Supplying the Tools ~ Cultivating the Spirit

“Just as the world is in a constant state of change, so is the profession of oncology nursing, and so, quite intentionally, is the Oncology Nursing Society. We wouldn’t exist if we didn’t listen to our members and strive to constantly meet their needs.”
— Judy E. Lundgren, RN, MSN, AOCN^®, president, Oncology Nursing Society

The Oncology Nurse’s Support System
The oncology nursing profession is experiencing a time of great challenge and opportunity. Exciting new research findings, novel therapies, and improved prognoses intermingle with economic, legal, and ethical issues. Reimbursement and Medicare create paperwork nightmares. Technology provides our patients with better access to information, as well as misinformation. Nursing burnout and an aging workforce have contributed to the current nursing shortage, threatening patient care and the entire profession. The reality of bioterrorism changes the rules of our work.

Among this turmoil are the dedicated men and women working to provide care to patients experiencing an also widely changing, sometimes curable, often chronic, and always lifechanging disease. While these oncology nurses care for the more than 1.3 million people newly diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States alone and more than 18 million people who’ve been diagnosed over the last 14 years, who cares for these nurses? Where do they turn for support, comfort, and guidance? Where do they find the tools they need to get their jobs done?

For more than 29 years, the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) has cultivated nurses new to oncology and provided tools for oncology nursing novices and veterans alike. ONS has been the single most complete source for information, education, and support for almost 30,000 oncology nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Within these pages, you will read about the many programs, products, and services that ONS and its affiliated corporations make possible to support and cultivate the profession of oncology nursing.