In a fitting tribute to a life that touched so many others, ONS honored member Catherine Lyons, RN, MS, NEA-BC, FNAP, posthumously with a 2022 ONS Lifetime Achievement Award during its 47th Annual ONS Congress® in Anaheim, CA. Before her retirement and death in November 2021, Lyons was an executive consultant for oncology services.
The Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA), an ONS health policy priority that supports both patients and the profession, returned to the U.S. Senate floor in May 2022. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) reintroduced the bill to improve and sustain the workforce and the well-being of patients and their families with life-threatening illnesses.
With so many of today’s cancer treatments administered orally, ensuring that patients adhere to their regimen as prescribed is essential to optimal outcomes. According to the World Health Organization, medication adherence is the single most important modifiable factor that affects treatment outcomes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed two product standards in April 2022 aimed at banning flavored tobacco and menthol products. According to FDA, the proposed product standard would “reduce the appeal of cigarettes, particularly to youth and young adults, and thereby decrease the likelihood that nonusers who would otherwise experiment with menthol cigarettes would progress to regular smoking.”
Sleep disturbance has a significant impact on quality of life, including mental and physical health and academic, cognitive, and social functioning. It is one of the most common symptoms reported by pediatric patients with cancer and is significantly related to neurocognitive function for survivors.
On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported Plastikon Healthcare's voluntarily recall of one lot of Milk of Magnesia 2,400 mg/10 ml oral suspension, one lot of Milk of Magnesia 2,400 mg/30 ml oral suspension, 11 lots of magnesium hydroxide 1,200 mg/aluminum hydroxide 1,200 mg/simethicone 120 mg per 30 ml oral suspension, and two lots of magnesium hydroxide 2,400 mg/aluminum hydroxide 2,400 mg/simethicone 240 mg per 30 ml oral suspension to the consumer level because of microbial contamination.
As I walk into the exam room, isolation mask and eye protection on against the COVID-19 pandemic, my heart feels heavy with the reality of the day, of this moment, of these years.
Clinicians have an implicit—if not explicit—obligation to advocate for their patients. However, as health care’s complexity increases, independent advocates can help patients navigate systematic challenges throughout the continuum. Independent advocates follow the patient, not the reimbursement constraints, a chief distinction between us and clinical, facility, or agency case managers.
Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, DNP, CNS, AOCNS®, EBP-C, will begin the role of the Oncology Nursing Society’s (ONS’s) chief clinical officer (CCO) on July 18, 2022. Fischer-Cartlidge is the former interim director of nursing evidence-based practice at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY.
Babies born to adult survivors of childhood cancers are as healthy as those born to adults without a history of cancer, but survivors have a higher risk of severe complications during pregnancy, researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.