SDONS Update, Looking Forward to Summer, 2014!
...A professional organization with a personal touch....
News and notes from our local ONS Chapter...2014 Congress inAnaheim offered SDONS members opportunities to help our fellow Orange County local host chapter with events and activities. But with the close venue this year, many SDONS members were able to attend sessions and bring back to their clinical colleagues up-to-date and relevant information about oncology nursing practice and care.
This e-newsletter includesseveral photos from Congress. Also take note of Congress reports filed by EvaBariuan and Ellen Carr. Our chapter is especially proud of the continued service to the ONS national membership by SDONS member Marlon Saria, who is serving as National ONS Secretary.
Membership: According to the national ONS roster list as of May, 2014, our SDONS membership is415members! As a reminder...Local chapter membership dues changed as of Summer of 2013, based onthe new policy from ONS (when ONS dues will also increaseas of July 1, 2013). Your national membership will automatically sign you up for membership with the local chapter with a $10 local dues added to your national ONS dues. Moving forward when you renew your national ONS membership, your next local dues will be due...and then paid when you pay your ONS dues.
Congratulations torecent Scholarship winners;Sheila Bedardand Joan Kitson-Hart (in February), and Cathleen Sugarman and Monsie Mitchell (in April).They each won a $400 scholarship to advance their oncology knowledge (toward an educational course, class orconference expense). Want to win? Just enter the scholarship drawing by sending an email to by the Tuesday before the meeting of the scholarship drawingwith a sentence telling us how you would use your money if you won. If you do win a scholarship, sendour Treasurerthe receipt for your educational program AND write up a summaryabout your learning experiencefor an article for our SDONS e-newsletter. Then you will be provided your scholarship check! The next scholarship drawings will be at the SDONS meetings in August and October, 2014. Winners need not need be present at the meeting to win the scholarship. (Limit: One scholarship win per year.) Addendum:Sheila Bedardalso won the $50 gas card drawing for those who could show they voted in the national ONS election!
Consider nominating a colleague for a NationalONS Award: Check out all the awards (and the deadlines to nominate):http://ons.org/Awards/ONSAwards In general, the deadline to submit forONS awards is September 30, 2014.
The2014 Vendor Faire is scheduled Thurs. Dec. 4, so mark your calendar. This annualevent--to be held this year at Tango Del Ray--welcomes SDONS members, potential new members and our supportive community of industry friends and sponsors. Our Faire gets better every year...with a special focus on the auctionfeaturing donated baskets and gifts. Proceeds from the auction go towardbuilding our SDONS scholarship funds. This is a don't miss event!
Congrats go out for passing their certification tests: Francie Mercado (for OCN® renewal) and Amy Nance-Thompson (for the BMTCN= ONS: Bone and Marrow Transplant Certified Nurse)...took the test the 1st time!
SDONS on FaceBook LinkedIn: SDONS is on FaceBook and Linked In!!! Join our page to network with other oncology nurses. See information about CEU’s, meetings, etc.
To join our page, go to: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4394235&goback=%2Eanp_4394235_1338706156800_1 Feel free to start or contribute to discussions to make the site truly interactive. (NOTE: If you would like to help us get more connected via socialmedia and new technologies, contact ourNewTechnologies CommunicationsChair, Christine Izzo.
SDONS Elections are coming up this fall! Weneedyou to identify future leaders in SDONS! The Nominating Committee is asking for your help. Pleaserecommend individual(s) you believe could represent you in a SDONS elected office. Open positions for election in 2015 are President-Elect and Secretary. These are 2-year terms. To make a recommendation, The Nominating Committee has nomination forms posted on the SDONS Virtual Community site (http://sandiego.vc.ons.org/). Complete a form and/or bring it to the next SDONS meeting. Or you can also e-mail Jane Underwood, SDONS Nominating Chair, with yourrecommendation(s) at . .
As a reminder....In addition to ouryearly support of eight $400-scholarships for non-SDONSLeadership Teammembers, wecontinue to provide a $500/each scholarship opportunity forSDONS Leadership Team members(four elected Board membersand appointed Committee Chairs). This was established asa strategy to support SDONS leadership participation.. So consider serving as an SDONS officer or committee chair. With more SDONS members involved in chapter leadership, leadership succession planning occurs! NOTE:Leadership Teammembers are not eligible for the eight $400/each scholarship drawings, which our chapter holds four times/year.
It's always worth reviewing....Our SDONS Dinner Program Policy:
The SDONS Leadership Teamhas established these guidelinesconcerning our dinner meetings:
1) On the SDONS Virtual community site (http://sandiego.vc.ons.org/) when you log in to RSVP for our monthly dinner, remember to include your RN number. (Vendors require RN license number for attendance; they need to havethem prior to the dinner.) This streamlines the sign-in process and members can find their seats sooner.
2) If you No Show two times for a dinner in one year, you will no longer be able to attend dinners for the remainder of the year. A No Show is considered not coming to a dinner the you have RSVP'd to. When you are a No Show, this prevents other members/guests from attending our events.
3) No proxies. If you cannot attend the meeting, your RSVP’d spot will be given to the next person on the waiting list to attend the meeting.
4) To make room (and welcome) potential new members, a few spots will be saved for potential new members to attend the meeting. If those spots are not filled a few days before the meeting, others who have RSVP’d (members/guests) will be contacted to allow them to attend the meeting.
5) You can be a guest to a regular SDONS dinner meeting once. Then your guest status expires; you need to join SDONS to continue to come to our dinner meetings. The exception to this one-time guest status is attending specially-promoted SDONS meetings/events, held to encourage as many guests to attend as the venue allows (i.e. December Vendor Faire).
6) If the RSVP dinner meeting list does not meet its cut-off number for max RSVPs, then students (current non-SDONS members) may fill those slots as guests of SDONS. This policy is in place to encourage students to attend meetings,who have an interest in oncology nursing and joining ONS and SDONS. If those designated non- member student spots are not filled a few days before the meeting, others who have RSVP’d (members/guests) will be contacted to allow them to attend the meeting.
And it cannot be stated often enough: PLEASE BE COURTEOUS AT OUR MEETINGS. SDONS continues to be generously supported by our sponsoring vendors, who provide educational dinner meetingsfor our members."Courtesy" means what we were taught in grade school--attentive to our speakers (read: no talking during the presentations),showingappreciation and supportto our hosts andthe restaurant staffand beingrespectful to our guests and to your fellow SDONS members attending the event.
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SDONS Leadership Team (Officers and Committee Chairs)
Your 2014 SDONS Leadership Team is here to serve our membership. We welcome your ideas and participation. SDONSLeadership Teaminclude:
President- Amy Nance-Thompson
President elect- Meloddie Neel Brooks
Treasurer- Eva Bariuan
Secretary- Kelly Bass
Program chair- Leah Marquardt
Membership chair- Sandii Weyerhaeuser
Community Outreach and Student Development chair- Paula Muehlbauer
Nominating chair- Jane Underwood
Fundraising chair - Dawn Huckabone
e-Newsletter- Ellen Carr
New Technologies Communications chair- Chrstine Izzo
Past President- Laura Spriggs
(Contact information for any of the SDONS Leadership Team membersis posted on the SDONS Virtual Community site: http://sandiego.vc.ons.org/ See belowa photo SDONS Leadership Team members, who attended theJanuary 2014 SDONS Leadership Teammeeting.)) AA
2014 SDONSLeadership Team:
Front: Ellen Carr, Sandi Weyerhaeuser, Francie Mercado, Leah Marquardt
Back: Kelly Bass, Christine Izzo, Amy-Nance Thompsom, Laura Spriggs, Jane Underwood
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ONS Chemo Course: How is it going?.
As you know, in 2014 the ONS Chemotherapy Course was established as an interactive, comprehensive, online course. When completing the course, the learner receives a continuing nursing education certificate and provider card from ONS. All in-person chemotherapy courses ceased as of December 31, 2013.
In a future issue, the SDONS e-newsletterwill include comments and tips from those of you who have gone through thenew ONS Chemo Certification Course. Please send your comments and tips to Ellen Carr at .
2014 Congress Award winner....
Congrats to Paula Muehlbauer, Mary Beth Parr and Allison Perkins for being awarded the ONS 2013 Commendation for Outstanding Achievement for Oncology Nursing Education or Patient/Family Education. The award isfor their article, Using Simulation to Assess Chemotherapy Competency, The article was published in the August 2013 Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing (CJON),Paulaprovided these responses about writing this award-winning article:
What was the origin of the topic? We do a lot of simulation here at the Veterans Administration (VA)for education and competency assessment. Since it is difficult to sign folks off on chemo in real time due to the sporadic nature of inpatient chemo, Allison Perkins, the CNS for the med surg tele inpatient unit, asked me to do a competency assessment via simulation. There were no prepared (or acceptable) simulations, so we had to write it.
Background about writing the article?…. Mary Beth Parr, the simulation coordinator at SDSU, was part of the VA Nursing Academic partnership we have with SDSU so she is the sim expert. We co-presented this simulation at Congress in 2011. Then I had many people ask me for a copy of the simulation....
Writing the article took several months. Advice to future writers, who want to publish: Set a timeline with deadlines and accountability expectations. When I worked at NIH, there were many layers of reviewers a manuscript needed to pass through before it was allowed to be submitted.That experiencemade me a better writer, so I do try to have someone else review drafts beforehand. Also, don't get your feelings hurt by feedback.
What was your reaction when you heardyour articlereceived an award? I was astounded...in a good way, actually. I had no idea the article had been submitted for this award so it really was nice when I got the notification. It provided validation that what we did contributed to the body of knowledge, too.
SDONS and CNSA HostsEvent
Focusing on Interactive Medicine
In March Paula Muehlbauer and her team at SDSU presented an evening discussing Integrative Medicine and Cancer The guest speaker for the evening was David Leopold, MD, from Scripps. This was the 3rd year that SDONS has supported this outreach event to students interested in oncology patient care.
SDONS and California Nursing Students Association (CNSA) coordinated the evening, In addition, members of SDONS--among them Jennifer Byrne, Laura Spriggs, Michelle Russell, Amy Nance-Thompson--also spoke about oncology nursing a profession and offered their personal insights about caring for patients and families.SDONSalso supported the evening by providing dinner(Rubio's) for approximately 100nursingand social work students and faculty attendees.
The photo above is Emma Lopata, a member of the coordinating team, and guest speaker Michelle Reyes, a breast cancer survivor.
Paula (center) and her SDSU coordinating team for this year's outreach event: Integrative Medicine and Cancer.
Kelly Bass...How I used my SDONS scholarship...
In Jan 2014 I signed up to take the OCN exam on March 31st. I allowed myself a few months to study, but that didn’t happen. I had to renew my Chemo/Biotherapy card by taking the online course in March. Also, I was asked by my work to do some training in the hospital for the month of March. Needless to say, I didn’t have much time to study for the OCN exam. I focused on the practice exams offered by the ONCC.On March 31st I went to the testing center with some apprehension. I took the test, and at the end of the test your score is given. To my relief, I passed!
For anyone preparing to take the exam, I would recommend taking the practice exam offered by the OCCN, as well as purchasing the online practice exams. A large portion of the exam had symptom management as well as psycho-social issues.
At the end of the exam, you are given a print out of the categories and your scores. This allows you to see the areas you scored well on, as well as the areas for improvement.
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Special Congratulations go out to Kelly, who has been awarded the 2014 Sandy Purl Mentorship Scholarship established by the Chicago Chapter of ONS. This $1000 awardsupports Kelly's expenses to attend the ONS Chapter Leadership Workshop Weekend, July 25-27, 2014, in Pittsburgh, PA.
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Need Oncology classes, courses, CEUs?
For oncology nursing classes and courses, check the ONS Connect publication: http://www.onsconnect.orgorthe ONS website: www.ons.org
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Our Gallery below of photos from recent SDONS meetings and events...
From May meeting, Dan MacManus, Anita Meyer and Michelle Russell.
At April meeting, Elissa Moore, Kelsey Kruthaup, Emma Lopata and Nadia Youssef
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