Episode 353: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Oncology Nursing Certification
Release Date: 03/07/2025
Episode 380: Colorectal Cancer Survivorship Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“One powerful, overlooked aspect of colorectal cancer survivorship is the emotional and identity transformation that our survivors undergo—and really how little space is given in the clinical arena for that. No one really talks about this ‘invisible recovery.’ Facing mortality can lead to prolonged changes is values, relationships, and life goals. And these experiences aren’t captured in lab results or imaging scans, but they really shape how survivors live, love, and heal and continue with their lives,” ONS member Kris Mathey, DNP, APRN-CNP, AOCNP®, gastrointestinal...
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Episode 379: Pharmacology 101: BCR-ABL1 Inhibitors
The ONS Podcast
“All of these TKIs [tyrosine kinase inhibitors] inhibit BCR-ABL1 in some way, shape, or form. When BCR-ABL1 is mutated, it has uncontrolled tyrosine kinase activity, leading to rapid cell proliferation. When we then inhibit that BCR-ABL1 that’s been mutated, we disrupt this abnormal signaling pathway that drives CML [chronic myeloid leukemia] cell proliferation and survival, ultimately leading to decreased cancer cell growth, increased apoptosis or cell death, and potentially inducing a disease remission,” Samantha Maples, PharmD, BCOP, clinical pharmacy specialist supervisor for...
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Episode 378: Considerations for Adolescent and Young Adult Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer
The ONS Podcast
“She’s triple negative and has a very, very aggressive tumor. Instead of going on spring break that year, she sat in our chemo room and got chemo. Her friends from college are good to try to keep her involved and try to surround her and encourage her, but they’re right now in very, very different spots in their lives. She’s fighting for her life; her friends are fighting for the grade they get in a class—and that’s different,” ONS member Kristi Orbaugh, MSN, NP, AOCN®, AOCNP®, nurse practitioner at Community Hospital North Cancer Center in Indianapolis, IN, told Jaime Weimer,...
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Episode 377: Creating and Implementing Radiopharmaceutical Policies and Procedures
The ONS Podcast
“Policies help make sure that we’re giving patients the right education and discharge instructions. Radiation doesn’t end when the syringe is empty. Patients go home with potential radioactive exposure. They need to know how to protect their families, what precautions to take, and what healthcare providers can do if something goes wrong—like a spill, extravasation, or even a pregnant staff member who’s involved in the care. This isn’t just a documentation exercise. It’s about making sure every part of the system speaks the same language when it comes to safety, handling, and...
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Episode 376: ONS 50th Anniversary: The Science Behind the History of Nursing Burnout and Compassion Fatigue
The ONS Podcast
“At least some of the answer to these issues of compassion fatigue and burnout have to do making our practice environments the very, very best they can be so that nurses and other clinicians can really connect and care for patients in the ways that they want to be able to do that—and the patients need them to be able to do. I think there’s a lot that is here already and will be coming, and I feel pretty optimistic about it,” ONS member Anne Gross, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, senior vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in...
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Episode 375: Pharmacology 101: VEGF Inhibitors
The ONS Podcast
“We’re really using these in many, many types of malignancies. But you can see this class of drug, these monoclonal antibodies, the small molecule inhibitors, being used in colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, renal cell carcinoma, brain cancers, hepatocellular, non-small cell lung cancer, gynecologic malignancies, so lots of different types of cancers where we’re seeing these drugs used,” Danielle Roman, PharmD, BCOP, manager of clinical pharmacy services at the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh, PA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of...
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Episode 374: Colorectal Cancer Treatment Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“Colorectal cancer treatment is not just about eliminating a disease. It’s about preserving life quality and empowering patients through every phase. So I think nurses are really at the forefront that we can do that in the oncology nursing space. So from early detection to survivorship, the journey is deeply personal. Precision medicine, compassionate care, and informed decision-making are reshaping outcomes. Treatment’s just not about protocols. It’s about people,” ONS member Kris Mathey, DNP, APRN-CNP, AOCNP®, gastrointestinal medical oncology nurse practitioner at The James...
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Episode 373: Biomarker Testing in Prostate Cancer
The ONS Podcast
“Next-generation sequencing, or NGS, can be used to help us determine if the patient has specific biomarkers we can identify and use to target for treatment. Certain findings can tell us if a particular treatment might work for that patient, and we can see if there are any genetic variants we might have a biomarker targeted agent to use to treat them with,” ONS member Jackie Peterson, MSN, RN, OCN®, NE-BC, MBA, ambulatory nurse manager at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Illinois, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a...
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Episode 372: Pharmacology 101: Proteasome Inhibitors
The ONS Podcast
“The proteasome itself, it really helps us unfold or get rid of misfolded proteins or degradations of different cells. We used to have garbage disposals in our sinks, and we used to put food product in there. If your garbage disposal is clogged, then everything backs up. So that’s kind of what’s really going on in the cell itself, is that I’m building up these unnecessary proteins that we should be getting rid of, and it actually causes apoptosis or cell death,” ONS member Daniel Verina, DNP, RN, ACNP-BC, nurse practitioner for the multiple myeloma program at Mount Sinai Medical...
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Episode 371: ONS 50th Anniversary: ONS’s Rich History of International Work Advances the Future of Global Oncology Nursing
The ONS Podcast
“We want to make sure that nurses, have opportunities both in our local communities as well as international communities, to engage in courageous dialog with others who may think or look different than we do and whose culture or language may also be different. The difference is what brings us together and allows us to have more of this tapestry of what we are about—ensuring that we advance health for all and that we are able to move forward together,” ONS member Ashley Leak-Bryant, PhD, RN, OCN®, professor at University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, told Darcy Burbage, DNP,...
info_outline“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 member and member of the ONS 50th anniversary committee, during a conversation about the evolution of oncology nursing certification. Beaver spoke with Tony Ellis, MSEd, CAE, ICE-CCP, executive director of ONCC, and Miller-Murphy about the history, current landscape, and future of certification in oncology nursing.
Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0
Episode Notes
- NCPD contact hours are not available for this episode.
- ONS Podcast™ episodes:
- Episode 254: Oncology Nursing Certification Affects the Entire Cancer Care System
- Episode 186: Certification Can Fuel Your Leadership Skills and Professional Growth
- ONS Voice articles:
- Certification Was a Critical Step Along My Oncology Nursing Career Journey
- OCN® Certification Test-Taking Tips to Ease Your Anxiety
- ONS books:
- Advanced Oncology Nursing Certification Review and Resource Manual (third edition)
- Breast Care Certification Review (second edition)
- BMTCN® Certification Review Manual (second edition)
- Core Curriculum for Oncology Nursing (seventh edition)
- Study Guide for the Core Curriculum for Oncology Nursing (seventh edition)
- ONS courses:
- Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Findings From the 2023 Radiation Oncology Nursing Role Delineation Study to Shape the Future of the Subspecialty
- Oncology Certification for Nurses: Joint Position Statement From the Oncology Nursing Society and the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation
- ONCC website
- Connie Henke Yarbro Oncology Nursing History Center
To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.
To find resources for creating an ONS 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
Miller-Murphy: “Oncology nursing is a highly specialized area with a broad, well-defined body of knowledge, and it’s essential for employees and healthcare consumers to be able to identify nurses who have demonstrated that they possess the knowledge that’s necessary to practice competently in the specialty. Nurses who become certified take that essential step to publicly demonstrate their knowledge. And I believe this makes them a known commodity, so to speak.” TS 1:49
Ellis: “Oncology nursing is an area of high-stakes patient care, and a core purpose of certification is to safeguard the public. This is certainly an area of health care that benefits from having that role of professional certification being played, from the knowledge requirements to the practice hours that a nurse must have, to the performance on the exam and continued competence required to maintain the certification. Our certifications hold nurses to a higher standard, which helps protect the public in the care that they provide.” TS 2:45
Miller-Murphy: “A group of, I think, 200 nurses got together at an American Cancer Society conference back in 1980 to discuss the desire for certification in ontology. Nurses wanted a way to verify their specialized knowledge and skills. They wanted to raise the level of professionalism, and ONS was the most appropriate organization to develop the certifications. And by 1983, a survey of members revealed strong interest in specialty certification in oncology.” TS 5:29
Ellis: “The pace of change in oncology care is really the challenge for certification programs proper right now. There’s so many wonderful advances—oncology treatments and drugs that are coming to the market that are being used in non-oncology settings and other advancements in the practice, that keeping up with that change puts pressure on certification programs because they must validate knowledge and practice that has become standard. It has to have been in the practice long enough that whatever the content, whatever the practice is that you’re testing on, that there is one single correct answer. So you can’t necessarily test on the very latest of what has come to the market or to the practice. The other flipside of that is that pace of change, the new emerging things in the practice create opportunities for other kinds of credentials.” TS 24:31
Ellis: “What we have found is that there are thousands and thousands of oncology nurses that are practicing at a level and doing specialized work beyond the scope of the OCN® body of knowledge—so at the master’s level, PhD, especially with the advent of the DNP, and there is work there. And this really came out of our work to update the advanced oncology nurse competencies. … So the new certification is the Advanced Certified Oncology Nurse, or the ACON. In certification, and it is suited for those nurses that are practicing at that higher level.” TS 32:52