ONS Chemo course online

Nurse Katelyn BSN PCCN, RN · May 11, 2015

I am taking the class right now. Did you retake it? Any suggestions for success?

Thank you!

msnorth · Jul 8, 2015

I didn't see this til now...my apologies. But I did end up retaking the test & made an A...go figure. How did you do?

annacat · Sep 30, 2015

I am signed up to take it in October. I have found very little information online about preparing for it. I have the Chemotherapy/Biotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice Book. Every time I pick it up to read it I find myself daydreaming about 1/2 way into the second paragraph. Dry is an understatement when it comes to the presentation style.

It is very strange to me that the process for preparing to pass this course is so secretive, you would think that ONS is a top secret government agency charged with preventing us from passing the course!

I know they don't want people cheating but considering that we want more nurses who are competent in the administration of chemotherapy/biotherapy and Everything that comes with it I would think that there would be a little more hand holding and encouragement coming from ONS.

God help me, Because it doesn't seem like ONS is going to!

OCNRN63, RN · Oct 2, 2015

I am signed up to take it in October. I have found very little information online about preparing for it. I have the Chemotherapy/Biotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice Book. Every time I pick it up to read it I find myself daydreaming about 1/2 way into the second paragraph. Dry is an understatement when it comes to the presentation style.
It is very strange to me that the process for preparing to pass this course is so secretive, you would think that ONS is a top secret government agency charged with preventing us from passing the course!
I know they don't want people cheating but considering that we want more nurses who are competent in the administration of chemotherapy/biotherapy and Everything that comes with it I would think that there would be a little more hand holding and encouragement coming from ONS.
God help me, Because it doesn't seem like ONS is going to!

Honestly, I think it was better when it was done in a classroom. The first time I took it in the classroom format, it was very intimidating. The second time was much better, but after that it went to the online format, although that didn't really matter because I was experiencing cancer up front and personal.

CarryThatWeight, BSN · Oct 2, 2015

The new chemo bio test from the online course is harder than the OCN test. By far. I called our clinic doctor and asked him one of the questions and he didn't know the answer! Ridiculous, in my opinion. I learned much more from the classroom course. I wish they'd go back to that.

NurseKate16 · Nov 4, 2015

I took it last year. It was difficult and it even lists it as a course for experienced chemo nurses. However, I was required to take it before ever being around chemo. I passed it, but I don't think I got as much out of the course as I should of because I was focusing on passing and the content being questioned, not the entire content.

corgimom9 · Dec 7, 2015

I took the Radiation therapy class from ONS Last year. I passed but just to read through was more than 40 hours and it had many links to outside material that was very old and almost no material that applied to current research ( less than 10 years) on Radiation therapy that applied to nursing. The test was even worse in regards to its focus on the information that had to do with what radiation therapy is ( better explanation on Wikipedia BTW) To add insult to injury there was no access to the reams of material once you had taken the test so even the very tiny bit of applicable info was now of no use to me. So I have a CE with 15 hours on it but basically no applicable information to use for my patients.

Also when I pointed this out I had to contact them three times before I rcd any reply at all and then it was just this is how we do things. I have now let my ONS membership lapse and they some how manage to have time to call/email me every 2 months and ask me why and I have replied at least twice (maybe three times now) via email that I will be happy to join again once they have actual information from this decade that will help a radiation nurse. They do not reply.