Outstanding Employer Award
Purpose
The Outstanding Employer Award acknowledges employers who honor and show exemplary support for their oncology nurses. Institutions that demonstrate a commitment to the ONS mission, vision, and values are strong candidates for the Outstanding Employer Award. Examples of support include helping employees to attend ONS Congress, education conferences, meetings or other CNE opportunities, actively promoting ONS publications, recognizing ONS members by supporting their annual dues, and supporting participation in ONS chapters or online communities.
Award
The award allows the institution to further support oncology nurses by granting a $750 credit that can be used for free registrations to ONS educational activities, credit for ONS publications, and/or other eligible ONS items. At its discretion, the ONS Board may award an additional honorable mention award for a qualifying employer.
Eligibility Considerations
Award consideration is based on sustained support of the oncology nurse by the employer. Large institutions with multiple facilities: when nominating your institution for this award, please note the nomination should be for your specific facility, not the entire organization. The following are examples of how institutions support their nurses:
- Employer’s support of the members to attend ONS meetings such as the Annual ONS Congress
- Employer’s support for the member to attend CNE events
- Use and promotion of ONS materials such as publications
- Employer’s support of the member’s annual ONS dues
- Employer’s support of employee involvement in ONS at the national, chapter, or ONS community level
- Recognition of ONS members in numerous ways in the facilities where they work
Note: current ONS Board members are prohibited from nominating any employer during and for two years immediately following their service. The employers of current ONS Board members are not eligible to be nominated for the Outstanding Employer Award during the board member's term.
Application Materials
Nominations may be made by individual ONS members or by a group of member nurses employed at the same facility. Nominators must use the online nomination process to upload nomination narrative statement and letters of support.
Nomination Deadline Notice
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT THE SEPTEMBER 30, 5:00pm E.T. NOMINATION DEADLINE!
ONS uses an external, vendor-supported online program for all award nomination applications. The application system is set up so that at exactly 5:00pm ET (Eastern Time), September 30, the application site will automatically shut down and be locked. Any applications that are open (not completed) at this time will be terminated and will not be accepted. It is imperative that all open applications be submitted prior to 5:00pm ET, September 30, in order to be accepted into the online system and be eligible for consideration. In order to be fair to all who may nominate individuals for consideration for an ONS award, the September 30, 5:00pm ET deadline cannot be extended without prior authorization from the ONS Board of Directors. If you have any questions regarding the ONS awards nomination process, please call the ONS Awards staff (412) 859-6320, or email: awards@ons.org.
Submit Your Nomination
TO APPLY ONLINE:
Visit the awards portal. You will be asked to create an account and confirm your account via email. Once completed, you will be given the option to “Start a New Nomination” and select the desired award from the dropdown menu.
Scoring Criteria
The scoring criteria for judging this nomination packet is as follows.
- Nominee successfully worked to secure the enactment of policies (i.e., legislation, ordinances, regulations) aligned with ONS health policy priorities and positions or worked to defeat policies that run counter to ONS health policy priorities and positions.
- Nominee helped to train and recruit nurses or other health professionals to become engaged in health policy and advocacy.
- Nominee showed health policy and advocacy leadership at the chapter, state, or national level in informing other ONS members of health policy and advocacy efforts (e.g. legislative newsletters, updates, serving as legislative chair or SHPL).
- Nominee collaborated with other organizations, entities, and individual advocates to further ONS health policy priorities and positions.