Episode 323: What It’s Like to Participate in an ONS Think Tank
Release Date: 08/02/2024
Episode 356: A Nurse’s Guide to the 2024 NIOSH List of Hazardous Drugs
The ONS Podcast
“And so you have different kinds of hazards with the drugs that you’re using. That means that in the past, when a lot of oncology drugs, antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer would have been added, you may see that a lot of oncology drugs either weren’t added or they’re added in a different place on the list than they were in the past. That’s due to some of the restructuring of the list we’ll probably talk about later,” Jerald L. Ovesen, PhD, pharmacologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,...
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Episode 355: Pharmacology 101: Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitors
The ONS Podcast
“I genuinely think nurses and pharmacists need to know why these medicines are called hedgehog inhibitors so that we can, in fact, effectively educate our patients. Just because to date, this class has the weirdest name I’ve encountered, and I almost expect at this point that my patients are going to ask me about it. I think that we need to be informed that, just on, where do these names come from, why is it called this, and does it matter to my patient?” Andrew Ruplin, PharmD, clinical oncology pharmacist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN,...
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Episode 354: Breast Cancer Survivorship Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“You can give someone a survivorship care plan, but just giving them doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen. Maybe there’s no information about family history. Or maybe there’s information and there’s quite a bit of family history, but there’s nothing that says, ‘Oh, they were ever had genetic testing,’ or ‘Oh, they were ever referred.’ So the intent is so good because it’s to really take that time out when they’re through with active treatment and, you know, try to help give the patient some guidance as to what to expect down the line,” Suzanne Mahon, DNS, RN,...
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Episode 353: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Oncology Nursing Certification
The ONS Podcast
“The response was, in my opinion, sort of overwhelmingly positive. I think all of us old-timers who were at ONS Congress® in 1986 remember those 1,600 nurses waiting in line to enter the ballroom to take that inaugural exam. It takes a while to check in 1,600 people. They kind of all filled up the lobby outside of the ballroom, and then they spilled over down into the escalator, and the escalators had to be turned off,” Cyndi Miller-Murphy, MSN, FAAN, CAE, first executive director of the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation (ONCC), told Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, ONS...
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Episode 352: Pharmacology 101: Epigenetics
The ONS Podcast
“Now, what we found is that epigenetics is actually heritable and it’s actually reversible. And we can now manipulate these principles with pharmacotherapy drugs,” Eric Zack, RN, OCN®, BMTCN®, clinical assistant professor at Loyola College Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing in Chicago, IL, and RN3 at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about the epigenetics drug class. Music Credit: “” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by...
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Episode 351: What It’s Like to Develop Symptom Intervention Resources
The ONS Podcast
“It is very much a collaborative group process. There are group meetings where we come to consensus on our different ratings. There’s so much support from ONS staff, even amongst our different groups, even when you’re assigned to one peer reviewer. Let’s say you go on vacation, sometimes we’re paired with other people, too. So there is some flexibility in the opportunity as well,” Holly Tenaglia, DNP, APRN, AGCNS-BC, OCN®, lecturer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a...
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Episode 350: Breast Cancer Treatment Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“This is what totally drives the treatment decisions, and that’s why having that pathology report when the nurse is educating the patient is so important, because you can say, well, you have this kind of breast cancer, and this kind of breast cancer is generally treated this way,” Suzanne Mahon, DNS, RN, AOCN®, AGN-BC, FAAN, professor emeritus at Saint Louis University in Missouri, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about what oncology nurses need to know about breast cancer treatment. Music Credit:...
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Episode 349: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Safe Handling and ONS’s Legacy in Developing Safe Handling Guidelines
The ONS Podcast
“What I find most rewarding is connecting with nurses, who now understand the risks of exposure and are committed to minimizing their personal exposure. When I first started speaking about safe handling, there were a lot of nurses who were skeptical about the need for self-protection. I rarely see that now. Nurses are concerned for their own safety and more open to protective behaviors,” ONS member Martha Polovich, PhD, RN, AOCN®-Emeritus, adjunct professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland, told Liz Rodriguez, DNP, RN, OCN®, CENP, ONS member and 50th anniversary...
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Episode 348: Breast Cancer Diagnostic Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“We know that some women are going to get called back. And it’s just because usually they can’t see something clearly enough. And so in most cases, those women are going to get cleared with one or two images, and they’re going to say, ‘Oh, we compressed that better, we checked it with an ultrasound, we’re fine.’ That woman can go ahead and go. But we don’t want to miss those early breast cancers,” Suzanne Mahon, DNS, RN, AOCN®, AGN-BC, FAAN, professor emeritus at Saint Louis University in Missouri, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing...
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Episode 347: Care Considerations for Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics in Patients With Cancer
The ONS Podcast
"If you take your normal radiation oncology experience, as we know in radiation oncology, radiations are done by the machines, you know, externally. Nurses deal with the side effects and everything like that, whereas radiopharmaceuticals are given kind of on the internal basis, they’re systemic,” ONS member John Hollman, BSN, RN, OCN®, radiation nurse educator for Texas Oncology, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about caring for patients receiving radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics. Music Credit:...
info_outline“Instead of creating silos, how can we work together, create networks, and elaborate more in the future? Because we have such a robust wealth of knowledge and expertise, that ONS is very good at helping to facilitate that,” Jan Tipton, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCN®, clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about her volunteer experience in a think tank held during the 2024 ONS Congress®.
Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0
Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by August 2, 2026. 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 participation in professional collaboration opportunities.
Episode Notes
- Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
- Volunteer Opportunities on ONS Communities
- Oncology Nursing Podcast episodes:
- ONS Voice articles:
- ONS Health Policy Priorities and Agenda
- ONS Resources for Researchers
- Luma Institute: Abstraction laddering
- American Organization of Nursing Leadership think tanks
- National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists health policy think tanks
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 [email protected].
Highlights From This Episode
“Individuals that would be helpful for this type of think tank would be those that view themselves as change agents, those who are willing and motivated to confront uncomfortable truths, persistent issues, that might think of a better way to do things. In addition, people that are highly inquisitive, curious, eager to learn, and those that have out-of-the-box type thinking, flexible, creative, and would work well in this group environment.” TS 3:29
“We all came from very diverse backgrounds, all over the country, and it was a great opportunity to blend our backgrounds in academia, clinical practice, and then be able to share not only some of the dilemmas and hardships that we see, but then to recommend some actions for the future.” TS 6:12
“But things that sparked my interest were things that were very small scale and then things that were very large scale that everyone could benefit from hearing. And one that comes to mind was, in a very small way, how can we collaborate with our various backgrounds and PhDs and DNPs and have more of a meet-and-greet? We’re sometimes in our silos. And how can we create opportunities for each other to learn from each other, to have these meetings, maybe in social venues, to learn about interests, research, collaborations in the future?” TS 6:55
“I think it’s important to challenge yourself to be open to new ideas, to keep an open mind. Consider that your idea may not be agreeable to everyone. So to think through, everyone that you may be participating with and have a heightened awareness of all the differences that we may have in our different backgrounds, gender, characteristics that we believe in, in terms of our practice. So thinking through those things in advance and being open to new ideas, I think, is really important and sort of self-reflecting before the event.” TS 15:41