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.

My desire to become an oncology nurse began when I was 11 years old; like many children at that age I was struggling to discover who I would become. When my mother explained her breast cancer diagnosis to me, our very peaceful world froze for a moment. I grew up rurally in South Pomfret, VT, on many miles of dirt road that led to a beautiful, cozy little house. The idyllic world I lived in suddenly changed; although I could support my mother emotionally with compassion and love, others were working medical miracles to keep her well. Witnessing this, I discovered the deep desire to make an impact in others’ lives through pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing and a career in oncology.

As the largest healthcare profession and the one most trusted by the public in the annual Gallup survey, nurses have the power to improve the health of communities throughout the country by bringing their expertise into the boardroom. However, we are an absent voice in so many of those boardrooms.

Regina Cunningham, PhD, RN, NEABC, FAAN, has been appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in Philadelphia. Cunningham is the first nurse, oncology-specific or otherwise, to hold the position since the institution’s inception in 1874. She begins her tenure as CEO for HUP in April 2017.

As 2017 begins, ONS is hard at work supporting several new policies that could shape health care in the coming months and years. Although the election season has ended, ONS’s ongoing advocacy for oncology nurses and patients with cancer continues.

In an article in the July 2016 issue of the Oncology Nursing Forum, researchers set out to study the experience of women specifically with estrogen receptor- (ER-) positive breast cancer and what they felt helped or hindered their survivorship experience.

In an ornate U.S. Senate hearing room, ONS, with coalition partners, Once Voice Against Cancer (OVAC) and the National Coalition for Cancer Research (NCCR), held a congressional briefing called “National Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel Report Panel Discussion.”

There are three important issues that I’m following in this election year. The first is what political candidates—including in gubernatorial races—propose for continuing to improve healthcare coverage for people in the United States. Nurses need to hold electoral candidates and public officials accountable. If a presidential candidate promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act, we should be asking, “What will you replace it with?” At the state level, not all states adopted Medicaid expansion, but now some governors and gubernatorial candidates of states that did not opt into the expansion are considering it.

Ask any oncology nurse leader and nearly all will tell you: they didn’t get to where they are without learning a few things along the way. Leadership is a process, building the future while learning from the past.