ONCOLOGY NURSE CERTIFICATION RENEWAL CE

About the Course

Cancer affects everyone – the recipient of the diagnosis, the caregivers, and the concerned and frightened friends and loved ones. However, patients remain the focus of nursing care. This comprehensive course covers many complexities of state-of-the-art cancer care. Cancer has in some ways become a chronic illness, with many phases, signposts, and trajectories. Survivorship care is an integral part of cancer care. It begins at diagnosis and continues through long-term follow-up care, with a focus on disease surveillance and quality-of-life issues. Precision medicine is a growing field of cancer therapy that aims to deliver individualized treatments tailored against specific molecular or genetic alterations that promote the development of cancer. The information provided in this course has been mapped to the Oncology Nurses Certification examination and is appropriate for nurses caring for patients with cancer in any setting. The purpose of the course is to empower nurses to optimize patient outcomes by incorporating into their practice a solid foundation in their approach to care of patients with cancer. Further specialization in the many aspects of oncology nursing care can follow this overview.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, the learner should be able to:

• Describe cancer trends in the United States and worldwide.
• Describe risk factors for cancer development and prevention and screening methods.
• Analyze methods used to diagnose the presence of malignancy, including imaging and biopsies, and to stage tumors based on the extent of disease in the body.
• Review cancer treatment modalities, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy including the safe handling of drugs, vascular access, and selected targeted and immunologic therapies.
• Evaluate complementary, alternative, and integrative therapies and their role in the support of cancer patients.
• Describe ethical considerations important to conducting clinical research with human subjects, the phases of clinical trial studies, and the role of the nurse.
• Recognize the most common side effects associated with cancer treatment, signs and symptoms of oncologic emergencies, and appropriate clinical interventions.
• Describe epidemiologic trends, risk factors, symptoms, detection, and treatment methods and nursing care of solid tumors involving, the lungs, colorectal cancer, breast and prostate, ovarian and endometrial cancers, the kidney and/or bladder, the central nervous system and pancreas, and the skin.
• Describe epidemiologic trends relating to lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and leukemia; diagnosis and treatment methods; and nursing care for each of these hematologic malignancies.
• Identify psychosocial, financial, and structural stressors and coping and support strategies for patients and their families including older patients, multicultural populations, and those of other sexual orientations.
• Discuss the important aspects of survivorship care, palliative care, the hospice model, pain management, and quality-of-life and end-of-life issues.
• Identify select professional issues, including the importance of promoting quality care, patient safety, and performance improvement strategies and the use of technology and innovations.

Authors

Amanda Brink, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, AOCNP
Anna Liza Rodriguez, MHA, MSN, RN, OCN
Ashley Martinez, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, AOCNP, CBCN, CPHQ, NEA-BC?
Catherine Glennon, RN, MHS, NE-BC, OCN
Chris Rimkus, MSN, APRN, AOCN
Diane G. Cope, PhD, ARNP, BC, AOCNP
Gabriele Urschel, DNP, FNP-C, AOCNP
Joanne Dalusung, MSN, APRN, AGACNP-BC, CCRN, VA-BC
Lori Parke, MSN, DNP, FNP
Marcelle Kaplan, MS, RN, AOCN-Emeritus, CBCN Emeritus
Megan Leary, MS, RN, AGCNS, OCN
Suzanne M. Mahon, RN, DNSc, AOCN, AGN-BC
Terry Argent, MSN, RN, OCN