Episode 233: Staying Current During Constant Change

“Participating in formal academic degree programs, obtaining contact hours for renewing your certification, peer-to-peer sharing with colleagues—they’re all types of education that you can use to be the best version of the oncology nurse that you want to be for our patients,” Danya Garner, PhD, RN, OCN®, CCRN-K, NPD-BC, ONS director-at-large from 2021–2024 and associate director of continuing professional education at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about how nurses can stay current in the evolving landscape of oncology. Garner presented on the topic during the 2022 ONS Bridge™ virtual conference in September 2022. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by November 11, 2024. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Episode Notes Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. Oncology Nursing Podcast episodes: Episode 138: Why Higher Education May Be the Next Step in Your Oncology Nursing Career Episode 160: Build Innovative Staff Education Tools and Resources Episode 186: Certification Can Fuel Your Leadership Skills and Professional Growth ONS Voice article: How Enhancing Your Career Benefits Both Your Patients and Yourself ONS virtual educational resources: Assessment tools Courses Clinical practice resources Huddle Cards™ Journals Oncology Nursing Podcast ONS Voice Standards Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation Share your expertise with the ONS Communities. Register for the 48th Annual ONS Congress®. Learn more about ONS Bridge™. To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email [email protected]. Highlights From Today’s Episode “With the availability of many virtual conference opportunities and several conferences offering in-person options, the past adage of divide and conquer has really been reinvigorated. I use the acronym ACE: A for attend the event, C for categorize the content, and E for explain to colleagues. There is so much great work that oncology nurses are doing across the nation that should be disseminated. Aside from attending formal education events, oncology nurses can also involve themselves in opportunities for formal and informal mentorship opportunities at their work locations. . . . Peer-to-peer training and dissemination is a wonderful opportunity to continue the conversation and disseminate those practices.” Timestamp (TS) 06:26 “Just-in-time training is really applicable for those refreshers. And considering the constant changes that have taken place and are continuing to take place, when you know about the content that you need for practice but just need a few quick reminders that are easily accessible, that’s the perfect place for just-in-time training to occur.” TS 11:51 “Certification is not necessarily a formal education, but in that preparation of expanding that particular content knowledge in a field, such as your OCN® examination, your bone marrow transplant certification—those really increase that scope of content and add to what knowledge you have to take care of these patients and ultimately improve the outcome of care that we provide to oncology patients.” TS 14:46 “Participating in formal academic degrees, renewing your certification, obtaining contact hours for certification, peer-to-peer sharing with colleagues—they’re all types of modalities of education that you can utilize to be the best version of the oncology nurse that you want to be for our patients.” TS 18:23