Episode 371: ONS 50th Anniversary: ONS’s Rich History of International Work Advances the Future of Global Oncology Nursing

“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, RN, AOCN^®, CBCN^®, chair of the ONS 50th Anniversary Committee, during a conversation about international collaboration in oncology nursing. Burbage spoke with Leak-Bryant, ONS member Kristin Ferguson, DNP, MBA, RN, OCN^®, senior director of strategic operations, bone marrow transplant, and cellular therapies at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, and ONS member and Chief Clinical Officer Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, DNP, RN, AOCNS^®, EBP-C, about their experiences working in the global oncology space and how ONS is advancing those efforts.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 

Episode Notes 

• ONS Podcast™ ONS 50th anniversary series
• ONS Voice articles:
• Bridging Borders and Advancing Oncology’s Global Mission
• Building Collaboration, Education With Oncology Nurses in Malawi
• Cancer Terms’ Negative Associations in African Languages Can Create Communication Barriers for Patients and Clinicians
• Latest Global Cancer Statistics Underscore the Stark Need to Address Resource-Based Disparities
• ONS Members Share Resources, Experiences With Philippine Colleagues
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
• Amplifying the Global Impact of Oncology Nursing
• How Can a Global Experience Enkindle a Passion for Oncology Nursing?
• Connie Henke Yarbro Oncology Nursing History Center
• ONS Global Initiatives
• Joint position statement from ISNCC, MASCC, ONS, AONS, and EONS: Cancer Nursing’s Potential to Reduce the Growing Burden of Cancer Across the World
• Asian Oncology Nursing Society
• City Cancer Challenge
• Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology
• European Oncology Nursing Society
• Global Power of Oncology Nursing
• Health Volunteers Overseas
• International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care
• Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
• UNC Project Malawi
• Union for International Cancer Control
• Email Ashley Leak-Bryant
• Email Kristin Ferguson
• Email Erica Fisher-Cartlidge at ONS Global Initiatives

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

Leak-Bryant: “My first experience was when I was 21 years old. This was when I was in nursing school at UNC Greensboro. An opportunity came about where I had a chance to go to Honduras, and it was for a one-week service learning cultural immersion experience. And that really gave me my first entree into global health as well as global training. And so, as a first-generation college graduate who had never been out of North Carolina nor had ever flown, it was really an eye-opening experience that has led me now to my current role and passion for global health.” TS 3:24

Leak-Bryant: “In 2018, we had the Malawian delegation come to UNC Chapel Hill. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has one of the longest standing collaborations with Malawi, and we call it UNC Project Malawi, and it has been in existence for more than 30 years. … Those nurses and other allied health professionals came to UNC to our cancer center to see how we were making sure that we were engaged in best practices, then how they would be able to take that back to Malawi to make sure that they have what they need as they were opening up a new national cancer Center in Malawi.” TS 7:57

Ferguson: “I have volunteered with ONS at the Asian Pacific Breast Cancer Summit, which was in Indonesia in 2024, and then a few months ago in Singapore. And this is an exciting conference because it draws in nurses from the region, so you end up having five, six, maybe seven countries represented at these conferences, where oncology nurses are very eager to learn, meet one another. And so the teaching that we’ve provided there has been a combination of lectures and then roundtables where we’ve strategically placed nurses attending with nurses that are not at their same hospital so that they can connect and share experiences with myself and another ONS member and maybe some other local staff acting as moderators and facilitating conversations.” TS 18:04

Ferguson: “When I was in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2019, the people there, most of them do not speak English, so they speak their native language Georgian. As I presented, I was wearing a headset, and all of the oncology nurses in the audience were wearing a headset, and I was live translated. What this means is when you’re speaking, a translator is sitting in a booth close by and you can actually very quietly hear in your ear he or she quietly translating what you’re saying into a language that the nurses can understand. It’s actually a bit funny because when you make a joke or ask a question, expecting nods or head shakes, it takes several seconds for the translation to occur. You can get used to a 10-second delay, and you have to pause your speaking and allow actually a little bit more time in presenting if translation services are required.” TS 22:25

Fischer-Cartlidge: “I think that the professional organization role is absolutely critical in how we advance global oncology. Certainly, providing education and helping empower nurses to be more autonomous and equal partners on the care team is a big piece of that. But it’s also through forming international partnerships and really elevating the collective voice of nurses in the specialty. This goes a long way in standardizing practices, promoted leadership development among oncology nurses, really across the world. We know that nurses are not seen the same country to country to country on the healthcare team. And so a big part of what we do is try to elevate the importance of what nurses bring to cancer care.” TS 36:14

Fischer-Cartlidge: “I have so many hopes. I hope more opportunities come up for us to raise awareness of this essential role and how we bring a greater spotlight to what nurses are doing across the world for patient care. I hope to see us have more collective global position statements in this space. I hope to see that we have more unified projects across nursing organizations across the world, where we then really can bring our resources and our members together to do great work more effectively and more efficiently. And I think the beginnings of that are happening right up to this point.” TS 41:17