Episode 361: ONS 50th Anniversary: The Value of ONS Membership in Advancing the Oncology Nursing Profession

“We spent time today discussing all the ways that owners can have a positive impact on career growth, whether you’re a bedside nurse or just in teaching, research, hospital leadership. More than career growth, I see ONS as kind of a barrier to burnout and a catalyst for professional self-care. I think that no matter what aspect of oncology care you’re involved in, it is a difficult and complex specialty. And I think with that can come a lot of challenges and tough days, and ONS brings a sense of community to that and, specifically, a community that is pushing cancer care forward,” ONS member Amy Kaiser, MSN, CPNP-PC, told Nick Escobedo, DNP, RN, OCN^®, NE-BC, member of the ONS 50th anniversary committee, during a conversation about the benefits of ONS membership. Escobedo spoke with Kaiser, who joined ONS as a student, and Susan Groenwald, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, a charter ONS member, about how ONS membership and resources have helped them grow in their careers.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 

Episode Notes 

• This episode is not eligible for NCPD. 
• ONS Podcast™ episodes:
  • 50th anniversary series
  • Episode 331: DNP and PhD Collaboration Strategies to Help Advance Oncology Care
  • Episode 327: Journey of a Student Nurse: Choosing Oncology Nursing and the Value of a Professional Home
  • Episode 160: Build Innovative Staff Education Tools and Resources
• ONS Voice articles:
  • Your ONS Membership Offers You Benefits in Other Organizations, Too
  • Co-Creation Modernizes ONS Chapters to Meet Member Needs
• ONS book: Cancer Basics (third edition)
• ONS course: ONS Cancer Basics™
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Professional Organization Membership: The Benefits of Increasing Nursing Participation
• ONS membership
• ONS chapters
• ONS Communities
• 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

Groenwald: “ONS was groundbreaking in so many areas. The area that sticks out to me was, I was the board liaison to the standards committee. And so, the development of oncology nursing standards, it was a hallmark and critical to the field and to me and my practice, as well as education. It was very exciting time.” TS 4:18

Kaiser: “I think that my very first introduction to cancer care came from the Cancer Basics course. I think I feel fortunate that I probably was the recipient of a lot of the efforts of Susan, who has pioneered so many of these different oncology resources. I had the benefit of being at school during a time where there were a ton of resources available through ONS.” TS 5:38

Groenwald: “Having attended the meetings and getting involved in some of the committees is where I met people and worked with people. And that became, for me, very vital for doing a book, where it was a contributed book, an edited book [Cancer Nursing: Principles and Practice], so we had lots of different chapters and contributors, but I met them all through ONS. And how we communicated was via the old-fashioned mail and telephone. I didn’t even have a computer. We typed the whole manuscript, thousands and thousands of pages, the first couple editions.” TS 12:25

Kaiser: “What’s so wonderful about going to [Congress] is everybody there is looking to move oncology nursing forward and meet people and connect and network. And it's this, you know, magical space of people who are meeting and sharing shared experiences, and I got to feel all of that prior to even being an oncology nurse. And I went home from that first conference, immediately discussed with my manager that I wanted to move to the oncology floor, and I did. But it was meeting all of those people and hearing about those career paths that did that for me.” TS 16:42

Kaiser: “I think people who are involved with ONS, I found, are also very, very willing to mentor. I was very fortunate as I was speaking to these people, not even being an oncology nurse, that they were so welcoming and wanted to welcome me into the specialty and wanted to show me how to get involved. So I think it's just taking that very first step of talking to somebody or going to that local chapter meeting, and then the rest of it becomes a lot easier.” TS 19:29

Groenwald: “One thing Amy mentioned that I think is important is that new nurses have so many opportunities. I think it’s scary to put forth an abstract to speak at the conference. It’s scary, but it's such a great opportunity for anybody at any level in their career. If they have something of interest to share, it’s such a great place. I feel like it launched my career in terms of being able to speak in front of people and think critically about things and put together some projects. This all came from my work with ONS.” TS 20:51