Southern Maine Oncology Nurses
Society sSoSocietySociety
http://smaine.vc.ons.org/
Spring Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue
1
President’s Message
Happy Spring Everyone!
The
warm weather, longer days and sunshine have arrived at last!
The
Board of the Southern Maine Oncology Nursing Society urges you to go
the national website: www.ons.org, on the left side menu, please follow the link
to the Legislative Action Center and then choose the link for support
of H.R. 1927 – Assuring and Improving Cancer Treatment Education
and Cancer Symptom Management Act of 2009.
You will have the option of contacting your representative by email
and/or downloading a postcard that you can print and send. This important
bill has gone to committee and will be discussed in upcoming work sessions
of Congress.
Briefly,
this act will amend Medicare to provide coverage through the physician
fee schedule for a one-hour cancer patient treatment education session
between a patient, his/her caregiver, and a registered nurse, provided,
ideally, prior to the initiation of treatment. It will also expand federal
research on cancer symptom management and its improvement, as well as
provide for an Institute of Medicine report on cancer symptom management
and nursing interventions.
You can read the full text on the ONS.org
website. Please take just a few minutes and join us in support
of this bill, and encourage your family and friends to do the same.
Our
dinner meetings/presentations will continue on the 3-week cycle of Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday
through the summer. I look forward to see you all there, as well
as in our collaborative work settings.
Gael Jackson, RN, OCN
President, SMONS
Nurse Manager
Maine Surgical Care Group
Portland, Maine
207-799-5345/207-774-6368
Inside This Issue
President’s Message1
Upcoming Programs1
Getting to Know Us2
Community Bulletin Board3
News from SMONS4
Beyond SMONS5
Upcoming
Educational Dinner Meetings:
Wednesday,
June 3, 2009-
Helping to Achieve Optimal Outcomes
in the Ongoing Battle Against Cancer-
Joe’s Boathouse, South Portland
– 5:30
Thursday,
June 25, 2009-
Ovarian Cancer
For all programs,
Contact Susan Bowden for more information (885-8553)
Get to know Us
MMC OPIVTR
(Maine Medical Center’s Outpatient IV Therapy Room). We are
the infusion room for Maine Medical Center. We are located in
Scarborough, Maine on the Maine Medical Center- Cancer Campus.
We provide infusional services for patients throughout the community.
Therapies include anti-cancer treatment, antibiotic therapy, non-cancer
infusions, and blood transfusions. The room is staffed by a wonderful
team of nurses, CNAs, secretaries, and on-site pharmacists. Some
team members pictured here include (L to R): Mary Jane Wagner,
RN, Patty Stasinowsky, RN, Chantal Bedard, RN, Michelle Powell, RN,
Julie Thurston, secretary, Nick Haar, RPh, Nancy Palumbo, secretary,
and Meghan Legendre, CNA.
OPIVTR is a ‘sister-unit’
to the inpatient oncology unit at Maine Medical Center, the Gibson Pavilion.
Many of the staff on the Gibson Pavilion rotate out to OPIVTR to be
able to deliver comprehensive oncology care in the outpatient setting
as well as on the inpatient unit. This provides for added continuity
for the patient’s care experience. Many of the oncology patients
cared for in OPIVTR are from Maine Women’s Surgical and Cancer Center
(MWSCC) as well as patients of Dr. Boyd. The staff in OPIVTR recognize
the value of team work in delivering patient and family centered care.
They work closely amongst themselves to deliver quality patient care,
but they also partner with their colleagues on the Scarborough campus.
Dr. Ryan is the Medical Director of the room, and emergency physician
services are provided by Maine Center for Cancer Medicine, located adjacent
to the room. They work closely with the staff from MWSCC, located
right next door as well. They also work closely with the MMC pharmacy,
located on-site to provide therapies to their patients, in addition
to patient and family education. They also benefit from the outpatient
services that MMC Oncology offers, such as: Social Work, Nutrition,
and Patient Navigators.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity
to share information about OPIVTR with the ONS Chapter. We appreciate
the networking and education opportunities the Chapter has to offer.
If you would like to have your
care site highlighted in the next SMONS newsletter, please contact Emma
Dann (883-4551 or edann@maine.rr.com).
Community Bulletin Board
Congratulations to the
following SMONS members for passing national ONCC Certification Exams
recently.
Sue Beaudry (MCCM Brunswick), Anna Wood (MCCM Brunswick), and Caroline Ahonen (MMC Gibson Pavilion)
have all passed their OCN Certification…. CONGRATULATIONS!!
Dawn Whitten (MCCM Scarborough)for passing
her Certified Breast Care Nurse Examination(CBCN)…. CONGRATULATIONS!! Dawn is one of three Maine
certified Breast Care Nurses. The other two nurses live in Holden, ME
and work in the Bangor Area. This certification is new this year, so
she has the distinction of being the only practicing RN in Southern
Maine with this specialtycertification.
Congratulations to all
of these nurses on this honor and thank you for your hard work!
I am sure there are others
as well, but I won’t be able to share the great news, unless you share
it with me… so please pass it along, and I’ll gladly post it in
the next newsletter. I know there are a lot of people preparing
to test this summer/fall… so GOOD LUCK! Certification is a wonderful
way to acknowledge what you know and means a lot in delivering quality
patient care.
SMONS
Members pass Certification Exams!
The
CLIMB FOR CANCER CARE to benefit the Gibson Pavilion is rapidly approaching (they leave for Mt. Rainier
on June 27th!!), there are a few more opportunities left to help these
amazing climbers raise money for our patients!
Tuesday,
June 2nd, 4pm-8pm at O'Naturals
10%
of all sales at the Falmouthlocation will go to CfCC
Thursday,
June 11th, ALL DAY
at
Run of the Mill Tavern in Saco (100 Main St)
10%
of all sales will go to CfCC!
Also, Jeanette Pretorius
(Gibson Pavilion – 662-4259) will soon have samples of
T-Shirts and Hats that are for sale. She will be taking orders,
so let me know color and size!
Finally,
anyone can donate anytime to this incredible cause by
visiting the official web site http://climbforcancercare.com/1.html
News from SMONS:
Congratulations to 2 SMONS members
that have been able to take advantage of SMONS Membership benefits.
We wanted to make sure to share these with you, so that you know that
as a member, these are available to you as well!
CRISTINA KIMBALL
(MMC Gibson Pavilion) was the recipient of a free National ONS Membership.
We raffle these off when the chapter has recruited enough new members
to qualify for a free one from ONS National.
CHERYL TIBBETTS
(MMC Radiation Therapy) was the recipient for a scholarship to attend
ONS Congress in San Antonio in May. Stay tuned for more news from
Cheryl as she shares with us how she benefited from this scholarship
by attending Congress. (It is an expectation that if you receive a scholarship,
that you give back to the membership in some way, as approved by the
SMONS Board.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
It’s that time
of year, again!
We are looking
for nominations for the next SMONS Treasurer. In addition
to being involved in your local professional organization, I assure
you this is a great volunteer opportunity. You are able to contribute
to excellent patient care delivery, network amongst wonderful colleagues,
and you also get 5 ONC-PRO points for each year you volunteer.
Also, there are other perks to being a SMONS Board Member (in the past,
we have given money to send a Board Member to a National ONS Meeting,
for example)
If you are interested
in volunteering, or would like to nominate someone, please contact Janice
Martin. If you have any questions about what it means to volunteer,
please see any Board Member.
SAVE
THE DATE
SMONS will be partnering with
the Maine Gastrology Nurses Association to present a conference (topic:
Pancreas).
The date is Saturday, November
7 from 8-3.
More details to follow.
Beyond SMONS/Updates from National
ONS
Honor Someone Special
– Tell Your Patients!
Help your patients celebrate the accomplishments of oncology RNs who’ve
made a difference in their lives through the ONS
Honor Someone Special program,
a simple yet meaningful way to thank a cancer nurse who promotes
excellence in oncology nursing and quality cancer care.
Please share the
details of this great new program with your patients, their families…
well, everyone you know! Nurses can be honored online at www.ons.org/honorsomeonespecial
New ONS
Publications Available (see www.ons.org)
Now Available!
Get
all your PEP resources collected in one volume!
The new Putting Evidence Into Practice:
Improving Oncology Patient Outcomes
collects allof the updated resources and
assessment and measurement tools and provides you with ideas for patient
care and organizational use and case studies to illustrate application
of the tools.
Order
now through
May 30 and save!
New Titles
From ONS!
Advanced Oncology
Nursing Certification Review and Resource Manual
Advancing Oncology
Nursing Science
Chemotherapy and
Biotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice(Third Edition)
Site-Specific Cancer Series: Prostate Cancer
Site-Specific Cancer Series: Skin
Cancer
New From Hygeia Media!
Coping With Cancer:
A Patient Pocket Book of Thoughts, Advice, and Inspiration for the Ill
Woman Cancer Sex
Enhanced
Reimbursement Course for Nurses and Managers
Now enhanced with two new detailed modules
of critical and cutting edge information, a wealth
of new practice scenarios and a detailed toolkit, Reimbursement
for Nurses and Managers: The Keys to Successful
Practiceguides both staff nurses and their
managers through the complex reimbursement system! This course
replaces and
enhances the former ‘Reimbursement for Nurses: The Keys to Successful
Coding’. This is a self-paced webcourse and is appropriate
for new managers, clinical coordinators, office managers, practice administrators,
staff nurses, and anyone who needs to fully understand this process.
This enhanced course begins June 2, so don’t miss out—register now!
Beyond NVONS
Do you have News to Share??
We are always looking for things to
include, so please let us know!
IDEAS to tell us about:
Did you do anything special for Oncology
Nursing Month in May?
Did you attend Congress?
Did you attend the MMC Margaret Martin
Symposium or the Maine State Nurses Tea?
If
so, please share with us!
The Board of Directors
would like to send out a special thank you to Emma
Dann, RN for
her hard work editing the SMONS
Newsletter.
If you any information
to be added to the newsletter, please contact Emma at edann@maine.rr.com
Get
Help Preparing for Your OCN® Exam
Certification does make a difference! Enroll in the OCN® Review Webcourse. Certification indicates that a nurse’s knowledge
base is well beyond entry level and
current. It is a standard by which many oncology nurses are critiqued. Get detailed review information,
practice tips, and test-taking strategies on your own computer. This
course is based on the certification bulletin and will provide you with an in-depth review of
the information you'll see on your certification test. Register today
for this webcourse and find quality resources that you need to prepare
for the OCN® exam.
Free Breast
Care Practice Test Available
ONCC has made a
free Practice Test available
for the Certified Breast Care Nurse examination. This Practice Test
offers 20 items, the correct answer for each item, and the reference
and rationale for each correct answer. Try it today at http://www.oncc.org/PracticeTest/Default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fPracticeTest%2fIntroduction.aspx
The Southern Maine
Chapter of ONS respects your opinions. However, we reserve the
right not to publish any submission that our editor or Board of Directors
deem inappropriate.