Radiation SIG Application

Remember, as an ONS national member, you are entitled to one free SIG membership. To join an additional SIG, please complete and return the following application:

SIG Membership Application

The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) is a national organization of more than 33,000 registered nurses and other healthcare professionals dedicated to excellence in patient care, teaching, research and education in the field of oncology. A prime goal of ONS is to provide a network of peer support and exchange for oncology nurses. To do so, ONS introduced a formal structure of Special Interest Groups (SIG) to facilitate networking of ONS members in an identified subspecialty or interest area. The Radiation SIG was established in 1989, and presently has more than 390 members.

Radiation SIG Mission Statement

The mission of the Radiation SIG is to promote excellence in oncology nursing by improving the quality of nursing care delivered to patients receiving radiation treatment through research, education and exchange of information.

Goals

• Develop stratigies to help implement Scope of Practice within radiation oncology nursing and establish standards of care.
• Develop and implement strategies to enhance education and practice of radiation oncology nursing. Promote access and utilization of educational tools (e.g. RONEE)
• Apply evidence-based principles to promote research in radiation oncology nursing.
• Develop and implement strategies to promote and support quality assessment and improvement within radiation oncology nursing.
• Develop products to improve networking opportunities and communications within the Radiaiton SIG.
• Continue to educate our non-nursing oncology colleques about the care of radiation therapy patients.
• Encourage leaders in radiation and nominate for ONS and other national awards, committee membership, and elected offices.
• Identify trends: OCN/AOCN certification, RT trainers, RT related activities on ONS Webpage, and membershp to other elected offices.
• Increase recruitment to the SIG and promote retention of members.
• Increase visibility of RT at local and national conferences both within and outside of ONS.
• Network with other professional organizations for the mutual goal of delivering quality oncology care (ASTRO, SROA, Women Against Lung Cancer, ALCASE. etc.) .

Activities

The summary of the 2007 SIG annual report is as follows: 

The work of the Radiation SIG also parallels that of ONS.  The members that are active in SIG have continued to demonstrate evidence throughout the 2007 years.  The RONEE continues to be a vauled resource for oncology nurses as well as our newsletter "The Boost".  Each edition of our newsletter provides its members with current, evidenced-based information that is meaningful to the nurse who is actively caring for the radiaiton patient.

The Radiation SIG leadership has listened to the members request for more interaction/networking opportunities during the SIG meeting.  The 2007 SIG meeting at Congress focused on 1) Sharing with the SIG the information from National as well as offering opportunites for roundtable networking.  BAsed on the fedback from 2006 SIG meeting summary; membership quary identified the area's that were of concern to network. 

 The SIG meeting at congress enabled the leadership to communicate the curent state of the SIG long term plan.  One of the concerns that the SIG members had voiced in 2006, was trying to assure that topics that were of interest to radiation nurses were offered at Congress.  Donna/Katen worked had and diligent to obtain topics of interes but also to mentor nurses in how to participate in the Congess presentations.  Donna and myself, each assisted ONS members in the process of topic submissions.  Although their specfic topics were not chosen by the selection committee; neverless the leadership team tried to facilitate it's members in participation. For the 2008 Congress, the leadsership team will need to review the SIG survey that was completed in the Fall of 2007.

The leadership team facilitated the following roundtable discussions at the 2007 Congress SIG meeting: Policies, Procedures, Standards of Care, New Technology, Orientation Planning, Competency skills, Staffing Plans/Skill Mix/Salaries, Evidenced Based Symptom Management, Ethyol Administration/patient management, Topic Submission Participation for Congress and IOL, Communication-WebSite-Newsletter, Quality Assurance / Morbidity and Mortality in RT, Nursing Documentation and Assessment, Mentoring in RT (Staff and APN level).  Of note, during each roundtable there was a  facilitator.  The role of this person was to not only take in information, but to seek out those members that might be possibly wish to be apart of the leadsership team.  Although, we did not gain any new leaders to the SIG; it help to have the current leadership team team engaged with its members.

The Radiation SIG has been blessed to have two talented co-editors of "The Boost".  Mary Ellyn and Maurene and surpurb editiors.  They have been able to provide the SIG with a high level newsletter.  They have now created such a good resource, they actually have a waiting list of people wishing to submit articles.  This is a true mark of a good leader.

Benefits/Communication

The SIG meets once each year during the ONS Annual Congress. Radiation SIG leaders communicate regularly with SIG members through written communiques and through a newsletter, The Boost. The Boost features a message from SIG leaders, relevant clinical practice articles, practice tips, RT personals, legislative updates, and reports on SIG work group activities.

Membership Requirements

All SIG members must be members in good standing of the national Oncology Nursing Society. ONS members receive one free SIG membership. Additional SIG memberships are $15 each.