Oncology it is......

Specialties Oncology

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Specializes in Oncology, Med-Surgical.

Hi everyone!

I have just been offered an oncology position at a local hospital. When on my interview, I was very impressed with the staff and my manager. I will be starting in a couple of weeks and was wondering, if there's any good books out there or how I can prepare myself for oncology nursing....I would like to hear about other's experiences in oncology so that I can somewhat be prepared....

Thanks.:D

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Way to go AmyRN and welcome to Oncology Nursing. Hope you love it as much as I do. I recommend "The Core Curriculum for Oncology Nursing", by Itano, published by Saunders. You can order it from Amazon at a good price. Good luck to you...

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Amy,

Welcome to Oncology Nursing. Check your new unit for books they may have there for your use and make use of their xerox. Also go online to Google.com and look up any subject you might want to bone up on. I recently found tons of info. on Tumor Lysis Syndrome through Google. There are many good Chemo drug books out there too. Your unit should have a few lying around.

My best advice?? Keep all of your orientation information, training material and CEU certificates carefully stored at home for future reference. I also bought a spiral index card set seperated out by color (at Walmart in the school supply section). I keep all my important little tidbits in there....i.e. ANC calculation, Lipid calculation, chemotherapy particulars, blood product capatibility and so on...right there at my fingertips. Best 2 bucks I ever spent.

Good luck and remember to spread the enthusiasm.

Liz

:chuckle

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Specializes in Oncology, Med-Surgical.

Thanks Liz for your message!

I am in my third week of orientation and love it so far. The patients are so sweet and my coworkers are wonderful. Where do you work, are you in the hospital setting? Do you know anything about outpatient oncology? We are going to be moving to a new cancer center in a couple of years that's affiliated with the hospital and they will need more nurses in that area.

I am so excited, I think I will be learning a lot here.

:roll :roll :roll

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I work in an inpatient setting here at a Children's Hospital in Austin, TX. There is an outpatient clinic here in the same building so the patients can come to the office, get accessed, get labs, maybe start chemo and then be admitted to our floor. All in all, it works pretty well.

Good luck in your orientation. Remember....ask a lot of questions.

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I found a book a few months ago that I thought was excellent, especially if you're a new nurse. It's called "Oncology Nursing Secrets" by Rose A. Gates and Regina M. Fink. I found it in the oncology books section of this website. It is in a question and answer format and covers many subjects such as venous access devices, diarrhea, nausea, religion and spirituality, end of life decisions and just about everything you can think of. It costs $35 and I highly recommend it. Good luck to you!!!

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Shirley Otto's "Oncology Nursing" is a very good reference. I passed my CANO certification exam last year with the help of this book. Carry a pocket-size notebook with you while you work, so you can easily write down things that may interest you or you need to read about and prepare you for the next opportunity.

This is my 6th year in the area. A year and a half working at the outpatient chemotherapy clinic. Try your best to take your vacations, time off...so you will not be burned out.

Right now, I want a change. A year off from this clinical focus....do something else....case management or tele-health nursing? what do you think? any suggestions????

I love what I do, yet I feel that I have done my best....I do wish to try doing more of a patient education approach. I need some time off........

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I found a book a few months ago that I thought was excellent, especially if you're a new nurse. It's called "Oncology Nursing Secrets" by Rose A. Gates and Regina M. Fink. I found it in the oncology books section of this website. It is in a question and answer format and covers many subjects such as venous access devices, diarrhea, nausea, religion and spirituality, end of life decisions and just about everything you can think of. It costs $35 and I highly recommend it. Good luck to you!!!

Thanks for the great tip. Had returned to oncology after 9 years away and needed a few pointers/reminders to get me started (besides the classroom info). Great book.

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Specializes in ICU/CCU (PCCN); Heme/Onc/BMT.

Wow! I just noticed that this thread started 3 years ago!

Just a FYI. :)

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