Connecting oncology nurses to resources and education with topics that support direct care nurses in their day-to-day practice, ONS will host its premier virtual oncology nursing conference, ONS Bridge™, on September 10 and 12, 2024, with a bonus day on September 11, 2024. Attendees can experience expert education from their homes or workplaces through daily live sessions, a virtual exhibit hall, networking opportunities, and access to industry representatives. In addition, recorded sessions will be available until October 22, 2024.
The Biden administration asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by anti-smoking groups demanding that it end nearly a year of delay and ban menthol cigarettes, which are used disproportionately by Blacks and younger people. In a Thursday night court filing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the delay was not unreasonable because it had yet to determine that a ban was “appropriate for the protection of the public health.”
In nursing school, we learned that the maximum volume for a single subcutaneous (SC) injection is 1.5–2 ml. However, today’s unique antineoplastic formulations may require volumes up to 15 ml (e.g., daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj), forcing nurses to rethink administration practices. Currently, evidence on large-volume SC administration procedures is sparse, making it difficult to determine best practice.
An integrated screening and stepped collaborative care strategy produced a greater improvement in patients’ quality of life (QOL) and management of depression, pain, and fatigue during the first six months of cancer treatment, researcher reported in study findings published in The Lancet. Patients maintained the benefits at 12 months, as well.
A template-based standardized ambulatory oncology nurse orientation process substantially reduced turnover rates at a large academic comprehensive cancer center, ONS member Christina M. Matousek, MSN, RN, OCN®, reported in an article in the June 2024 issue of the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing. Additionally, the standardized training ensured new nurses built consistent, disease-specific experience across 17 different interprofessional disease teams.
When applied to machine learning models and other artificial intelligence (AI), the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm more equitably and uniformly distributes a dataset’s racial and ethnic biomedical information, researchers reported in study findings published in the Journal of Healthcare Informatics Research. They demonstrated that the algorithm created parity in a group of patients spanning a broad range of population backgrounds.
To tackle the unauthorized and illegal sale and distribution of e-cigarettes and vaping products that “continue to jeopardize the health of Americans—particularly children and adolescents—across the United States,” according to Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, in June 2024 the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the creation and launch of a new task force that brings together multiple law enforcement agencies.
Storytelling, which has benefits for nurses’ own well-being as well as their relationship with their patients, creates a social connection that fosters a sense of community and mutual support in the storyteller and listener. Inspired by ONS’s annual storytelling session at ONS Congress®, the Midwest Region Oncology Nursing Grand Rounds at Advocate Health hosted a special oncology grand rounds on nurse storytelling.
Study participants with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma who received pembrolizumab after surgery had nearly 40% increased overall survival during the first four years after treatment, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The rapid advancements in oncology treatments—with new approvals in therapies like small molecules, biologics, biosimilars, and cellular therapies coming nearly every month—can be challenging for any nurse to keep up with, let alone truly understand the nuances of those approvals. As new discoveries unfold, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the lengthy and multifaceted journey a drug or biologic takes from the laboratory to the patient.