"Any time the patient hears the word 'cancer,' they shut down a little bit, right? They may not hear everything that the oncologist or urologist, or whoever is talking to them about their treatment options, is saying. The oncology nurse is a great person to sit down with the patient and go over the information with them at a level they can understand a little bit more. To go over all the treatment options presented by the physician, and again, make sure that we understand their goals of care," ONS member Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, manager of clinical education and clinical nurse specialist at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about prostate cancer treatment considerations for nurses.

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 courses.ons.org by November 21, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the treatment of prostate cancer.

Episode Notes

• Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
• ONS Podcast™ episodes:
  • Episode 387: Prostate Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Disparities
  • Episode 373: Biomarker Testing in Prostate Cancer
  • Episode 324: Pharmacology 101: LHRH Antagonists and Agonists
  • Episode 321: Pharmacology 101: CYP17 Inhibitors
  • Episode 208: How to Have Fertility Preservation Conversations With Your Patients
  • Episode 194: Sex Is a Component of Patient-Centered Care
• ONS Voice articles:
  • Communication Models Help Nurses Confidently Address Sexual Concerns in Patients With Cancer
  • Exercise Before ADT Treatment Reduces Rate of Side Effects
  • Frank Conversations Enhance Sexual and Reproductive Health Support During Cancer
  • Nurses Are Key to Patients Navigating Genitourinary Cancers
  • Sexual Considerations for Patients With Cancer
  • The Case of the Genomics-Guided Care for Prostate Cancer
• ONS books:
  • Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice (Second Edition)
  • Manual for Radiation Oncology Nursing Practice and Education (Fifth Edition)
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
  • Brachytherapy: Increased Use in Patients With Intermediate- and High-Risk Prostate Cancers
  • Physical Activity: A Feasibility Study on Exercise in Men Newly Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer
  • The Role of the Advanced Practice Provider in Bone Health Management for the Prostate Cancer Population
• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
  • An Exploratory Study of Cognitive Function and Central Adiposity in Men Receiving Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer
  • ONS Guidelines™ for Cancer Treatment–Related Hot Flashes in Women With Breast Cancer and Men With Prostate Cancer
• Other ONS resources:
  • Biomarker Database (refine by prostate cancer)
  • Biomarker Testing in Prostate Cancer: The Role of the Oncology Nurse
  • Brachytherapy Huddle Card
  • External Beam Radiation Huddle Card
  • Hormone Therapy Huddle Card
  • Luteinizing Hormone-Releasing Hormone Antagonist Huddle Card
  • Sexuality Huddle Card
• American Cancer Society prostate cancer page
• National Comprehensive Cancer Network homepage

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

"I think it's important to note that urologists are usually the ones that are doing the diagnosis of prostate cancer and really start that staging of prostate cancer. And the medical oncologists usually are not consulted until the patient is at a greater stage of prostate cancer. I find that it's important to state because a lot of our patients start with urologists, and by the time they've come to us, they're a lot further staged. But once a prostate cancer has been suspected, the patient needs to be staged for the extent of disease prior to that physician making any treatment recommendations. The staging includes doing a core biopsy of the prostate gland. During this core biopsy, they take multiple different cores at different areas throughout the prostate to really look to see what the cancer looks like." TS 1:46

"[For] the very low- and low-risk group, the most common [treatment] is active surveillance. ... Patients can be offered other options such as radiation therapy or surgery if they're not happy with active surveillance. ... The intermediate-risk group has favorable and unfavorable [status]. So, if they're a favorable, their Gleason score is usually a bit lower, things are not as advanced. These patients are offered active surveillance and then either radical prostatectomy with possible removal of lymph nodes or radiation—external beam or brachytherapy. If a patient has unfavorable intermediate risk, they are offered radical prostatectomy with removal of lymph nodes, external radiation therapy plus hormone therapy, or external radiation with brachytherapy. All three of these are offered to patients, although most frequently we see that our patients are taken in for radical prostatectomy. For the high- or very high-risk [group], patients are offered radiation therapy with hormone therapy, typically for one to three years. And then radical prostatectomy with removal of lymph nodes could also be offered for those patients." TS 7:55

"Radiation can play a role in any risk group depending on the patient's preference. ... The types of radiation that we use are external beam, brachytherapy, which is an internal therapy, and radiopharmaceuticals, [which are] more for advanced cancer, but we are seeing them used in prostate [cancer] as well. External beam radiation focuses on the tumor and any metastasis we may have with the tumor. It can be used in any risk [group] and for recurrence if radiation has not been done previously. If a patient has already been radiated to the pelvic area or to the prostate, radiation is usually not given again because we don't want to damage the patient any further. Brachytherapy is when we put radioactive pellets directly into the prostate. For early-stage prostate cancer, this can be given alone. And for patients who have a higher risk of the cancer growing outside the prostate, it can be given in combination with external beam radiation. It's important to note with brachytherapy, it cannot be used on patients who've had a transurethral resection of the prostate or any urinary problems. And if the patient has a large prostate, they may have to be on some hormone therapy prior to brachytherapy, just to shrink that prostate down a little bit to get the best effect. ... Radiopharmaceuticals treat the prostate-specific membrane antigen." TS 11:05

"The side effects of surgery are usually what deter the patient from wanting surgery. The first one is urinary incontinence. A lot of times, a patient has a lot of urinary incontinence after they have surgery. The other one is erectile dysfunction. A lot of patients may not want to have erectile dysfunction. Or, if having an erection is important to the patient, they may not want to have surgery to damage that. In this day and age, physicians have gotten a lot better at doing nerve-sparing surgeries. And so they really do try to do that so that the patient does not have any issues with erectile dysfunction after surgery. But [depending on] the extent of the cancer where it's growing around those nerves or there are other things going on, they may not be able to save those nerves." TS 15:26

"Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, or LHRH antagonists or analogs, lower the amount of testosterone made by the testicles. We're trying to stop those hormones from growing to prevent the cancer. ... When we lower the testosterone very quickly, there can be a lot more side effects. But if we lower it a little bit less, we can maybe help prevent some of them. The side effects are important. When I was writing this up, I was thinking, 'Okay, this is basically what women go through when they go through menopause.' We're decreasing the estrogen. We're now decreasing the testosterone. So, the patients can have reduced or absent sexual desire, they can have gynecomastia, hot flashes, osteopenia, anemia, decreased mental sharpness, loss of muscle mass, weight gain, and fatigue." TS 17:50

"What we all need to remember is that no patient is the same. They may not have the same goals for treatment as the physicians or the nurses want for the patient. We talked about surgery as the most common treatment modality that's presented to patients, but it's not necessarily the option that they want. It's really important for healthcare professionals to understand their biases before talking to the patients and the family. It's also important to remember that not all patients are in heterosexual relationships, so we need to explain recovery after treatment to meet the needs of our patients and their sexual relationships, which is sometimes hard for us. But remembering that—especially gay men—they may not have the same recovery period as a heterosexual male when it comes to sexual relationships. So, making sure that we have those frank conversations with our patients and really check our biases prior to going in and talking with them." TS 27:16

"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 practice at ONS, during a conversation about the oncology nurse's role in NSCLC biomarker testing.

Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0

This podcast is sponsored by Lilly Oncology and is not eligible for NCPD contact hours. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications.

Episode Notes

• This episode is not eligible for NCPD.
• ONS Podcast™ episodes:
  • Episode 363: Lung Cancer Treatment Considerations for Nurses
  • Episode 359: Lung Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Disparities
  • Episode 238: Cancer Genomics for Every Oncology Nurse
  • Episode 157: Biomarker Testing Improves Outcomes for Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
• ONS Voice articles:
  • Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Prevention, Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, Side Effects, and Survivorship
  • Only a Third of Patients With Advanced Cancer Get Biomarker Testing, Limiting Use of Potentially Effective Precision Therapies
  • Precision Medicine in Lung Cancer: How Comprehensive Testing Optimizes Patient Outcomes
  • Targeted Therapies Are Transforming the Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
• ONS book: Guide to Cancer Immunotherapy (second edition)
• ONS course: Genomic Foundations for Precision Oncology
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Using Nurse Navigators to Improve Timeliness of Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
• Oncology Nursing Forum article: Precision Medicine Testing and Disparities in Health Care for Individuals With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Narrative Review
• Other ONS resources:
  • Best Practices for Biomarker Testing in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Case Study
  • Genomics and Precision Oncology Learning Library
  • Genomics Case Study: Precision Medicine in the Setting of Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
  • Biomarker Database (refine by non-small cell lung cancer)
  • Genomic Biomarkers Huddle Card
  • Targeted Therapy Huddle Card
• National Comprehensive Cancer Network homepage

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

"These biomarkers are used to provide information about cancer's characteristics or behavior. In oncology precision medicine specifically, molecular tests can help with diagnosing a cancer that is maybe an unknown primary. It can help with monitoring response to therapy, detect recurrence of disease before other tests can find that, predict prognosis or how aggressive the cancer may be, and guide treatment decisions for targeted therapies." TS 3:14

"Some of the key biomarkers recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) to be tested in patients who have NSCLC are EGFR, ALK, KRAS, BRAF, MET exon 14 skipping mutation, HER2 which is a protein expression from an ErbB protein, PD-L1 which is a protein expression that's used to guide immunotherapy choices, and then finally there are three fusions: ROS1, RET, and NTRK. [These] are pretty rare but really important to be tested for in patients who have NSCLC." TS 3:46

"Another important challenge for nurses related to this topic is that these results may not reveal a targeted mutation for the patient and that could be very disappointing. So, being able to provide that emotional support to a patient if they have that result … you can actually reinforce with them that if [they] go onto another treatment that the physician decides to put [them] on, the tumor can change. New pathogenic variants can develop based on the treatment that they're getting, and another test can be done. And maybe at that time—a new biomarker that could be targeted—we'd be seeing on the new test." TS 7:32

"Another circumstance we didn't talk about yet is that maybe the result came back saying that the quality was not sufficient. And sometimes that happens, but that doesn't mean that we're at the end of the road, necessarily. So, you could explain to the patient that that may mean that possibly, a new biopsy would be ordered by the physician. Or if a new biopsy or another tissue sample is not available, then maybe the physician would pivot to sending a blood specimen for the molecular testing. So that would definitely be a way [nurses] could support their patients." TS 11:52

"In the case of patients with NSCLC, early testing is so important. So, advocating for that prompt biomarker testing to be done, making sure that it's comprehensive, that it's actually looking for all of those—I think it was 12 biomarkers—that I mentioned earlier. That this testing is done as soon as possible after diagnosis or progression. Something that I talk about all the time—personalized care, precision medicine—really matters. So, tailoring treatments for patients based on the biology of the tumor that's driving the cancer's growth is really crucial if you're going to be working as an oncology nurse. Another crucial thing, because it's changing so quickly, is to stay informed." TS 16:23

"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, DNP, RN, OCN®, CNE, ONS member and member of the ONS 50th anniversary committee, during a conversation about the future of oncology nursing advocacy and health policy. Wilson spoke with Damron and ONS member Janice Phillips, PhD, RN, CENP, FADLN, FAAN, about how ONS has advanced advocacy and policy efforts over the past 50 years and its approaches for the future.

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:
• ONS 50th anniversary series
• Episode 229: How Advocacy Can Shape Your Nursing Career
• ONS Voice articles:
• Oncology Nurses Take to Capitol Hill to Advocate for Cancer Care Priorities
• Our Unified Voices Can Improve Cancer Survivorship Care
• With Voices Amplified by ONS, Oncology Nurses Speak Out for Patients and the Profession on Capitol Hill
• NOBC Partnerships Advance Nurses' Placements on Local and National Boards
• Nursing Leadership Has Space for You and Your Goals
• ONS courses:
• Advocacy 101: Making a Difference
• Board Leadership: Nurses in Governance
• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
• Nurses on Boards: My Experience on the Moonshot
• Strengthening Oncology Nursing by Using Research to Inform Politics and Policy
• ONS Center for Advocacy and Health Policy
• Current ONS position statements
• Connie Henke Yarbro Oncology Nursing History Center
• Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
• Cancer Moonshot
• National Cancer Policy Forum
• National Council of State Boards of Nursing APRN Roundtable
• National Patient Advocate Foundation
• Nurses on Boards Coalition
• One Voice Against Cancer
• Patient Quality of Life Coalition
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows

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

Phillips: "I think that there are so many pressing issues, but I'm going to start with any kind of threats or legislation that's poised to take away safety-net resources. It's really going to set us back because we all know that, particularly for minorities and certain other underserved populations, they have experienced poor cancer outcomes for a variety of reasons, variety of socioeconomic reasons, lack of access to quality screening resources—you name it. When you take away those safety net resources and take away resources for people who are already underserved, uninsured, or underinsured, it also jeopardizes their ability to get proper screening, get proper follow-up, have access to state of the art cancer services. I think the lack of affordability of health care is a problem that continues to challenge us, whether you on Medicaid or whether you have limited insurance." TS 10:16

Damron: "Because ONS is so grounded in science and research—we're not just a clinical organization; we're grounded in scholarship, science, research, and publication—we're able to take this vast network of strong clinicians [and combine it] with amazing scientists. … We've had some amazing scientists come out of ONS; some of the leading nurse scientists of all time were also oncology nurses. So by combining this, we're able to make a difference at the state and federal level. So the advocacy work that I've been involved in, state and federal levels, really involved working with the ONS staff involved with advocacy and those scientists and clinicians who brought that expertise." TS 18:19

Phillips: "I think expanding the work around multiculturalism in oncology will always be important. Are there any new partnerships or avenues that ONS can reach out to or explore? Maybe there are other specialty organizations or groups—and not always necessarily nursing— because as we think about the determinants of health, we think about things like health and all policies. Maybe there are other disciplines or other specialties that we need to embrace as we launch our agendas." TS 23:28

Damron: "As nurses, just our basic nursing training, we get these skills—we see a problem, we identify the problem, we assess what we're going to do about it, we do it, and then we evaluate what we did. Does that work or not? That's how you make policy. So we were all trained in this. Then what you bring on top of that are oncology nursing experience, whether it's clinical, whether it's research, whether it's teaching, practice, etc. Those continue to refine those skills that are basic to us as nurses. We have this built-in skill set, and we need to own it and understand it." TS 30:25

"[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," ONS member Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, manager of clinical education and clinical nurse specialist at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about prostate cancer screening, early detection, and disparities.

Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0

Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by October 31, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to prostate screening, early detection, and disparities.

Episode Notes

• Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
• ONS Podcast™ Episode 149: Health Disparities and Barriers in Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
• ONS Voice articles:
  • Gender-Affirming Hormones May Lower PSA and Delay Prostate Cancer Diagnosis in Transgender Women
  • Healthy Lifestyles Reduce Prostate Cancer Mortality in Patients With Genetic Risk
  • Hispanic Patients Are at Higher Risk for Aggressive Prostate Cancer but Less Likely to Get Treatment
  • Leveling State-Level Tax Policies May Increase Equality in Cancer Screening and Mortality Rates
  • Most Cancer Screening Guidelines Don't Disclose Potential Harms
• ONS book: Understanding Genomic and Hereditary Cancer Risk: A Handbook for Oncology Nurses
• ONS course: Genomic Foundations for Precision Oncology
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Barriers and Solutions to Cancer Screening in Gender Minority Populations
• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
  • Disparities in Cancer Screening in Sexual and Gender Minority Populations: A Secondary Analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data
  • Symptom Experiences Among Individuals With Prostate Cancer and Their Partners: Influence of Sociodemographic and Cancer Characteristics
• Other ONS resources:
  • Genomics and Precision Oncology Learning Library
  • ONS Biomarker Database (refine by prostate cancer)
  • American Cancer Society prostate cancer early detection, diagnosis, and staging page
• National Institutes of Health prostate cancer screening page
• U.S. Preventive Services Task Force prostate cancer screening recommendation statement

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

"The recommendations are men [aged] 45 who are at high risk, including African American men and men who have a first-degree relative who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer younger than 65 should go through screening. And men aged 40 at an even higher risk, these are the men that have that one first-degree relative who has had prostate cancer before 65. Screening includes the PSA blood test and a digital exam. Those are the screening recommendations, although they are a little bit controversial." TS 3:42

"You still see PSAs and DREs as the first line because they're easier for primary care providers to perform. ... Those are typically covered by insurance, so they still play that role in screening. But with the advent of MRIs and biomarkers, these have really helped refine that screening process and determine treatment options for our patients. Again, those patients who may be at a bit of a higher risk could go for an MRI or have biomarkers completed. Or if they're on that verge with their Gleason score, instead of doing a biopsy, they may send the patient for an MRI or do biomarkers for that patient. ... These updated technologies put [patients] a little bit more at ease that someone's watching what's going on, and they don't have to have anything invasive done to see where they're at with their staging." TS 4:35

"Disparities in screening access exist based on race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, education, and geography. It's really hard in rural areas to get primary care providers or urologists who can actually see these patients, [and] sometimes in urban areas. So socioeconomic status can affect that, but also where a person lives. African American men with lower incomes and people in rural areas face the greatest barriers to receiving screening. It's also important to encourage anyone with a prostate to be screened and offer gender-neutral settings for patients to feel comfortable." TS 7:50

"I think a lot of men feel like if they have no symptoms, they don't have prostate cancer ... so a lot of patients may put off screening because they feel fine, [they] haven't had any urinary symptoms, it doesn't run in their family. ...With prostate cancer, there usually are not symptoms that a patient's having—they may have some urinary issues or some pain—but it's not very frequent that they have that. So, just making sure our patients understand that even though they're not feeling something, it doesn't mean there's not something else going on there." TS 12:53

"Prostate cancer found at an early age can be very curable, so it's really important for men to have those conversations with their providers about the risk and benefits of screening. And anyone that we can help along the way to be able to have those conversations, I think is a great thing for oncology nurses to do." TS 15:44

"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 Oncology Development and Advancement (NCODA) in Cazenovia, NY, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS. Weimer spoke with Anderson and Kris LeFebvre, DNP, RN, NPD-BC, AOCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, about the Oral Anticancer Medication Care Compass: Resources for Interprofessional Navigation, a project created as a collaboration between ONS and NCODA.

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 contact hours.
• ONS Podcast™ episodes:
  • Episode 215: Navigate Updates in Oral Adherence to Cancer Therapies
  • Episode 16: Navigating the Challenges of Oral Chemotherapy
• ONS Voice articles:
  • As Institutions Establish Oral Agent Workflows, Savvy Educators Help Nurses Apply Them to Practice
  • Maintain Oral Adherence With ONS Guidelines™
  • The Oncology Nurse's Role in Oral Anticancer Therapies
• ONS book: Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice (Second Edition)
• ONS courses:
  • ONS Fundamentals of Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Administration™
  • ONS/ONCC®Chemotherapy Immunotherapy Certificate™
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Implementation of an Oral Antineoplastic Therapy Program: Results From a Pilot Project
• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
  • Domains of Structured Oral Anticancer Medication Programs: A Scoping Review
  • Interventions to Support Adherence to Oral Anticancer Medications: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
  • ONS Guidelines™ to Support Patient Adherence to Oral Anticancer Medications
• Other ONS resources:
• ASCO/ONS Antineoplastic Therapy Administration Safety Standards
• Oral Anticancer Medication Care Compass: Resources for Interprofessional Navigation
• Oral Anticancer Medication Learning Library
• Drugs@FDA
• Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association Oral Chemotherapy Collaborative
• National Comprehensive Cancer Network homepage
• NCODA homepage
• Patient Education Sheets website

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

LeFebvre: "There are five different elements to the care compass itself. The first is called the OAM [oral anticancer medication] workflow analysis tool. ... This [tool] allows an OAM program to really study where their processes are. Where are the gaps in the process and where might their patients be at risk? It's something that you can use within your setting to analyze your current processes and see where you can strengthen them. The second tool is something focused on patient and caregiver education. This includes a lot of information about what should be taught, how it could be taught, the best timing and so forth, according to the literature. ... The third tool is an assessment and grading tool. It's a fun tool that approaches symptom management using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events grading tool. ... The fourth tool is a specialty pharmacy and patient assistance contact directory template. This is a spreadsheet that can be used by anyone navigating patient care with OAMs to keep track of their professional contacts. ... The final [tool] is the OAM adherence blueprint. This has a lot of important information on adherence, methods to assess adherence, and calculate adherence rate." TS 7:15

LeFebvre: "Interprofessional collaboration is so essential just in day-to-day care, and OAM care is no different in that regard. Oncology nurses work in so many different settings and their role may be very different even if they have the same title. You can have OAM navigation that is completely handled in the pharmacy. I've talked with nurses who have said, 'We don't even touch it.' But they do. Because when a patient has a combination regimen, they might have an infusion regimen that goes along with an oral therapy. Or that patient might just know that infusion room nurse so much better and they feel more comfortable [contacting them] when they have a side effect from their oral therapy. So, infusion nurses need to be aware of what the patients are on and what the potential side effects are." TS 14:14

Anderson: "The resource for OAM education that we created is literally a blueprint of many resources out there to help nurses, pharmacists, and oncology professionals educate their patients on taking OAMs. ... [The OAM Care Compass] also helps with communication channels. It helps knowing that all the documentation is occurring and when everybody is documenting within their role and according to those key touchpoints, there's less opportunity to lose track of your patients because we know what's happening." TS 16:33

Anderson: "I think the biggest misconception we see is that people think taking OAMs is easier than infusion therapies. And while it's true that OAMs do offer significant benefits such as the convenience and the ability for patients to take their medication at home, we are also placing a huge burden on our patients. They need to navigate that very complex health system to obtain their medication and understand their treatment plan and adhere to that precise regimen. Additionally, we are seeing more and more complex treatment regimens with combination therapies, which further increases the need for that early and ongoing education, monitoring, and support." TS 20:38

"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 committee, during a conversation about her involvement in cancer survivorship advocacy. Van Gerpen also spoke with ONS members Deborah Mayer, PhD, RN, AOCN®, FAAN, and Timiya S. Nolan, PhD, APRN-CNP, ANP-BC, about the history and future of cancer survivorship.

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:
• Episode 201: Which Survivorship Care Model Is Right for Your Patient?
• Episode 91: The Seasons of Survivorship
• Episode 49: The Cancer Survivorship Conundrum
• ONS Voice article: Our Unified Voices Can Improve Cancer Survivorship Care
• ONS book: Oncology Nurse Navigation: Delivering Patient-Centered Care Across the Continuum (third edition)
• ONS course: Essentials in Survivorship Care for the Advanced Practice Provider
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
• Incorporating Nurse Navigation to Improve Cancer Survivorship Care Plan Delivery
• Survivorship Care: More Than Checking a Box
• The Missing Piece of Survivorship: Cancer Prevention
• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
• Patient Perceptions of Survivorship Care Plans: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation
• Survivorship Care Plans: Health Actions Taken and Satisfaction After Use
• ONS Survivorship Learning Library
• Rehabilitation of People With Cancer: Position Statement from the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN) and endorsed by the Oncology Nursing Society
• Connie Henke Yarbro Oncology Nursing History Center
• American Cancer Society
• Survivorship resources
• Cancer Survivors Network
• Cancer Nation (formerly National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship)
• Cancer Survival Toolbox
• Imperatives for Quality Cancer Care: Access, Advocacy, Action, and Accountability (white paper)
• National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation
• New England Journal of Medicine article: Seasons of Survival: Reflections of a Physician With Cancer by Fitzhugh Mullan

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

Leigh: "Another way that [National Coalition of Cancer Survivorship] got very involved with looking at how we keep this information coming and how we really share care with our outside physicians is the development of survivorship care plans. And then we also hoped that we would see more survivorship clinics by now. But between trying to get people to develop care plans and clinics, it's been like pulling teeth. It has been very difficult. And a lot of this struggle to get this going has been, first of all, there isn't enough money to do this. There isn't enough time for immediate staff to take these on, and we just don't have enough staff as it is now. And survivorship is not a moneymaker, so it's just something that has to be done kind of on the side." TS 11:54

Mayer: "When I became ONS president in the '80s—I was the fourth ONS president—we were given a cancer grant to do something with our presidency. And that was when I really wanted to bring attention to rehabilitation as a means to address cancer survivorship issues because we had a very 'treat 'em and street 'em' attitude. We gave you your treatment, and we sent you home, and you had to figure out the rest. And there wasn't a lot of knowledge or support to help you put your life back together again afterwards. And so in that process, it was an interdisciplinary group of professionals that tried to come up with what was an appropriate position statement because ONS was just starting to do position statements. And so we developed a first position statement on cancer rehabilitation to address survivorship issues in like 1987 to '89." TS 17:15

Mayer: "When I went back to school for my PhD, I did my dissertation on health behaviors of cancer survivors and realizing the huge gap in the care that they were getting for anything other than their cancer. We were still focused on their tumor and on treating their tumor. But we were missing the picture that if the cancer didn't kill them, their heart disease would, and they would develop diabetes and other things. … But as people started living longer and longer, we were missing all these other chronic illnesses that would contribute to their quality of life and overall lifespan. So my dissertation put me on a different path, and I think the second part of my career was really focusing on instead of just relieving suffering and the quality of life issues, really looking at cancer care delivery and how we could do a better job of doing the team of teams that people needed to have their issues addressed." TS 19:34

Nolan: "I ended up having my first permanent role on a hematology-oncology unit at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. And there, I literally saw patients who were fighting for their lives. And despite the severity of their illness, they wanted more than just survival. They wanted to have meaning. They wanted to have dignity. They wanted to have impact with the time that they had left, whatever it was. And so those experiences planted a seed in me. And that seed was that cancer care must extend beyond treatment and we need to embrace, really, quality of life." TS 23:31

Leigh: "I was not the researcher. I was not the major writer. I was not the identifier of a lot of the risk factors. But I spread the seed. I took all that information from different sources and shared that with all of the audiences that I spoke to. So I was called a seed spreader, kind of the Johnny Appleseed of oncology nursing at that particular time. And then once we saw academia step in and say, 'We need to get good data about what's going on here,' … then my stories and stories from survivors started decreasing and the presentations were given more from the academic standpoint." TS 34:41

Nolan: "I really believe in community, academic, government, and industry approaches to survivorship as well. We can no longer operate in silos. We really need to learn how to walk across the aisle, build bridges as we can so that we can do this work together because we know that communities bring lived wisdom and context. And academicians bring the research and the ability to create the evidence. The government brings policy and public health infrastructure, and certainly industry brings innovation and scalability. But also in this new paradigm that we find ourselves in, the industry may also bring the dollars to be able to help us to do even more work." TS 43:45

"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®, AOCNS®, clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about chemotherapy-induced alopecia and scalp cooling.

The advertising messages in this episode are paid for by Paxman. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications.

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™ Episode 250: Cancer Symptom Management Basics: Dermatologic Complications
• ONS Voice articles:
• Diagnose and Manage Dermatologic Toxicity Secondary to Immunotherapy
• Follow the Evidence When Using Scalp Cooling for Cancer Alopecia
• Reimbursements Are Making Scalp Cooling More Accessible for Patients With Cancer
• The Case of the CIA-Combatting Combination
• ONS Voice oncology drug reference sheets:
• Docetaxel
• Doxorubicin Hydrochloride
• Sacituzumab Govitecan-Hziy
• ONS Guidelines™ for Cancer Treatment-Related Skin Toxicity
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
• Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia: Examining Patient Perceptions and Adherence to Home Haircare Recommendations
• Scalp Cooling: Implementing a Cold Cap Program at a Community Breast Health Center
• Scalp Cooling: Implementation of a Program at a Multisite Organization
• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
• Effectiveness, Safety, and Tolerance of Scalp Cooling for Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia
• The Effect of Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia on Distress and Quality of Life in Male Patients With Cancer
• ONS Altered Body Image Huddle Card
• Journal of Market Access and Health Policy article: Expanding the Availability of Scalp Cooling to All Patients at Risk of Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia
• HairToStay
• Paxman patient assistance program
• Rapunzel Project

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

"Some of the classes that are high risk for chemotherapy-induced alopecia can include antitumor antibiotics, such as doxorubicin, epirubicin; antimicrotubule drugs, such as taxanes like docetaxel, paclitaxel; alkylating agents such as cyclophosphamide. The lower risk alopecia-causing chemo agents are the antimetabolite classes, which a lot of people know as gemcitabine or fluorouracil. We also are seeing patients experience some degree of alopecia with a drug called sacituzumab govitecan, which is an actual antibody–drug conjugate." TS 2:09

"Scalp cooling is approved for solid tumor patients. Patients receiving chemotherapy agents, as we discussed before, with that high incidence of chemotherapy-induced alopecia really should be considered for scalp cooling as long as they don't have certain contraindications. Some contraindications do exist for these populations. Those are patients that have cold agglutinin diseases, cryoglobulinemia, cryofibrinogenemia, and any cold sensitivity issues. Patients also with abnormal liver functions are not suggested to receive scalp cooling because their liver function is associated with the metabolism of the drug agent. It's also not recommended for patients with hematologic malignancies who are higher risk for cutaneous metastatic disease or failed chemotherapy and even reduced survival rates." TS 9:23

"Overall, scalp cooling has a good tolerance, but it's important to be aware that scalp cooling can be uncomfortable for some, and it isn't always tolerated by some patients. Patients have reported side effects such as headaches, dizziness, chills, cold sensations, scalp pain, head discomfort, and even claustrophobia. Among these, the most common is the cold feeling and headaches. So when caring for patients that undergo scalp cooling, the nurses really should recognize the patient's feelings and help relieve that discomfort with position changes, prophylactic painkillers such as [acetaminophen] or [ibuprofen] if they're allowed to take that, additional warm blankets. Even antianxiety medications can really help, especially if that claustrophobia feeling is there. So collaborating with that team, the doctors, the nurse practitioners, just to be aware that if the patient's not comfortable during this treatment of scalp cooling, they should have those things on board prior to starting." TS 12:23

"A lot of primary education points for nurses to review with patients is explaining the financial reimbursement process and assistance options—collaborating with that financial department within your institution. Also discussing the efficacy of the scalp cooling and the tolerability of it as well. I don't know if patients are always aware of the feeling of the cold—really warning them, letting them know what they're going to experience while in the chair attached to that cooling machine." TS 18:55

"Nurses, we're at the forefront of scalp cooling, and we manage a lot of this area that comes with the service. They are managing, the coordination of the care, the education. They're assisting with that financial discussion and collaborating with the financial department. The symptom management—they're helping make the patients feel more comfortable with the symptoms of scalp cooling. They are the real deal here, so they are the best in helping with the situation. Nurses should be really familiar with the efficacy, again, and the tolerability, the contraindications, the side effects, and the costs and even the access for scalp cooling." TS 20:57

"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 University of Cincinnati, OH, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about bispecific antibodies.

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 courses.ons.org by October 3, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learner will report an increase in knowledge related to the use of bispecific antibodies in the treatment of cancer.

Episode Notes

• Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
• ONS Podcast™ episodes:
  • Pharmacology 101 series
  • Episode 275: Bispecific Monoclonal Antibodies in Hematologic Cancers and Solid Tumors
  • Episode 261: CAR T-Cell Therapy for Hematologic Malignancies Requires Education and Navigation
  • Episode 176: Oncologic Emergencies: Cytokine Release Syndrome
• ONS Voice articles:
  • An Oncology Nurse's Guide to Bispecific Antibodies
  • Bispecific Antibodies
  • Cross-Discipline Cancer Care
• ONS Voice oncology drug reference sheets:
  • Amivantamab-Vmjw
  • Blinatumomab
  • Epcoritamab-Bysp
  • Glofitamab-Gxbm
  • Mosunetuzumab-Axgb
  • Tebentafusp-Tebn
  • Teclistamab-Cqyv
• ONS book: Guide to Cancer Immunotherapy (second edition)
• ONS course: ONS/ONCC® Chemotherapy Immunotherapy Certificate™
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Optimizing Transitions of Care in Multiple Myeloma Immunotherapy: Nurse Roles
• Other ONS resources:
  • Bispecific Antibodies Video
  • Bispecifics Huddle Card
  • Cytokine Release Syndrome Huddle Card
  • Immune Effector Cell–Associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome Huddle Card
• DailyMed homepage
• Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association late-breaking news article: The Emerging Use of Bispecific Antibodies with Chemotherapy in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

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

"It was 2014 that most of us think of as the beginning of bispecifics in cancer, and that was with approval of blinatumomab. That was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with Philadelphia chromosome–negative relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It is a bispecific that targets CD19-expressing tumor cells and CD3 on T cells. It's the original bispecific T-cell engager and is often called a 'BiTE.'" TS 2:11

"The term 'bispecific' means that this is an artificial protein that's developed to hit two different antigens simultaneously. They can be two different epitopes on the same antigen. They can be an antigen on a cancer cell and CD3 on a T cell that kind of recruits the T cell to the cancer. So, there are different types [of bispecific antibodies]. The subtype that we often talk about are bispecific T-cell engagers, which are those bispecifics that do target the T cell. And currently, the target on the T cell that's utilized is the CD3 molecule. That's not the only one that will be used in the future because there's a lot of work being done on other types of T-cell engagers." TS 4:21

"The targets for lymphoma are CD20. Those are bispecific T-cell engagers that hit CD20 on the lymphoma cell, as well as CD3 on a T cell. ... In myeloma, we have two different targets that have been utilized. One is BCMA or B-cell maturation antigen. That sits on the surface of myeloma cells and on some healthy B cells. ... There's also a target used in myeloma that's called GPRC5D, which stands for G protein–coupled receptor, class C, group 5, member D. ... In small cell lung cancer, there's delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3); it's part of the NOTCH pathway. ... And then this year, we've had a couple agents come out that target HER2." TS 6:52

"[Toxicities] are very dependent on what your target is. ... The bispecific T-cell engager that's used in myeloma that targets the GPRC5D is also expressed on tissues that produce hard keratin like hair follicles and actually, within the tongue. So the toxicities that we see with that agent are something you wouldn't expect to see if you were using a myeloma agent. You see nail and skin issues. You see taste problems. So it's very specific about the target, which says to me, that every time a new one of these agents comes out, I have to learn about the target that helps me learn about the toxicity. I find that fascinating and really appreciate that." TS 16:19

"Cytokine release syndrome has been one of the areas that drug development has really focused on to see how they can help mitigate the severity [of it]. ... [One of] the strategies that has been incorporated and studied in clinical trials is the step-up dosing scheme. [It's] where you give initial small doses and over time, increase the dose to the dose you're going to continue with. Usually, monitoring in the hospital is required by the FDA approval for anywhere from 28–48 hours for the first couple of doses. And that's a real common strategy that you'll see. Premedication with H2 blockers, H1 blockers, sometimes steroids. These are also things that are incorporated within the approvals of these drugs and are important to look at." TS 20:53

"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 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about radiation treatment care for pediatric patients.

Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0

Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by September 26, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learner will report an increase in knowledge related to radiation oncology treatment care for pediatric patients.

Episode Notes

• Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
• ONS Podcast™ episodes:
  • Episode 365: Radiation-Associated Secondary Cancers
  • Episode 301: Radiation Oncology: Side Effect and Care Coordination Best Practices
  • Episode 298: Radiation Oncology: Nursing's Essential Roles
  • Episode 204: How Radiation Is Used in Palliative Care
  • Episode 50: Difficult Decisions in Childhood Cancer
• ONS Voice articles:
  • Fertility Preservation Protects Possibilities for Patients With Cancer
  • Have Meaningful Conversations With Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Patients and Their Families
  • Pediatric Cancer Survivors Require Additional Care and Monitoring
  • Prepare Survivors for the Risk of Secondary Cancers
  • Secondary Cancers in Pediatric Survivors
• ONS book: Manual for Radiation Oncology Nursing Practice and Education (Fifth Edition)
• ONS courses:
  • Essentials in Survivorship Care for the Advanced Practice Provider
  • ONS/ONCC® Radiation Therapy Certificate™
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
  • Radiation Therapy Survivorship: Healthcare Providers' Perspectives on Education and Care
  • Radiation Therapy: Understanding the Patient Experience
  • Reducing Pediatric Patient Anxiety: Implementing a Nonpharmacologic Intervention to Aid Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy
• Other ONS Resources
  • Inclusive Care Learning Library
  • Late Effects of Cancer Treatment Huddle Card
  • Proton Therapy Huddle Card
  • Radiation Huddle Card
  • Radiation Learning Library
• Oncolink Jr.
• Pediatric Radiation Oncology Society

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

"I think one of the things to think about with kids is sometimes they're not as forthcoming with what's going on, and sometimes it's a little bit harder to understand. Sometimes that's just because developmentally, they're much younger. A 1-year-old can't exactly tell you what's wrong. And so you're really trying to figure it out based on their cues versus a teenager who can tell you, but maybe they're too embarrassed about something in a way that an adult might not be." TS 7:01

"Child life specialists are incredible. ... They provide age-appropriate education and explanations for patients, so talking to a 3-year-old about cancer is very different from an 8-year-old or even a teenager. They really are able to meet each patient exactly where they are and at the level that they are, and then provide the appropriate amount of information, which is so helpful for a patient since they learn to build trust and cope with their treatment and [they feel like they] have somebody who can relay that information in a clear and concise way." TS 11:16

"There's certainly growing concern about the potential effects of anesthesia on brain health, especially in a vulnerable population like very young children, which are the ones who need anesthesia. We really try to mitigate this by optimizing our anesthetic agents, so we'll use propofol, which has a really quick onset and offset. And even when the radiation treatment is done, they'll stop the propofol in the radiation room—even though they are still walking back to recovery, just to minimize the amount of time that it's on—and trying to use the lowest dose possible. We also [explore] a lot of nonanesthetic strategies, [like] child life support, trying to introduce video distraction when we can, and having music and audiobooks." TS 17:47

"[In] pediatrics, the patient, not the parent, is your patient. And that can look really different for a 3-year-old versus a 17-year-old. Somebody who can't officially sign consent, but they certainly have a lot of buy-in about the things that reach their body, versus a 3-year-old, where the parents are really taking ownership of that. I think sometimes it's tricky in the world of pediatrics as we think about the ethics of 'Who are we training here? Is it the patients? Is it the parents?' And we continue to advocate for our patients." TS 23:32

"I think that pediatric patients still want to be normal kids. They still want to do their normal activities. ... Our pediatric patients, a lot of times, have healthier tissues. They haven't seen as much wear and tear. They haven't developed the bad habits of some adults. They don't have the same environmental exposures, they're not smoking, they probably have fewer comorbidities. ... They're a different population. ... They're just amazing. They still want to be a kid, they still want to go to school, they still want to be with their friends. It's really encouraging to see that." TS 36:03

"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 changing roles of oncology nurses. Barber spoke with ONS members Danelle Johnston, MSN, RN, HON-ONN-CG, OCN®, RuthAnn Gordon, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, OCN®, Tamika Turner, DNP, NP-C, AOCNP®, and Bertie Fields, MS, RN, about their experience in nursing roles in navigation, clinical trials, advanced practice, and the pharmaceutical industry and how these roles have evolved and may change in the future.

The advertising messages in this episode are paid for by Natera. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications.

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:
• ONS 50th anniversary series
• Episode 331: DNP and PhD Collaboration Strategies to Help Advance Oncology Care
• Episode 312: Virtual Nursing in Health Care
• Episode 304: Nursing Roles in FDA: The Drug Labeling and Package Insert Process
• Episode 302: Patient Navigation Eliminates Disparities in Cancer Care
• Episode 284: How AI Is Influencing Cancer Care and Oncology Nursing
• Episode 119: What Will the Future of Cancer Care Look Like in 2029?
• ONS Voice articles:
• Leadership Is the Foundational Competency for Oncology Nursing in 2029
• New Technology Tools Help Oncology APRNs Improve Patient Outcomes
• Oncology Nurses Drive Discovery in Cancer Clinical Research
• The Oncology Nurse's Role in Interprofessional Collaboration in Clinical Research
• What the New CMS Reimbursement for Principal Illness Navigation Means for Oncology Nurses
• ONS books:
• Manual for Clinical Trials Nursing (third edition)
• Oncology Nurse Navigation: Delivering Patient-Centered Care Across the Continuum (third edition)
• ONS competencies:
• Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist Competencies
• Oncology Clinical Research Nurse Competencies
• Oncology Nurse Generalist Competencies
• Oncology Nurse Navigator Competencies
• Oncology Nurse Practitioner Competencies
• ONS course: Professional Practice for the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
• How Do I Evolve as a Research Nurse Practitioner?
• Incorporating Nurse Navigation to Improve Cancer Survivorship Care Plan Delivery
• Oncology Nurse Practitioner Competencies: Defining Best Practices in the Oncology Setting
• ONS Learning Libraries:
• Clinical Trials
• Nurse Navigation
• Connie Henke Yarbro Oncology Nursing History Center
• American Cancer Society National Navigation Roundtable

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

Johnston: "In the early years, navigation programs varied widely. We had minimal technology, no standardized training, and often tracked our work on spreadsheets and narrative notes. The broader healthcare team didn't always understand navigation, so educating colleagues in defining our role was essential. Today, navigation is becoming a well-established specialty. It's recognized by the Commission on Cancer, supported by [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] reimbursement codes, and integrated across diverse care settings. It's backed by evidence, standardized training, and emerging technologies that improve both patient care and program sustainability. I'm proud to have witnessed and contributed to the incredible evolution, and I'm excited for what's next in advancing navigation to better support patients and families." TS 6:20

Gordon: "When I was first introduced to the [clinical trial nurse] role, there weren't published competencies in order to learn the role or any real standardization of the role. And so when you worked in clinical trials, you kind of picked up things from the providers, from the other investigators on how you should operationalize the role. We've seen that evolve. We've seen ONS develop competencies, ONS come out with the clinical trial nursing manual. And our organization has been able to use those tools to standardize the practice of the clinical trial nurse across our institution. So we take those competencies, and they are the foundation of our program. And we've been able to build our program over the last decade, mostly by the use of the tools that ONS has and the ability to share knowledge." TS 14:22

Fields: "For nurses, many of my colleagues are going on to get master's in things other than nursing. They're getting master's in public health. They're getting master's in business. I have a colleague who is in [information technology], and so we should not limit ourselves. We should expand ourselves. And the more varied degrees that we have, we are more viable candidates for positions. I was never a clinical nurse specialist, even though that was my goal, but I have done above and beyond what I ever anticipated that I would do. And there are so many more new degrees for us to make us viable in this changing environment." TS 28:30

Turner: "It is vital that the current generation of oncology nurse practitioners take the lead to mentor the next generation. The next generation needs to be educated regarding the importance of oncology nurse practitioners, filling those critical gaps in health care by caring for patients in rural areas and those areas where healthcare resources are scarce. Technology should be utilized to bring oncology care—for example, office visits, imaging, and treatments—closer to those areas where patients live further away or have difficulty accessing transportation and health care. This will provide continuity of care." TS 32:42