"I think we really need to push more of our oncology nurses to get into elected and appointed positions. So often we're looking at health positions to get involved in, and those are wonderful. We need nurses as secretaries of health, but there are others. We as nurses understand higher education. We understand environment. We understand energy. So I think we look broadly at, what are positions we can get in? Let's have more nurses run for state legislative offices, for our House of Representatives, for the U.S. Senate," ONS member Barbara Damron, PhD, LHD, RN, FAAN, told Ryne Wilson, DNP, RN, OCN^®, CNE, ONS member and member of the ONS 50th anniversary committee, during a conversation about the future of oncology nursing advocacy and health policy. Wilson spoke with Damron and ONS member Janice Phillips, PhD, RN, CENP, FADLN, FAAN, about how ONS has advanced advocacy and policy efforts over the past 50 years and its approaches for the future.

Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 

Episode Notes 

• This episode is not eligible for NCPD. 
• ONS Podcast™ episodes:
• ONS 50th anniversary series
• Episode 229: How Advocacy Can Shape Your Nursing Career
• ONS Voice articles:
• Oncology Nurses Take to Capitol Hill to Advocate for Cancer Care Priorities
• Our Unified Voices Can Improve Cancer Survivorship Care
• With Voices Amplified by ONS, Oncology Nurses Speak Out for Patients and the Profession on Capitol Hill
• NOBC Partnerships Advance Nurses' Placements on Local and National Boards
• Nursing Leadership Has Space for You and Your Goals
• ONS courses:
• Advocacy 101: Making a Difference
• Board Leadership: Nurses in Governance
• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
• Nurses on Boards: My Experience on the Moonshot
• Strengthening Oncology Nursing by Using Research to Inform Politics and Policy
• ONS Center for Advocacy and Health Policy
• Current ONS position statements
• Connie Henke Yarbro Oncology Nursing History Center
• Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
• Cancer Moonshot
• National Cancer Policy Forum
• National Council of State Boards of Nursing APRN Roundtable
• National Patient Advocate Foundation
• Nurses on Boards Coalition
• One Voice Against Cancer
• Patient Quality of Life Coalition
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.

To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

Highlights From This Episode

Phillips: "I think that there are so many pressing issues, but I'm going to start with any kind of threats or legislation that's poised to take away safety-net resources. It's really going to set us back because we all know that, particularly for minorities and certain other underserved populations, they have experienced poor cancer outcomes for a variety of reasons, variety of socioeconomic reasons, lack of access to quality screening resources—you name it. When you take away those safety net resources and take away resources for people who are already underserved, uninsured, or underinsured, it also jeopardizes their ability to get proper screening, get proper follow-up, have access to state of the art cancer services. I think the lack of affordability of health care is a problem that continues to challenge us, whether you on Medicaid or whether you have limited insurance." TS 10:16

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