Oncology Nursing Society’s Annual Meeting (ONS)

In this interview we discuss a study that looked at the effect of an 8-week exercise intervention on treatment side effects for patients with prostate cancer.

Oncology nurses and others should pay close attention to their patients’ quality-of-life concerns, but what that means will vary from patient to patient.

Chlorhexidine wipe bathing might help reduce the risk of deadly central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) among cancer inpatients, but barriers can complicate implementation efforts.

Gum chewing might help patients avoid prolonged intestinal motility dysfunction following abdominal cancer surgery, suggested findings reported at the ONS Congress.

Improving oropharyngeal cancer survival rates necessitates better coordination of survivorship care between oncology teams and primary care providers, according to a presentation at ONS.

Nurse practitioners play a central role in helping patients with esophageal cancer understand and manage their disease and treatment complications.

Electronic medical record and telephone triage systems should be updated to reflect the unique risks of immune-related side effects faced by patients undergoing cancer immunotherapies.

In this interview we discuss pain management for cancer patients who are at high risk of opioid abuse.

Patient education can improve adherence to skin-care plans and reduce radiation dermatitis among patients undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer.

In this interview we discuss how obesity can affect cancer treatment, and how healthcare providers can better communicate with overweight patients on issues such as diet and exercise.

Patients undergoing allo-HSCT can remain immune-impaired for several years after treatment, but methods such as adopting guideline-driven tracking tools to determine which patients have been assessed for immunization eligibility can improve vaccination rates, suggest a feasibility study at ONS.

Delivering vincristine via mini-IV drip bags instead of pushing it with a syringe might avoid injection into spinal fluid, which is uniformly fatal.

Dental exams and procedures should occur before treatment begins for patients with head and neck cancer and other malignancies, and post-treatment dental follow-up care should be life-long for cancer survivors.

Advanced practice nurses and oncology nurses can benefit from having a better understanding of recently approved immunotherapies and targeted agents, both in how they work and who should be receiving them.

Blood transfusions play a key role in managing complications of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), involving unique blood product strategies.

Good cancer treatment is not just brilliant diagnostics, treatment, and follow-up care, but includes treating and caring for the whole person, which can include understanding a patient’s sexual orientation and gender identity.

While oncologic emergencies are common among cancer patients, they can often be avoided with close monitoring, early intervention, and ongoing patient education.

Precautions should be taken when handling chemotherapy and other hazardous drugs, as they can cause acute or chronic effects in nurses and healthcare providers.

In this video Lindsey Radcliff, BSN, RN, of the James Cancer Hospital in Ohio, discusses steps her institution took to improve chemotherapy scheduling in an attempt to increase the number of patients scheduled and reduce patient wait times.

In this video Pamela K. Ginex, EdD, RN, OCN, discusses a successful partnership between a clinical librarian and the nursing staff at her institution, a collaboration that benefits staff and, ultimately, patients.

In this video Alexis Covert, BSN, RN, OCN, discusses a study that aimed to raise awareness among staff nurses on the assessment of cancer-related fatigue, a prevalent and distressing cancer symptoms that affects 80% to 100% cancer patients, and interventions to help treat it.

In this video Kristen Fessele, PhD, RN, AOCN, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Utah College of Nursing, discusses a study which examined genetic factors that affected the symptom experience of patients being treated with chemotherapy.

In this interview, we discuss symptom self-management strategies reported by adolescents and young adults with cancer, including some of the most common symptoms affecting this patient population and effective self-management techniques.

Nurses need to be able to provide self-care to themselves because compassion fatigue can have negative physical, psychosocial, and spiritual effects.

As part of our coverage of ONS, we discuss dermatologic issues in oncology patients, including skin-related toxicities and assessment techniques used to identify skin-related issues.

As part of our coverage of ONS we discuss the role of oncology nurses in pain management, how pain management has become more complex in recent years, and review some of the most important things to remember when involved in a complex pain management case.

Understanding treatment-induced neurotoxicity can be difficult when treating patients with central nervous system (CNS) malignancies.

This session at ONS reviewed treatment options for CLL and the issues associated with bone marrow transplantation in eligible patients.

In this video from the 2015 ONS meeting, Dr. Sipples talks about effective management of side effects for patients taking afatinib, an oral, targeted agent for lung cancer.