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“We incorporate nurses and clinicians and users for any tool from the very beginning. They say, ‘You know, we need help with this.’ And then we start ideation: We start understanding the problem, we meet with them, we try to see what is it that they’re trying to do, is it feasible given the data we have? We go back, we do some research, feasibility study. We say we think this is something we can predict with decent performance. Now let’s do it,” Nasim Eftekhari, MS, executive director of applied artificial intelligence (AI) and data science at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about how the use of AI in cancer care affects an oncology nurse’s daily work. 

“We really need to do our best to reach people who don’t have access to palliative care in their communities, and this is an innovative way for us to do that,” Carey Ramirez, ANP-C, ACHPN, nurse practitioner and manager of advanced practice and supportive care medicine at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about how telehealth is overcoming barriers and disparities that previously limited patients’ access to timely oncology palliative care. 

“I think oftentimes people think this is just a radiology procedure that is rather benign. That’s really the role of the oncology nurse, just to be [an educator], support, emotional support, and a coach,” Lisa Parks, MS, APRN-CNP, ANP-BC, nurse practitioner in hepatobiliary surgery at The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus, Ohio, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about what oncology nurses should know about transarterial chemoembolization administration and their role surrounding that procedure. This episode is part of a series about non-IV chemotherapy administration; the others are linked below. 

“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. 

“I think that we as nurses need to advocate when a patient is uncomfortable. And it’s not your classic ‘pain in my hip’ kind of thing. This is a more subtle, ‘I can’t breathe, I have a sense of impending doom, I’m panicked, I want someone beside me.’ It may sometimes appear to be a psychosocial coping issue when it really is a physiologic one,” ONS member Brenda Shelton, DNP, RN, AOCN®, clinical nurse specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD, told Stephanie Jardine, BSN, RN, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Shelton discussed the warning signs of superior vena cava syndrome and nursing considerations for its management.

“Supportive personnel have a great ability to connect with patients and peers, and if that’s utilized effectively, it will make a great, great, great, great place to work, with great people to work with, because utilizing the supportive personnel and the great connections that they have, assistive personnel are kind of a lot of times the middle piece, and we don’t utilize it in that way. ,” Danielle Steele Anderson, CST II, NA II, research assistant at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, NC, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about how supportive personnel are improving staffing and patient care in oncology units.

What is it like to guide a professional association that serves more than 100,000 oncology nurses? ONS Chief Executive Officer Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, and Directors-at-Large Patricia (Patty) Geddie, PhD, APRN, AOCNS®, FCNS, and Danya Garner, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, OCN®, CCRN-K, reflect on their experiences with ONS, how a diverse Board supports a diverse membership, and how you can get involved in ONS leadership.

“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.

“One of the things about futility is many people will say, ‘Oh this is futile care,’ when what they really mean is, ‘Who in their right mind would want this?’ or ‘I would never ever want this,’ and that's different. That's not futile care. That's potentially inappropriate care. And sometimes that’s the big step for folks,” Lucia D. Wocial, PhD, RN, FAAN, HEC-C, senior clinical ethicist in the John J. Lynch Center for Ethics at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about futile care: how to recognize it, how to approach communication during difficult situations, and how to address a nurse’s associated ethical distress. 

It’s really important to look at where your target is and what the toxicities are associated with hitting that target. Make sure you include that thinking when you’re talking about bispecifics,” ONS member Rowena (Moe) Schwartz, PharmD, BCOP, professor of pharmacy practice at the 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 discussion about the use of bispecific monoclonal antibodies in hematologic cancers and solid tumors.