The ONS Podcast

By: Oncology Nursing Society
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  • Summary

  • Where ONS Voices Talk Cancer Join oncology nurses on the Oncology Nursing Society's award-winning podcast as they sit down to discuss the topics important to nursing practice and treating patients with cancer. ISSN 2998-2308
    Copyright 2025
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Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease
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Episodes
  • Episode 349: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Safe Handling and ONS’s Legacy in Developing Safe Handling Guidelines

    Episode 349: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Safe Handling and ONS’s Legacy in Developing Safe Handling Guidelines
    Feb 7 2025
    “What I find most rewarding is connecting with nurses, who now understand the risks of exposure and are committed to minimizing their personal exposure. When I first started speaking about safe handling, there were a lot of nurses who were skeptical about the need for self-protection. I rarely see that now. Nurses are concerned for their own safety and more open to protective behaviors,” ONS member Martha Polovich, PhD, RN, AOCN®-Emeritus, adjunct professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland, told Liz Rodriguez, DNP, RN, OCN®, CENP, ONS member and 50th anniversary committee member, during a conversation about the evolution of safe handling of hazardous drugs and ONS’s role in shaping safe handling policies. 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 February 7, 2027. 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 evolution of safe handling guidelines. Episode Notes Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. ONS Podcast™ episodes: Episode 330: Stay Up to Date on Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs Episode 308: Hazardous Drugs and Hazardous Waste: Personal, Patient, and Environmental Safety ONS 50th Anniversary series ONS Voice articles: Hazardous Drug Surface Contamination Prevails, Despite More Diligent PPE NIOSH Releases Its 2024 List of Hazardous Drugs USP <800> Answers Some Difficult Questions About Hazardous Drug Safety ONS books: Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice (second edition) Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs (fourth edition) ONS courses: ONS Fundamentals of Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Administration™ ONS/ONCC Chemotherapy Immunotherapy Certificate™Safe Handling Basics Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles: Hazardous Drug Contamination: Presence of Bathroom Contamination in an Ambulatory Cancer CenterOral Chemotherapy: An Evidence-Based Practice Change for Safe Handling of Patient Waste Huddle Card: Introduction to Safe Handling ONS Safe Handling Learning LibraryJoint ONS and Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) position statement: Ensuring Healthcare Worker Safety When Handling Hazardous DrugsNational Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: Managing Hazardous Drug Exposures: Information for Healthcare Settings American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Guidelines on Handling Hazardous Drugs USP <800> FAQs Connie Henke Yarbro Oncology Nursing History Center 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 pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “PPE has always been recommended to reduce exposure because gloves and gowns provide physical barrier to protect against dermal absorption. But what we didn’t know back then was what gloves and gowns were made of mattered. So PVC gloves were often used just because they were readily available in all our clinical settings. Gowns were rarely worn for drug administration, even though they had been recommended since early on, and many considered gowns back then as optional because the wording in the [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] guidelines said ‘recommended’ and not ‘required.’” TS 3:19 “Those early chemo gloves were a bit like wearing gloves you might use to clean your oven. They were so thick and got in the way of taking care of patients or mixing drugs or administering drugs. So the biggest change, I think, is that gloves that are currently available are very thin, and they provide the necessary protection for those who are handling hazardous drugs. We now have a gloves standard that requires permeation studies to demonstrate the protective ability of the gloves before they can be labeled for use with hazardous drugs.” TS 11:56 “ONS and HOPA developed a position statement on safe handling of hazardous drugs. … This came because our two organizations were unable to support some of the other proposed guidelines from another organization. So we got together, and through our cooperation, resulted in language about the importance of safe handling, about supporting safe handling for practitioners, pharmacists, and nurses. Also, I feel really good about this—our cooperation resulted in language about protecting the ...
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    28 mins
  • Episode 348: Breast Cancer Diagnostic Considerations for Nurses

    Episode 348: Breast Cancer Diagnostic Considerations for Nurses
    Jan 31 2025
    “We know that some women are going to get called back. And it’s just because usually they can’t see something clearly enough. And so in most cases, those women are going to get cleared with one or two images, and they’re going to say, ‘Oh, we compressed that better, we checked it with an ultrasound, we’re fine.’ That woman can go ahead and go. But we don’t want to miss those early breast cancers,” Suzanne Mahon, DNS, RN, AOCN®, AGN-BC, FAAN, professor emeritus at Saint Louis University in Missouri, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about what oncology nurses need to know about breast cancer diagnosis. 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 January 31, 2027. 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 breast cancer diagnostic considerations. Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. Previous ONS Podcast™ site-specific episodes: Episode 345: Breast Cancer Screening, Detection, and Disparities ONS Voice articles: An Oncology Nurse’s Guide to Cascade Testing Breast Cancer Prevention, Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, Side Effect, and Survivorship Considerations ONS books: Breast Care Certification Review (second edition) Guide to Breast Care for Oncology Nurses ONS courses: Breast Cancer Bundle Breast Cancer: Prevention, Detection, and Pathophysiology ONS Biomarker Database results for breast cancer ONS Learning Libraries: Breast Cancer Genomics and Precision Oncology   American Cancer Society: Early Detection and Diagnosis Breast Cancer Facts and Figures  Your Breast Pathology Report: Breast Cancer National Comprehensive Cancer Network   National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer—Patient Version 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 pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “When a woman gets a callback, that is incredibly anxiety provoking, because they’re very scared and they don’t know what it means. And I think that’s a place where oncology nurses can remind—if it’s patients or friends who are asking—that just because you have a call back, doesn’t mean you have a malignancy.” TS 8:16 “We also know that when we call somebody back, that’s very scary and anxiety provoking. And we don’t want to subject women to unnecessary anxiety and stress through the procedure. And if it’s too stressful, they won’t come back again. That is actually a big harm that we don’t want to occur. That’s considered an acceptable amount. So we know that some women are going to get called back, and it’s just because usually they can’t see something clearly enough.” TS 11:26 “I think one of the most important things is to really help that woman understand the biopsy report. So now everybody, with most of the electronic medical records, that woman seeing that biopsy result—maybe before her provider is seeing it, depending on whether they get a chance to call that individual. But, you know, they could get a notification in their medical record, or a new report is available, and they can click on there and they could be looking at something that is very scary, not necessarily a good time, you know, like they’re getting ready to do something. And so that is a problem overall with sometimes getting bad news in oncology.” TS 15:09 “Sometimes it’s really good [for patients to bring] someone who can just be that set of ears or who can answer those questions, who’s emotionally involved but maybe not so emotionally involved, if that makes sense. And I think that that is something we can really encourage people to identify that person who’s going to really be able to support them.” TS 16:42 “When we approach a pathology report, the patient, you know, if they open that on their own, they’re just going to see breast carcinoma, or they aren’t going to look at all of the details of it. They can be quite overwhelming to look at. But I think that it’s important to kind of take the patient through it, step by step, and realize that it’s often a case of repeated measures—that you might do it ...
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    39 mins
  • Episode 347: Care Considerations for Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics in Patients With Cancer

    Episode 347: Care Considerations for Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics in Patients With Cancer
    Jan 24 2025
    "If you take your normal radiation oncology experience, as we know in radiation oncology, radiations are done by the machines, you know, externally. Nurses deal with the side effects and everything like that, whereas radiopharmaceuticals are given kind of on the internal basis, they’re systemic,” ONS member John Hollman, BSN, RN, OCN®, radiation nurse educator for Texas Oncology, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about caring for patients receiving radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics. 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 January 24, 2027. 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 radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics in cancer care. Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.ONS Podcast™ episodes: Episode 339: A Lesson on Labs: How to Monitor and Educate Patients With Cancer Episode 301: Radiation Oncology: Side Effect and Care Coordination Best Practices Episode 298: Radiation Oncology: Nursing’s Essential Roles Episode 12: The Intersection of Radiation and Medical Oncology Nursing ONS Voice articles: Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics Offer New Options for Oncology Nurses to Transform Cancer Care Radiopharmaceuticals Pack a One-Two Punch Against Cancer Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Radium 223 Dichloride Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Lutetium Lu 177 Dotatate Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Lutetium Lu 177 Vipivotide Tetraxetan ONS book: Manual for Radiation Oncology Nursing Practice and Education (fifth edition)ONS courses: Essentials in Advanced Practice Cancer Treatments ONS/ONCC Radiation Therapy Certificate™ Step Outside Your Specialty: Broaden Your Learning Horizon Across ONS Congress™ Session Tracks Share your experience with ONS Voice. 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 pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode "I think most places are now doing the seven days, just to be extra cautious and you know, can't you be around any pregnant women or children, you can’t just be going to Target and stuff like that right after your injection because you are radioactive, and try not to share a bathroom with your family, that can be difficult and that leads into, as we’ve talked about in many talks that we’ve had, the social situation.” TS 8:08 “It’s really up to that nurse to recognize, like a good infusion nurse, to recognize the signs and symptoms of an infusion reaction and then to catch it at the earliest possible moment.” TS 11:42 We’re not really dependent on lab values between treatments, whereas the infusion you have to look at your lab values. These are the game changer.” TS 13:20 “You just hear the term radiation, and you just think of Chernobyl, or you think of like these worst-case, media-blown things and you think, how are you not being dosed with radiation every day? Because they don’t realize that you have this whole radiation safety team that’s required to be overseeing that you’re doing things safely and effectively, that these nurses that are administering these therapies or these therapists that are helping with the therapy are the safest as possible.” TS 18:37 “If it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t be doing it. You know what I mean? So, there is that implicit bias that I think I can foresee a lot of people trying hard to get over. And if you do have questions, anyone who’s listening, and you’re scared that your center is going to roll this out, please talk to your physicians, please talk to your radiation oncologists, please talk to your radiation safety officers. They can definitely assure and put your fears at rest, hopefully. I 100% trust the radiation safety officers.” TS 19:45 “That’s why the nurses really need to be educated by those radiation safety teams so they can pass those questions, or they can answer those questions, alleviate those fears on consultation—or actually during the week when we’re calling in for questions.” TS 21:07 “I think getting both teams involved, if you’re going to really do this partnership, I find it really rare that it’s ever solely in rad onc. It’s always...
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    28 mins

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