“Don’t be afraid of applying, even if you’ve never planned a conference before, and you think, ‘Well, I have no idea what I’m doing.’ You probably know more than you think you do. You probably have more connections than you think you do, and it is such a worthwhile experience,” Colleen Erb, MSN, CRNP, ACNP-BC, AOCNP®, hematology and oncology nurse practitioner at Jefferson Health Asplundh Cancer Pavilion in Willow Grove, PA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, conferences oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about serving on a planning committee for an ONS conference. 

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Episode Notes  

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  

Episode Notes  

• This episode is not eligible for NCPD contact hours.  
• Oncology Nursing Podcast™ episodes: 
  • Episode 323: What It’s Like to Participate in an ONS Think Tank 
  • Episode 320: What It’s Like to Be a Peer Reviewer or Associate Editor for an ONS Journal 
  • Episode 309: What Brings You to ONS Congress®? Episode 183: How Oncology Nurses Find and Use Credible Patient Education Resources
• ONS Voice articles: 
  • What Brings You Value in ONS? You Can Thank a Volunteer for That 
  • The Power of Connection in Oncology Nursing 
• What Brings You Value in ONS? You Can Thank a Volunteer for That 
• The Power of Connection in Oncology Nursing 
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: What Is It Like to Chair the ONS Bridge™ Content Planning Team? 
• ONS Volunteer Opportunities 
• ONS Congress 
• ONS Evidence-Based Practice Learning Library 

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 

“I saw a link on the ONS website looking for volunteer opportunities and applied, not thinking that I’d actually get chosen because I had never done anything like this before. I had spoken at conferences, but I had never been part of the planning committee. The application [had] some open-ended questions about what your expertise is and where your interests lie. … And then I got a phone call from the planning chair for that year, and we talked a little bit more in depth about the questions that were on the application, and my interests, and how I thought I would fit on the team.” TS 2:05 

“The main part [of the work] was topic selection and then speaker selection once we narrowed down the topics. I feel like there was a lot of brainstorming and group effort to both of those things. You don’t have to individually have an exact topic or an exact speaker. There was a lot of ‘I think this general broad topic would be good,’ and then we narrowed it down as a group to something that would fit into a 45-minute presentation.” TS 4:30 

“We talked about interventional radiology and how it seemed like it was taking on much more of a bigger role in oncology and how that could fit into the conference and whether we wanted to have a specific topic or an overview of the things that interventional radiology can offer for oncology patients. And we ended up doing kind of like a 101 topic on that one, because it was a newer topic that people were kind of interested in just hearing, like, ‘Hey, what do you guys do for cancer patients?’” TS 8:44 

“I learned a lot about the backstage process of conferences. I had spoken before, but seeing the other side of it was a whole different picture—and all the work that goes into it—and I really learned a lot about picking the topics and how do we find the best information and the best sort of new themes to present to every time.” TS 12:04 

“Just do it. Don’t be afraid of applying, even if you’ve never planned a conference before, and you think, ‘Well, I have no idea what I’m doing.’ You probably know more than you think you do. You probably have more connections than you think you do, and it is such a worthwhile experience. And you learn so much about yourself and about the other people on the team. And the information that you’re presenting just is huge for a lot of people. So if you’re even thinking about it, just fill out the application.” TS 14:06