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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

Release Date: 07/11/2025

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...

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,...

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,”...

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...

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...

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®,...

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...

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...

Episode 381: ONS 50th Anniversary: The Evolution of Oncology Nursing Roles

The ONS Podcast

“As ONS continues to look ahead, its commitment to shaping the future of oncology nursing remains unwavering. ONS is proactively developing the tools, capabilities, and strategies needed to support oncology nurses in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. ONS will continue to set the standard, ensuring that oncology nurses are equipped with clinical expertise, collaborative skills, technology proficiency, and mentorship necessary to thrive,” ONS member Diane Barber, PhD, APRN, ANP-BC, AOCNP®, FAANP, FAAN, member of the ONS 50th anniversary committee, said regarding the continuously...

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 in 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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“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

Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:

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 pubONSVoice@ons.org.

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

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