I taught oncology nursing for over 40 years. Most students who choose oncology upon graduation either had a personal experience with a family member/friend or had a connection with an oncology patient during clinical. In fact it is hard to get someone to explore oncology as a specialty with out first hand experience because they think it is always a negative experience. Guess what! Patients get better, patients develop new strengths, or patients try to face the day knowing time is limited. I am not trying to be sappy. Sometimes good things happen when you are not expecting it, For example, we realized that patients rarely used their call bells during "American Idol". That was a good time for the nurse to catch up on things. Then we could get the "post show briefing" while getting patients settled for the night. Some of our younger patients were filled with enthusiasm for their favorite performer!
Usually students in my experience choose their post graduation specialty because of a personal experience. The students who are CNA's in ICU are amazed at what the RN does during a rapid response/code and want to emulate them. A student sees a surgery and comes back to the floor saying "I want to work in ortho, open hearts, etc". Students who want to become NP's (and when first enrolled in their entry level program everyone wants to become one) want ICU.
OP, I am glad you see a need for someone like yourself in oncology nursing. That will get you through some tough school days "when you are dancing as fast as you can and still can't keep up". Go for it - PS. When I was in graduate school I read a transformational book - "Coping with Cancer" by Avery Weisman. He was a psychiatric oncologist. That small book helped me understand a lot about the coping of the oncology patient.I referred to it a lot. When I retired, I was cleaning out my office and I had my torn, thumb worn, highlighted copy, full of post-it notes in my hand and said to my husband "I am going to keep this". I can't find the car keys but I know exactly where my copy is (all 192 pages of it)!
