The Future of Oncology Nursing Research: Research Priorities and Professional Development

The Oncology Nursing Society's (ONS's) mission is to improve cancer care and the lives of individuals with cancer by funding oncology nursing research, scholarships, awards, and educational programs (Berger, Cochrane, & Mitchell, 2009). To that end, the ONS research agenda intends to provide investigators with strategic priorities for advancing oncology nursing knowledge and improving the quality of cancer care (Berger et al., 2009). Those priorities include health promotion, cancer symptoms and side effects, late effects and survivorship, end-of-life issues, psychosocial and family issues, nurse-sensitive patient outcomes, and translational science. The National Cancer Institute ([NCI], 2007) Translational Science Working Group defined translational science as basic research discoveries transformed into drugs, treatments, or methods for prevention, as well as scientific discoveries transformed into clinical applications to reduce disease incidence, morbidity, and mortality.