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Innovative Oncology Nurses Break Down Communication Barriers for Patients Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Special Populations

Innovative Oncology Nurses Break Down Communication Barriers for Patients Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

How I Practice Mindfulness as an Oncology Nurse

Nurse well-being

How I Practice Mindfulness as an Oncology Nurse

Clinical and Pharmaceutical Nurse Educators Collaborate to Bring Training to Nurses and Improve Patient Care

Oncology nurse education

Clinical and Pharmaceutical Nurse Educators Collaborate to Bring Training to Nurses and Improve Patient Care

January 13, 2023

Oncology Nurse Uses Retirement to Help Patients and Healthcare Professionals Understand Pancreatic Cancer Biomarker Testing Results

Pancreatic cancer

Oncology Nurse Uses Retirement to Help Patients and Healthcare Professionals Understand Pancreatic Cancer Biomarker Testing Results

November 11, 2022

The Life of Marie Curie and Her Contributions to Oncology

Cancer treatments

The Life of Marie Curie and Her Contributions to Oncology

November 07, 2022

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What Do You Value as an ONS Member?

To uncover what you value and whether your ONS membership is currently meeting your needs, ONS surveys its members every January. Your responses help us understand how you experience ONS and what is important to you as well as the challenges you face and the skills you need for the future. This year, 1,068 of you returned your surveys, and I am grateful that you took the time to provide your feedback.

February 06, 2023

Join Us in Celebrating All That ONS Members Helped Us Achieve in 2022

When a year winds down, we often find ourselves reflecting on our key moments, events, and accomplishments. Although our challenges from COVID-19—and now the flu and RSV—remain, ONS, the Oncology Nursing Foundation, and the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation are proud of serving and supporting you this year. We celebrate your commitment to the profession, to your continued career development, and to our organizations.

December 05, 2022

Listening to Nurses Is a Start, but Hearing Them Leads to Solutions

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Nurses Foundation has monitored its effect on the nursing profession through a series of surveys, the most recent of which collected specific information on staffing, scheduling, organizational support, and solutions. More than 11,000 nurses contributed to the survey, but those who identified as retired were not included in the data analysis. As I read the findings, the report’s subhead—Nurses Not Feeling Heard, Ongoing Staffing and Workplace Issues Contributing to Unhealthy Work Environment—caught my attention. How does one confirm feeling heard?

October 03, 2022

Your ONS Membership Offers You Benefits in Other Organizations, Too

ONS reaps value and benefits from its many collaborations and teamwork—whether between members and staff the Society’s own partnerships with and memberships in other organizations. You may see the outcomes that ONS achieves from those organizational relationships, but you may not yet realize the direct benefit they have for you as well.

August 01, 2022

Collaborations Advance ONS’s Goals and Innovation

Professional member associations such as ONS are built on collaborations: between members and members, members and staff, staff and staff, and organizations and organizations.

We Are Four Million Nurses, Hear Us Roar

In December 2015, I titled my ONS Connect column, “I Am Nurse, Hear Me Roar,” and addressed the outcry after a talk show host diminished Ms. Colorado, a nurse who was competing in the Ms. America competition that year. Nursing united its voice to educate the talk show host, the media, and the public.

February 10, 2022

Lessons From Our Olympians Apply to Nurses, Too

The Olympic Games are about inspiration: individual and team athletic achievement, well-earned medals from rigorous and lengthy training, and underdog stories of joyful winners. Many of those lessons learned during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have meaning for us as nurses.

October 11, 2021

We Don’t Have a Crystal Ball, but ONS Is Prepared for Nursing’s Future

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic was a wake-up call for preparedness: it caught society unaware and highlighted gaps in virtually every modern-day system. With those lessons learned, when the United States started removing pandemic-related public health restrictions and we began a return to “normal,” experts from all corners of society started looking to what the future will bring.

August 02, 2021

Grief & bereavement

When Grief Goes Beyond Burnout, Organizations Must Intervene

“The Grief Crisis Is Coming.” So warned the headline of a New York Times editorial in which the author described the toll of losses from the pandemic on the individual level. She said that for each person who dies from COVID-19, nine loved ones have been left behind to grieve, according to the COVID-19 Bereavement Multiplier introduced by a professor at Pennsylvania State University. That number is conservative and does not consider the healthcare team that cared for those patients.

In Case You Missed It: Here Are the Big ONS Changes in Recent Years

Keeping up with what ONS is doing can be a challenge, given the communication overload we all experience. With so much information in our lives, personally and professionally, announcements can slip by without our noting them. Periodically I hear comments or feedback from members about something that has not changed or that did change—several years ago. To help you stay on top of all that’s happening, here are some details that you may have missed.

Leadership Is the Foundational Competency for Oncology Nursing in 2029

In 2019, an ONS project team worked with Bridgeable, a service design consultant group, to prepare a 10-year view to guide our strategic priorities. As reported to ONS members, the project identified several possible futures of oncology nursing in 2029 and how ONS could ensure oncology nursing excellence and quality cancer care in all of those futures.

February 01, 2021

A New Year Offers Promise of Improvement

I don’t know how many times this year I’ve thought to myself or heard someone say, “When will 2020 be over?” The pandemic, social unrest, political polarization, and natural disasters have made 2020 a year in which many of us have wondered, “What else?”

December 07, 2020

Nurses Have the Purpose, Power, and Passion to Make a Difference

As we enter the final few months of 2020, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, I find myself thinking about the theme that we had for our 45th Annual ONS Congress^TM: Purpose, Power, Passion. WHO’s intent in designating the year was to elevate nursing globally and showcase the many roles that nurses have in health care. In the United States, Gallop surveys consistently rank nurses as the most trusted profession, but our colleagues in other countries do not have a similar means of recognition.

October 05, 2020

We Can’t Touch Each Other, But We Can Still Touch Lives

Since the COVID-19 coronavirus stay-at-home orders were issued in March 2020, the future has been difficult to imagine. National professional meetings, including ONS Congress, graduations, weddings, funerals, and other events that mark the transition from present to future were canceled. Creative, alternative ways to mark a transition to the future are highlighted on social media and the nightly news. Virtual, Zoom, and the new normal are standard verbiage in our conversations.

August 03, 2020

COVID-19 Challenges Showcase Stories of Nurses’ Strength

How We’re Growing Nursing’s Voice in the Health News Media

The Woodhull Study on Nurses and the Media: Health Care’s Invisible Partner showed that nurses were quoted in only 4% of health stories in the news media. In 2018, Mason and team published the Woodhull Study Revisited: Nurses’ Representation in Health News Media 20 Years Later. They found that after two decades, only 2% of health stories in the news media quoted nurses; although not statistically significant, the decrease is still a concern. The 1998 study identified that nurses were just starting to move into positions of authority in healthcare systems, a status that might make them more available for journalists. Yet in 2018, nurses occupied more healthcare leadership positions in diverse sectors but were still not being used as expert sources by journalists. Why?

February 13, 2020

Our Decade of Progress Continues in the Years Ahead

December 16, 2019

To Truly Innovate, We Must Move Beyond the Past

While looking for an image for a presentation, I came across this quote on a picture of a woman whose hands were more than full. It captured the message I was going to be giving. The world of health care, specifically cancer care, continues to evolve rapidly from an array of forces outside of our control. However, in that swirl of change, we have the opportunity to evaluate any resulting barriers or challenges to patient care and to design and implement solutions. To do this, to be creative, to innovate, to problem solve, we may have to let go of things with which we are comfortable but are not of benefit in today’s world.

October 29, 2019

Summer’s Dog Days Are Energizing, Not Lazy, for ONS and Its Volunteers

A few weeks in July and August are known as the dog days of summer—the days where the heat makes us feel particularly laid back and lazy. I have always thought that these hottest days of the year, when even dogs languished from the heat, gave us a chance to slow down and offered a break from the intensity of work or school. It was a time for families to enjoy relaxing vacations and children to make memories of new friendships and adventures. I decided to Google the meaning of dog days and lazy days. I found that the term lazy days was similar to my thinking, but dog days has a different meaning.

August 26, 2019

6 or 9? Why Persuasive Public Speaking Is Essential

Oncology nurse influence

We Are All Florence Nightingale

At first this seems like a bold statement, but think about it for a moment. What do we know about Florence Nightingale? She is credited as the founder of modern nursing and embodied nursing leadership and advocacy. She improved hygiene practices in hospitals, resulting in fewer infections and deaths. She pioneered statistical analysis on the conditions surrounding the provision of medical care, especially during the Crimean War, and used visual presentations (or early infographics). She created patient services, such as a kitchen that prepared special dietary meals for patients, a laundry to provide clean linens, and a library for patients’ intellectual stimulation.

2019 Will Be a Strategic Bridge Year as ONS Looks Ahead to a New Decade

Oncology nurses have seen many changes in the past decade with significant improvements in cancer treatment, better symptom management and palliative care, and enhanced care coordination. But much work needs to be done as we look toward the future.

January 07, 2019

Your Voice Shaped Oncology Nursing and Cancer Care in 2018

Before the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I wanted to thank you, our ONS members, for advancing the voice and contributions of oncology nurses to critical issues in cancer care.

December 14, 2018

Specialty Nursing 30 Years Later: Details May Change, but the Heart of Nursing Remains

While awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Florence last month, I took the opportunity to purge the proverbial closets. One contained dozens of VHS tapes. I had no need to keep most of them, but one caught my attention. “Focus: Specialty Nursing” was produced by the National Nursing Network. The video referenced how changes in the healthcare system were resulting in increased nursing specialization and a growing number of specialty nursing organizations. Leaders of specialty nursing organizations who were attending the National Federation of Specialty Nursing Organizations (NFSNO) annual meeting were interviewed. The tape is not dated, but I am guessing it was produced in the late 1980s because Deborah Mayer, PhD, RN, AOCN^®, FAAN, ONS president from 1987–1989, discussed oncology nursing.

October 01, 2018

Oncology Nursing’s Future—Preparing the Next ONS Strategic Plan

Each spring brings a flurry of annual meetings held by oncology organizations: Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and ONS’s. This year I attended all and was part of panel presentations at ACCC and AACR to bring the nursing perspective to the topics.

August 02, 2018

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To discuss the information in this article with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.

To report a content error, inaccuracy, or typo, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

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Brenda M. Nevidjon MSN, RN, FAAN

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