Oncology nurses can use various types of awards, grants, and scholarships to advance their careers. Through the ONS Foundation, ONS’s charitable arm, nurses have many options. Linda Worrall, RN, MSN, executive director of the ONS Foundation, presented an overview of the awards, grants, and scholarships that the Foundation has available for oncology nurses. 

Nurses can attain several levels of practice leadership to grow their professional development, including the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and the clinical nurse leader (CNL). However, both roles are very different in their daily duties and responsibilities. Nancy Froggatt, MN, RN, CNL, of the Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, WI, and Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA, provided advice on the CNS and CNL roles and how to assess which might be best for your career. 

Presenting in front of a crowd is not an easy task but might be an important step in your nursing career. By using general guidelines and honing your presentation skills, oncology nurses can become stronger speakers, opening the door to new opportunities for advancement. 

You have one hour, right now, to make a good impression on a possible future employer. Can you do it? Interviewing for a new job can be a scary situation but is a necessity in the world of career advancement. Effective interviewing skills can turn a mediocre meeting into an impressive interview— and a better chance to land the job you want. 

Writing resumes and curriculum vitae (CVs) can seem like an easy task at first but can quickly become overwhelming and cumbersome; even small mistakes on your resume or CV can hurt your chances at getting hired. Heather Costa, SHRM-CP, a recruiter for the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center-the James, in Columbus, presented tips and tricks that oncology nurses can use to make their resumes and CVs effective, clean, and concise. 

Oncology nurses can benefit from various types of certifications for professional development. Angie Caton, BSN, RN, OCN®, CHPN, and Melody Ann Watral, MSN, RN, CPNP-PC, CPON®, presented tools on how to better prepare for certifications, how to choose test preparation resources, and ways to assess your personal learning needs. 

What really makes a great leader? In order to be an effective leader, one needs to be able to motivate and influence others to contribute toward organizational success. As companies, employees, and policies change, so do leaders and ways they motivate their team. 

Getting published is an important part of an oncology nurse’s professional growth, but it can be intimidating to get started. Who do you contact? Where do you submit your manuscript? How does the process work? It may seem daunting, but getting published is achievable—and it can do wonders for your career in the long run.

Reading is essential to growth—both professionally and personally. Unfortunately, reading for enjoyment rapidly declines after age eight, and one in four Americans say they haven’t read a book in the past 12 months.

I have learned a good deal about leadership through networking and leadership opportunities with my local ONS chapter, project teams and task forces, and serving as a board member.

I still remember what it felt like to sign my name in the chart for the first time after passing the OCN^®—and later the AOCN^®—examination: excitement, accomplishment, relief, and pride. I knew that the credential didn’t automatically make me a smarter or better clinician, but it did validate the knowledge and skills that I had been working so hard to achieve over my years of practice as an oncology nurse.

Whether it’s with your smiling patient who always brings sweets to her appointments, the colleague Who started when you did, an inquisitive family member, or your supervisor, relationships are an ever-evolving component of successful oncology nursing careers. Fostering professional relationships among colleagues can often lead to mentoring opportunities that are mutually beneficial for mentors and mentees.

Young authors have so much to share, and they shouldn’t think that what they have to say isn’t worthy of publication just because they’re young. I’ve had the privilege of mentoring young authors on many occasions. Recently, I had the joy of watching a novice author actually open a journal and see her article in print. It was made even more special because it was my daughter, Elaine, who is a senior nursing student at Saint Louis University School of Nursing. She shared her personal story about her decision to become a nurse in the Clinical Moment feature in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing’s (CJON’s) October 2017 issue.

Genetics in clinical oncology nursing practice permeates all aspects of care from prevention and detection to treatment decisions to long-term survivorship care. Each of these areas often overlap, and oncology nurses need a solid genetics understanding to provide optimal care.

Heather Costa, PHR, SHRM-CP, a nurse recruiter, and Precious Suchora Farroni, PHR, SHRMCP, an advanced practice recruiter, both from Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, helped nurse attendees differentiate between a resume and a curriculum vitae (CV), offered tips to make both stand out, and provided tips to help boost professional profiles.

The nursing profession has long been an incubator of innovation. Nurses are continually blazing new trails in clinical care, research, and administration, and the landscape is no different in the specialty of oncology. This article provides an overview of three non-traditional roles in oncology nursing: nurse navigation, nursing informatics, and research nursing.

The job interview process boils down to 60 precious minutes. That’s right. You basically have 1 hour to convince your potential future employer that you can perform the required job duties and that you are the right person for the job. This article provides tips for ensuring you make the most of your time in the spotlight.

The impact of professional certification goes far beyond the authority to practice. Certification is a testament to expertise, excellence in patient care, and commitment. This article uses the diverse certification journeys of three oncology nurses to highlight some of the key benefits of certification. Their paths offer direction and motivation to new and experienced nurses in this specialty.

Oncology nurses seeking to further their education, earn continuing education credits, perform research, or implement professional projects are encouraged to apply for funding through the ONS Foundation, a charitable arm of ONS. Linda Worrall, RN, MSN, executive director of the ONS Foundation, presented an overview of their many awards, grants, and scholarships.

The development of an abstract, poster, or podium presentation is a significant undertaking. Presenting the scope of your work in a concise and effective way can be daunting, but it does not have to be. Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, MSN, CNS, CBCN^®, AOCNS^®, a clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, provided advice on abstract writing and presentation.

One of the primary vehicles for sharing your expertise with colleagues and peers is to publish a professional article. This process may seem daunting and difficult—an impression that no doubt deters many oncology nurses from pursuing it. But the truth is that getting published is a feasible goal. It is also one that enhances your professional development.

The interviews that follow give insight into the impact certification can have on the trajectory of an oncology nurse’s career, as well as the first steps to take on that path.

Nurses have a plethora of opportunities available to them beyond clinical practice. At times, these pathways are surprising and far from straight. Here are three career trajectories as told by fellow nurses.

As a nurse recruiter with the Talent Acquisition Group at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, Mari Moriarty, RN, MA, stresses that creating an effective resume is the gateway to getting the job you want. Your resume must communicate to recruiters and hiring managers that you are an intelligent and well-organized individual, and so your resume should be easy-to-read, organized, and error free.

The importance of a job interview cannot be overstated. In most cases, applications will have just one hour to give a future employer confidence that they can perform the job duties and make a good colleague. Think of the interview in terms of three C’s: communication, confidence, and competition.

Becoming a published author in the medical landscape can be a rewarding and productive experience. There are many motivations to write. Publishing can help lay a foundation of scholarship on which research and funding opportunities can be built. Publishing can also be a powerful way to “join the conversation” of current topics, and express individual concerns and questions. But many nurses wonder: How do I get started?

Presenting the scope of your work in a concise and effective way—usually in the form of an abstract for your proposal or poster—to appeal to audience members can be daunting, but in reality it may be easier than you think.