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An essential act of well-being, the practice of storytelling creates a social connection that fosters a sense of community and mutual support in both the storyteller and listener. During the Second Annual ONS Storytelling session held at the 48th Annual ONS Congress® in April 2023, ONS members Sarah Lewis, MNE, RN, OCN®, palliative care nurse navigator at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland; Crystal Johnson, RN, BSN, OCN®, patient engagement liaison at Genmab who lives in Ohio; Susie Maloney, MS, APRN, AOCN®, AOCNS®, senior director of the Medical Affairs Company and principal of Oncology Nursing Advisors, LLC, in Dayton, OH; and Brenda Sandoval Tawakelevu, BSN, RN, OCN®, nursing professional development practitioner at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, UT, engaged in the practice of storytelling around the theme of renewal in the context of oncology nursing. In this episode, the four oncology nurses share their tales with hosts Anne Ireland, DNP, RN, AOCN®, CENP, and Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialists at ONS.

“Sometimes you think, ‘Oh, these are just bladder patients; it’s different.’ But it might not be different. They still have a cancer diagnosis; this is still going to be a very fearful and unsettling time for that patient and their caregivers,” Tiffany Kurtz, MSN, RN, OCN®, manager of outpatient oncology at Summa Health Cancer Institute in Akron, OH, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Kurtz discussed intravesical administration and oncology nurses’ role in the treatment. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below.

“The mental and physical health of the healthcare team, especially the nurses, has to come first because if you are not physically and mentally and spiritually in a good place, you cannot help other people. We’re going to have less good health care, we are going to have more errors, we’re going to have less safety, and we are going to have another 100,000 nurses leaving the field,” Matthew Loscalzo, LCSW, executive director of People and Enterprise Transformation, emeritus professor of supportive care medicine, and professor of population sciences at City of Hope in Duarte, CA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about the stressors that are affecting nurses.

“I think it’s important to ensure that you consider each person uniquely. Because no matter how much I know or the nurse knows about the population, everybody is a little bit different. It’s really important to personalize every approach and ask them what they know and meet them where they are,” ONS member Reneé Kurz, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, director of clinical research operations at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about increasing diversity in clinical trials.

“We need to continue to remind everyone that reporting culture improves safety, that events are usually because of a system or process gap, and there is a clear difference between a system gap and neglectful or at-risk behavior,” ONS member Klara Culmone, MSN, RN, OCN®, assistant nurse manager at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, NY, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about oncology nurses’ and leaders’ responsibilities in a safety-focused reporting culture.

“Before you even get started, you have to do your checks. Just like you do with a regular systemic infusion. You’re going to be doing your physical assessment prior to starting your patient, looking at your orders to make sure everything looks right, looking at the lab work,” ONS member Emoke Karonis, MSN, RN, CRNI, clinical nurse specialist fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, said. “You have to be absolutely sure that day that patient is presenting to you in your suite, you’re definitely giving what is expected for that day.” Karonis was speaking to Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, about oncology nursing considerations for intraperitoneal chemotherapy administration. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below.

“Nursing ethics is relationship centered because when your friend, family member, or colleague becomes a patient, that relationship can’t be uninformed by how you know that person before they got sick. The first thing is to recognize you know them, and caring or them poses some fairly unique challenges in terms of, ‘How do I maintain professional boundaries?’” Lucia D. Wocial, PhD, RN, FAAN, HEC-C, senior clinical ethicist at the Lynch Center for Ethics at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, about the ethical considerations and implications of providing cancer care when people you know become the patient—whether they’re a friend, family member, or a colleague.

“Certification increases nurses’ knowledge, ensures that they are up to date on cancer care, and helps them to be prepared to effectively manage symptoms associated with cancer and cancer treatments. They will acquire effective therapeutic communication skills while caring for people with cancer, their caregivers, and other members of the interprofessional team,” ONS member Kerstin Scheper, DNP, RN-BC, OCN®, CHPN, interim assistant vice president at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Somerville, NJ, and Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation Board of Directors member, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about oncology nursing certification.

“When someone is faced with a cancer diagnosis, you want to really try to work to make that patient an active part of their care team. Understand that there are things out of their control, but there are also things that are within their control. You can teach them how to manage fatigue associated with anemia, or how to prevent falls. These are the things you can do to prevent infection; these are the nutrition things you should focus on to help you feel your best,” ONS member Kimberly Miller, BSN, RN, BMTCN®, transplant case manager at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, and member of the Metro Omaha ONS Chapter, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about nursing management of cancer-related hematologic complications.

“Sometimes when we talk about skin toxicities, it can get lost in translation for these patients when we start talking about nausea, vomiting, all those other things. . . . They don’t take into consideration how serious these skin toxicities can be and how they can quickly get out of control if they’re not reported to the medical team in a timely manner,” ONS member George Ebanks, MSN, RN, OCN®, a medical oncology nurse in the Cutaneous Oncology Clinic at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about symptom management for the dermatologic complications of cancer therapies.