Episode 322: Nursing Strategies to Reduce Readmission Rates for Patients With Cancer
Release Date: 07/26/2024
Episode 391: Pharmacology 101: Antibody–Drug Conjugates
The ONS Podcast
“Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) have three basic parts: the antibody part, the cytotoxic chemo, and the linker that connects the two. First, the antibody part binds to the target on the surface of the cell. Antibodies can be designed to bind to proteins with a very high level of specificity. That’s what gives it the targeted portion. Then the whole thing gets taken up by the cell and broken down, which releases the chemotherapy part. Some sources will call this the ‘payload’ or the ‘warhead.’ That’s the part that’s attached to the ‘heat-seeking’ part, and that’s...
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Episode 390: Prostate Cancer Treatment Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“Any time the patient hears the word ‘cancer,’ they shut down a little bit, right? They may not hear everything that the oncologist or urologist, or whoever is talking to them about their treatment options, is saying. The oncology nurse is a great person to sit down with the patient and go over the information with them at a level they can understand a little bit more. To go over all the treatment options presented by the physician, and again, make sure that we understand their goals of care,” ONS member Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, manager of clinical education and...
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Episode 389: Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
The ONS Podcast
“It’s critical to identify those mutations found that are driving the cancer’s growth and guide the personalized treatment based on those results. And important to remember, too, early testing is crucial for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In studies, it has been found to be associated with improved survival outcomes and reduced mortality,” ONS member Vicki Doctor, MS, BSN, BSW, RN, OCN®, precision medicine director at the City of Hope Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, and Phoenix, AZ, locations, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing...
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Episode 388: ONS 50th Anniversary: Milestones in Oncology Advocacy and Health Policy
The ONS Podcast
“I think we really need to push more of our oncology nurses to get into elected and appointed positions. So often we’re looking at health positions to get involved in, and those are wonderful. We need nurses as secretaries of health, but there are others. We as nurses understand higher education. We understand environment. We understand energy. So I think we look broadly at, what are positions we can get in? Let’s have more nurses run for state legislative offices, for our House of Representatives, for the U.S. Senate,” ONS member Barbara Damron, PhD, LHD, RN, FAAN, told Ryne Wilson,...
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Episode 387: Prostate Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Disparities
The ONS Podcast
“[When] a lot of men think about prostate exams, they immediately think of the glove going on the hand of the physician, and they immediately clench. But really try to talk with them and discuss with them what some of the benefits are of understanding early detection. Even just having those conversations with their providers so that they understand what the risk and benefits are of having screening. And then educate patients on what a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and digital rectal exam (DRE) actually are—how it happens, what it shows, and what the necessary benefits of those are,”...
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Episode 386: Interprofessional Navigation and the Oral Anticancer Medication Care Compass
The ONS Podcast
“This was a panel of subject matter experts of various nurses and pharmacists. We often found common ground but also discovered new ideas, different touchpoints, and key junctures along that oral anticancer medication journey. For example, the pharmacists were able to share their insights into their unique workflows within their practice setting. What resulted is a resource that truly reflects that collaborative effort between the disciplines,” ONS member Mary Anderson, BSN, RN, OCN®, senior manager of nursing membership and professional development at the Network for Collaborative...
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Episode 385: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Cancer Survivorship
The ONS Podcast
“It started out by doing a kind of a white paper that we called Imperatives for Quality Cancer Care. Ellen Stovall, our CEO [of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship] at the time, gave this report to Dr. Richard Klausner, who was the head of National Cancer Institute at the time. He called Ellen immediately and said, ‘Why are we not doing something about this?’ Within one year, we had the Office of Cancer Survivorship at NCI,” ONS member Susan Leigh, BSN, RN, told ONS member Ruth Van Gerpen, MS, RN-BC, APRN-CNS, AOCNS®, PMGT-BC, member of the ONS 50th anniversary...
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Episode 384: Learn About Scalp Cooling for Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia
The ONS Podcast
“Chemotherapy-induced alopecia does cause a lot of stress. It’s associated with lower quality of life. Scalp cooling may really help improve quality of life. Some studies have shown that women in the scalp cooling group felt less upset about losing their hair and less dissatisfied with their appearance compared to the women in the control group that didn’t receive any scalp cooling. So a lot of these studies are showing it does have a very positive impact on psychosocial feelings and side effects in relation to overall cancer treatment,” ONS member Jaclyn Andronico, MSN, CNS, OCN®,...
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Episode 383: Pharmacology 101: Bispecific Antibodies
The ONS Podcast
“I think that this is an area that is exploding. Working with drug development, I see new agents all the time, with unique targets I’ve never heard about, with targets I have heard about used in a different way. So, I really think we’re going to see more and more bispecifics. A lot of these drugs are used second line, third line, fourth line. I would not be surprised if they moved up in treatment, especially as we learn safer ways to give these drugs,” ONS member Moe Schwartz, PharmD, BCOP, FHOP, professor of pharmacy practice at the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at the...
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Episode 382: Radiation Oncology Treatment Care for Pediatric Patients
The ONS Podcast
“I think sometimes people don’t expect pediatric patients to handle radiation as well as they do. They may have a family member who also had radiation for breast cancer or for prostate cancer and they were an older adult and had really severe side effects. And then they say, ‘Oh, no, I’ve got to put my little baby through this. I don’t really want to do this.’ We say kids are very different in how they handle this. They’re very resilient, so we can provide good education about that,” Elizabeth Cummings, MSN, CPNP-AC, CPHON®, radiation oncology nurse practitioner at...
info_outline“I think poor discharge planning is that top contributor [to readmission]. And by that, I mean discharge planning that doesn’t assess a patient’s educational level, their support at home, what resources they have, like transportation and finances, and then to go further, evaluating if the patient even understand the reason they were admitted and then how to manage their care once they leave. There’s only so much we can treat in the hospital. what happens at home is what we need to prepare our patients for,” Stephanie Frost, MN, RN, OCN®, manager of outpatient clinics at City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago in Illinois, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about preventing hospital readmissions in patients with cancer.
Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0
The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to nursing strategies to reduce readmission rates for patients with cancer.
Episode Notes
- The NCPD activity for this episode has expired, but you can still earn NCPD through many other ONS Podcast episodes. Find a full list of opportunities.
- Oncology Nursing Podcast episodes:
- ONS Congress® presentations:
- ONS Voice articles:
- Cross-Discipline Cancer Care: Oncology Nurses Share Specialized Knowledge With Non-Oncology Settings
- Postdischarge ICI Patient Education Eliminates Hospital Readmissions
- Symptom Management Strategies You May Not Be Using
- Transitions in Care: Communication Builds a Bridge of Consistent Support for Patients
- ONS books:
- Oncology Nurse Navigation: Delivering Patient-Centered Care Across the Continuum (second edition)
- Telephone Triage for Oncology Nurses (third edition)
- ONS courses: Treatment and Symptom Management—Oncology RN
- Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
- Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
- ONS Huddle Card: Handoff Communication
- ONS Guidelines™ and Symptom Interventions
- Healthy People 2030: Social Determinants of Health
- Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology article: Uncovering and Addressing Implicit Bias in Oncology
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.
To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.
To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.
Highlights From This Episode
“Of course readmissions are inevitable, but ultimately, high rates may indicate that there’s a problem. Something is wrong. The quality of our care is not up to par. So looking at the rate of unplanned readmissions encourages hospitals to look inward, to see what’s going on, and find the gaps.” TS 2:31
“The number one thing we can do is review the patient’s social determinants of health. We’re seeing this assessment tool used more and more in the hospital system, and it can truly help identify high-risk patients. … But it really takes into consideration a patient’s environment, and it includes five components—access and quality of education, economic stability, healthcare access and quality, home environment, and then the patient’s community.” TS 5:17
“Recently, we had a patient that was seen in our ED [emergency department] for nausea and vomiting. And then due to that follow-up call the nurse made, she was able to get another set of labs drawn on the patient, found that they had an electrolyte imbalance, and then got the patient set up for fluids in an outpatient setting. So I think that really prevented that patient from going back to the ED, probably for the same reason they were there in the first place.” TS 18:00
“When we reviewed the data, we saw our readmission rates had dropped by 51% at the six-month mark, and same with our ED visit rates. And then our referrals to the continuous care team jumped 155%. … But we were able to discover some other opportunities through the process. So for example, through the chart audits completed, we were able to identify an increased need for our pain management services. There was a large number of patients that the reason for visit was pain, so we ended up expanding our templates for our pain management providers to meet that need and ultimately reduced the admissions for pain.” TS 22:38