor at Saint Louis University in Missouri, joins Chris Pirschel, ONS staff writer, to discuss her ONS Congress presentation on hereditary cancer genetics, collaborating with genetic professionals, and how genetic testing influences cancer prevention and care. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 16 Jun 2023 | Episode 264: Stop the Stressors and Improve Your Mental Health as a Nurse | 00:41:42 | |
“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 Loscalzo, LCSW, executive director of People and Enterprise Transformation, emeritus professor of supportive care medicine, and professor of population sciences at City of Hope in Duarte, CA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about the stressors that are affecting nurses. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Music Credit: “Birth of a Hero” by Benjamin Tissot License code: 7B2F6ZBTINETT4WQ Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by June 16, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to supporting the mental health of nurses. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “There is overwork, but there is something even bigger, even more sinister, and that is this evolving lack of respect throughout our society. But when it manifests in the healthcare system, where people come in vulnerable states to be protected and they have this adversity to those who care most about them, this is a profound change, this is a unique change. Although it is happening in society for all authority, when it’s in the healthcare system, it manifests in a profoundly different way, and the impact on nurses cannot be overstated.” Timestamp (TS) 05:44 “There is that space between your brain and your heart that I think we should inhabit. We need to have wisdom, we need to have training, but we also need to go to back to our core values. The core value that other people matter. And mostly, I cannot help those other people until I am centered.” TS 19:35 “Structural change is essential, and structural change only comes with some conflict. And I mean healthy, democratic, respectful conversations with each other, with our teams, to advocate for healthier institutions.” TS 27:18 “I think with all people, but especially in the complex environment of health care, focus on what you can influence. Look at your life as a circle and see yourself in that life and say, ‘What can I actually influence rather than allowing myself to be frustrated by things that I cannot have any control over?’” TS 31:00 “One of the biggest problems is that nurses feel that they should just work harder, cope harder. I get very upset when I hear people say and I see it written that nurses should just practice more meditation. Or they should work harder. That is a misconception. It is toxic, and it is dangerous. We have to look at nurses within in the system, physicians within the system, all the healthcare professionals within the system, and say, ‘How do we get them healthy?’ If we don’t get them healthy, we don’t have a healthy healthcare system. We don’t have a healthy society.” TS 36:26 | |||
| 22 Nov 2024 | Episode 338: High-Volume Subcutaneous Injections: The Oncology Nurse’s Role | 00:25:33 | |
“Although the patient is spending a little less time in the clinic, the administration actually requires the nurse to be at the chairside the entire time. This has allowed nurses to spend potentially uninterrupted time to sit and converse with the patients that they may not have had with an IV infusion. It’s been a wonderful unintentional outcome from the development of the large-volume subcutaneous injections,” Crystal Derosier, MSN, RN, OCN®, clinical specialist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, MA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about administering high-volume subcutaneous injections in cancer care. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by November 22, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to the administration of high-volume subcutaneous injections. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “Some challenges with subcutaneous injections are with the administration, especially when we’re thinking about large-volume drugs. … Some of these patients who have been through multiple therapies, they’ve been on a long journey, or just in general they may have small amounts of subcutaneous injection areas and tissues, so that could be problematic. … Also, some patients may want to go back to receiving IV medications if they experience severe pain at an injection site during administration, or maybe they had a site-related reaction. This is where the nurses play a huge, crucial role in the administration of these subcutaneous drugs.” TS 5:17 “When administering large-volume subcutaneous injections, good ergonomics is very important during the administration because this can help reduce the fatigue and discomfort not only for [nurses] but for the patients as well. If you’re trying to hold the needle in place for 5–10 minutes, it’s a lot of work. Your arms can start to shake, and that shaking can cause discomfort for the patient as well. The utilization of a winged infusion set for these large volumes allows more space between the patient and the nurse, which supports better ergonomics.” TS 11:20 “When they came to the market, there was an unfounded concern from patients and practitioners that these injections would not be as effective as their IV counterparts. This is totally incorrect. We know that these options have the same efficacy and may actually also help to reduce the incidence of any infusion-related reactions, as well as lower side-effect impacts on patients, so overall, a lot of improvement with these high-volume subcutaneous injections for the patient experience.” TS 21:37 “I’m just really looking forward to the future landscape of oncology practice and drug approvals and drug administration. It’s so important that subcutaneous injections have really made a name for themselves in nursing practice today. We continue to see more subcutaneous formulations on the market that are available for patients, allowing them less time in infusion chairs and more flexibility and freedom outside of the healthcare setting.” TS 24:39 | |||
| 21 Sep 2018 | Episode 19: The Practical Side of Clinical Trials | 00:38:10 | |
ONS member Teresa Knoop, MSN, RN, AOCN®, assistant director of clinical trials at Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, TN, joins ONS’s Barbara Lubejko, MS, RN, to discuss the practical side of clinical trials for oncology nursing, including addressing long-term side effects, handling oncologic emergencies, and working closely with the research team.
Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 10 Sep 2021 | Episode 172: Address Knowledge Gaps in Evidence-Based Precision Medicine Care | 00:40:27 | |
ONS member Kristi Orbaugh, RN, MSN, RNP, AOCN®, nurse practitioner for Community Hospital Oncology Physicians in Indianapolis, IN, and member of the Central Indiana ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss knowledge gaps in clinical practice, particularly related to newer precision medicine approaches. Orbaugh is facilitating an ongoing ONS focus group on the topic. The latest session, which took place in August 2021, discussed immuno-oncology, precision oncology, and immune-related adverse events (irAEs). This podcast episode is supported by an educational grant from AstraZeneca. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 23 Oct 2020 | Episode 126: Oncology Clinical Trials and Drug Development | 00:37:50 | |
ONS member Moe Schwartz, PharmD, BCOP, professor of pharmacy practice in the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, ONS associate member, and member of the Cincinnati Tri-State ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss cancer drug trials, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals in 2020, and what oncology nurses need to know about the process for oncology drug development. The advertising messages in this episode are sponsored by the University of Cincinnati Online. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 14 Feb 2020 | Episode 90: The Year of the Nurse | 00:26:41 | |
ONS President Laura Fennimore, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, and ONS Chief Executive Officer Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, discuss the Year of the Nurse and Midwife—as 2020 is designated by the World Health Organization—and what it means for the oncology nursing profession. They also talk about ONS’s 45th anniversary in 2020, how the Society plans to celebrate and elevate oncology nursing, and ways nurses can champion their profession through the Year of the Nurse and beyond. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 22 Oct 2021 | Episode 178: Together, We Can Stop Racism and Create Equity in Nursing | 00:49:33 | |
Marcus Henderson, MSN, RN, lecturer from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Family and Community Health, director-at-large on the American Nurses Association’s board of directors, and member of the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss how to eradicate discrimination and inequity among the nursing profession. Henderson presented on the topic during his keynote for the ONS Bridge™ virtual conference in September 2021. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. | |||
| 07 Feb 2019 | Episode 35: Getting Involved in Global Oncology Nursing | 00:24:29 | |
Jean Rosiak, DNP, RN, AOCNP®, CBCN®, former ONS director-at-large and currently a nurse practitioner at Aurora Medical Group in Wisconsin, joins ONS’s Barbara Lubejko, MS, RN, oncology clinical specialist, to discuss ONS’s international nursing efforts, her experiences working in other countries, how nurses can get involved globally, and much more. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Episode Notes: Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 12 May 2023 | Episode 259: Patient Education for Health Literacy and Limited English Proficiency | 00:36:42 | |
“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 ONS. Carlisle discussed developing and providing patient education across various formats for patients with limited English proficiency. You can earn free NCPD contact hours by completing the evaluation we’ve linked in the episode notes. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by May 12, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to providing education for patients with limited English proficiency. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “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. There are two basic definitions of health literacy—we have personal health literacy and organizational health literacy.” Timestamp (TS) 01:48 “The best practice is to apply this approach called health literacy universal precautions to all your encounters with any patients or family members. So just as you would use proper personal protective equipment if you were encountering body fluids, you’re going to use those universal precautions as you don’t know what you’re dealing with—the same is true for encounters with health literacy.” TS 08:16 “There are international best practices that really advise against using family or staff for translations because they might not know the medical terminology, or you might be putting them in an uncomfortable situation. Plus, there might be cultural norms or family dynamics that affect that conversation, and they affect how the information is delivered between you, the family member, and the patient. It can really muddy the waters.” TS 18:50 | |||
| 15 Dec 2020 | Bonus Episode: 2021 ONS Election Candidates | 00:11:55 | |
Meet the candidates running for office on the ONS Board of Directors in the 2021 election in this bonus episode of the Oncology Nursing Podcast. Katrina Loutzenhiser, director of learning and development at ONS, explained the ONS Leadership Development Committee’s application and evaluation process, then introduced the final slate of candidates. Each candidate shared a brief message on how, as a board member, they would advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. Candidates are presented in alphabetical order by last name. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 19 Jul 2024 | Episode 321: Pharmacology 101: CYP17 Inhibitors | 00:35:10 | |
Episode 321: Pharmacology 101: CYP17 Inhibitors “I think we’re in a scientific golden age for prostate cancer and probably cancer as a whole, but we’re talking about prostate cancer today. So I’m excited to be sitting on the front lines, seeing the new ways that we can help our patients. But I do still think CYP17 inhibitors will continue to be one of our main weapons against prostate cancer for a very long time,” Andrew Ruplin, PharmD, clinical oncology pharmacist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about the CYP17 inhibitor drug class. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by July 19, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to CYP17 inhibitors. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “Identification of CYP17 as a target to decrease androgen production led to the first synthesis of a dedicated inhibitor of CYP17 named abiraterone acetate in the 1990s. But it would also not be until 2011, when there was sufficient evidence through clinical trials, for the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to approve abiraterone as treatment for castrate-resistant prostate cancer. And since then, abiraterone has been studied in many different stages of prostate cancer and has demonstrated clear benefits to survival for patients with metastatic or nonmetastatic prostate cancer and in the castrate-sensitive setting, as well.” TS 3:07 “Patients on abiraterone, regardless of the formulation that they get, they also have to receive an oral steroid every day while undergoing treatment due to the risk of that mineralocorticoid excess. … CYP17 inhibition by abiraterone leads to the loss of negative feedback on the adrenocorticotropic hormone, or ACTH, through a relative cortisol deficiency, which then results in higher levels of ACTH, which then cause the formation of excess precursors, including those mineralocorticoids that are upstream of the CYP17 inhibition step of androgen formation.” TS 14:04 “I recommend that patients take the standard formulation of abiraterone on an empty stomach. Conversely, I do recommend patients take their steroids with food to reduce the chances of [gastrointestinal] upset from their steroids. And so, I emphasize to these patients that abiraterone and the steroid do not need to be taken together at the same time, even though they are both a component of their treatment, and that they probably should, in fact, take them a little bit separately.” TS 23:00 “Now we’re really in the phase of studying combination treatments, and we’ve had some really good results so far. So, one of the combinations that made a splash a few years ago is what we call triplet therapy, so abiraterone plus docetaxel plus [androgen-deprivation therapy], docetaxel being a traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy that’s been used in prostate cancer for several decades now. But now we’re combining it with CYP17 inhibitors and other novel hormonal therapies, which has been exciting. So, this has been implemented into the standard of care for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.” TS 27:26
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| 17 Jul 2020 | Episode 112: Navigating Genomics and Its Effect on Cancer Care | 00:29:23 | |
ONS member Celeste Adams, RN, BSN, MBA, nurse navigator at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, UT, and member of the ONS Intermountain Chapter, and Kathleen Wiley, RN, MSN, AOCNS®, director of oncology nursing practice at ONS, discuss how nurse navigators can help patients and caregivers understand genomic advancements, how someone’s genes affect cancer prevention and treatment, and the impact that genomics testing can have on a patient’s quality of life. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 16 Apr 2021 | Episode 151: What Advance Practice Providers Need to Know About CMS Billing and Coding Updates | 00:20:51 | |
ONS member Zac Pitts, MSN, NP-C, certified family nurse practitioner at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Druid Hills, GA, and member of the Metro Atlanta ONS Chapter, joins Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, to discuss what advanced practice providers need to know about billing for their services and updates to reimbursement through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The advertising messages in this episode are paid for by Sanofi Genzyme. Episode Notes Check out these resources from today’s episode:
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| 29 Nov 2024 | Episode 339: A Lesson on Labs: How to Monitor and Educate Patients With Cancer | 00:35:56 | |
“The nurse’s role in monitoring the lab values really depends on the clinics you're working at, but really when our patients are receiving treatment, especially in the infusion center, the nurses should be looking at those lab values prior to treatment being started,” Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, clinical nurse specialist at Karmanos Cancer Center in Michigan told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS during a conversation about how to monitor and educate patients with cancer. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn [#] contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by November 29, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to monitoring labs and educating patients with cancer. Episode Notes
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. “Your traditional chemotherapy agents are the ones that we see the most lab abnormalities with, and we can predict those a little bit more with the advent of more of the advanced targeted therapies and immunotherapies, we still see lab values that are altered because of the way that the treatment works, but they may differ a little bit than what we traditionally saw with our normal chemotherapy agents.” TS 2:51 “I talked about the lifespan of all the other cells, and Neutrophils are usually what stop treatment, and part of that is, is that the lifespan of a neutrophil is 48 hours. It is proliferated very frequently in the bone marrow. But that is usually what we see. The cells that we see that stop treatment, and as you mentioned earlier, classic chemotherapy really the types of treatment that historically, we've been given and we have given to patients, and we've seen those blood counts really significantly impacted.” TS 6:21 “Kidney function, or renal function tests, are really determined whether the kidneys are functioning the way they should be. We look at an estimated glomerular filtration rate, or GFR, which is really based on the patient’s protein level, their age, gender, and race. And the test really looks at how efficiently the kidneys are clearing the waste from the body. So that’s really one that we need to look at, especially as we’re giving agents that are excreted through the kidneys.” TS 12:23 “I think it’s important for nurses to start looking at lab results with their patient very early on, you know, even before treatment starts, so they understand what the normals look like. So when they do get those lab results, because now pretty much everybody has patient portals, right? So the labs are reported in there, and they’re seeing the labs before they're talking to their providers. if we can start early on and talk to them about what the normal lab values are, what they mean, and what we're looking at when we're drawing these labs. I think it’s really important for the patient.” TS 27:00 | |||
