Gayle Hawley, BSN, RN-BC, OCN^®, CLL*
Johnson City, TN
hawleycg@msha.com

*Certified Laughter Leader

In the principles of Good-Hearted Living (Wilson, 2003), Fridays are for forgiveness. Holding a grudge punishes the one who bears it. Failing to forgive allows another to control us. Often the one we are angry or disappointed with has little or no idea and may not even care. So, while we are stewing, he or she may be out dancing! We do not forgive to release another person but rather to release ourselves. No one can hurt your feelings without your permission. When we blame others for our problems, we sometimes “b-lame.” To continue to hold a grudge keeps us bound to our past and stunts our growth. It has been said that failing to forgive is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. Not very effective!

Forgiveness may need to be extended to oneself as well. How many cancers are related to lifestyle? Smoking, sun exposure, diet, alcohol, sexual history, etc., may contribute to illness. I encourage patients not to look back but rather to look ahead. I encourage lifestyle changes that benefit health. I have asked patients to consider the fact that, although they may beat their current diagnosis, they are not immune to another. They need to make positive changes now.

Forgiveness also may provide physical benefits. To remember a wrong evokes a stress response. To release it can reduce physical and mental stress. Forgiveness may not include an apology or an amendment from the wrongdoer, but it does include letting go of the desire for revenge and perhaps growth in desire for reconciliation.

You cannot change the past. You cannot change others. You may be able to change your response and, thus, free yourself. Do you want to be better or bitter? Take steps to release the past, forgive, and leap into the future.

To read wisdom quotes on kindness, click here.

Bibliography

Innes, D. (2004). You can’t fly with broken wings. San Clemente, CA: Acts Communications. Retrieved November 21, 2007, from http://www.actsweb.org/freebook.pdf

Media Partners Corporation. (1996). The difficult guest: Understanding and serving difficult customers. Seattle, WA: Author.

Walker, L. (2006, August). Discover the power of forgiveness. Virtual Christian Magazine, 8(7). Retrieved November 21, 2007, from http://vcmagazine.org/vcm/article.asp?volume=8&issue=7&article=
forgiveness

Reference

Wilson, S. (2003). Good-hearted living. Columbus, OH: Steve Wilson and Company.

Coordinator-Elect’s Message
Spirituality and Cancer Care: What’s the Connection?

CDR Colleen O. Lee, RN, MS, AOCN^®
Bethesda, MD
leeco@mail.nih.gov

Very early in our nursing careers, we learned that “something” keeps our patients coming back for therapy to treat their cancer. Is it a desire to live? Hope? Endurance? Fear? From where does this “something” stem?

The terms “spirituality” and “religion” often are used interchangeably but can possess different meanings for different people. Spirituality often is defined as an individual’s sense of purpose and meaning in life, frequently in relationship to and connection with others. Religion more often is thought of as the practices and set of beliefs associated with an organized group and may be an expression of spirituality. Some may consider themselves to be religious but not spiritual, whereas others may consider themselves to be spiritual but not religious. Some consider themselves to be both.

Having cancer may challenge people’s sense of purpose, balance, and meaning; in other words, the experience may “rock their spiritual world.” How can oncology nurses help?
 
Knowing when and how to help is an art that every nurse can learn, even if your own personal level of spirituality or religiosity does not match that of your patients. A professed agnostic nurse once told me that she does not shy away when her patients express their spiritual concerns or needs. Rather, she tries to provide them with the connections or resources that they need.

Spiritual care includes

• Recognizing that spirituality and religious well-being may improve your patient’s quality of life. Alternatively, spiritual distress may contribute to poorer health outcomes.
• Assessing your patient’s spirituality, including asking about religious denomination (if any), beliefs about life, practices, participation in a religious community, use of prayer or meditation, conflicts with current treatment (if any), ways that healthcare providers can assist with spiritual needs, concerns about life and death, and possibly end-of-life planning
• Facilitating spiritual care interventions such as referrals to spiritual ministry, listening, supporting the use of spiritual coping skills, and praying for or with your patient
• Documenting your patient’s preferences in the medical record.

For more information and assistance in this area, see the Spirituality in Cancer Care Physician’s Data Query handout. English and Spanish patient versions are available for free download.

Editor’s Message
Thank You, SIG Newsletter Contributors

Pamela Potter, DNSc, APRN, BC
Portland, OR
potter@up.edu

If memory serves me, I have been serving as editor of the ONS Complementary and Integrative Therapies SIG Newsletter since summer 2005. I would like to thank our membership for the varied and interesting content published in our newsletter. I also would like to thank the ONS staff members who turn our words into an attractive and readable format!

In this issue, Certified Laughter Leader Gayle Hawley, BSN, RN-BC, OCN^®, offers further insights on bringing lightness into our lives, reminding us that “Fridays Are for Forgiveness.” Coordinator-Elect CDR Colleen O. Lee, RN, MS, AOCN^®, reflects on spirituality and cancer care. Rusti Hessig, RN, OCN^®, presents an impressive evidence basis in her article about intercessory prayer as a complementary therapy.

Enhance Your Understanding of Intercessory Prayer as a Complementary Therapy

Rusti Hessig, RN, OCN^®
Rochester, MN
hessig.arliss@mayo.edu

“Is there anything I can do for you?” This is a question that nurses often ask their patients. Countless times, the answer is “Pray for me.”

Would the care provider use intercessory prayer (IP) as easily as other measures accepted and used for a patient’s pain or wound management? If the underlying principle behind prayer is understood, care providers may elect to apply IP as an adjunct to their health care. From a faith-based perspective, prayer is a natural part of the healing process, but the scientific community requires evidence. The goal of this article is to increase knowledge of IP that will bring readers from definition and present use to understanding the bench science.

Use of Intercessory Prayer as Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapy
To determine the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, researchers from a university hospital used a prevalence survey design to interview 161 parents of children with cancer. Eighty-one were children attending a hematology/oncology clinic, and 80 were children attending a continuity care clinic. The interviewers explored the types of CAM therapies used, reason for use, and frequency of use. Prayer and spiritual healing were practices most often used by both groups (Friedman et al., 1997).

According to the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) interview survey released in May 2004, 24.4% of users of CAM therapy use IP for distant healing of others (see Figure 1). The survey was completed by 31,044 adults aged 18 years or older from the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population (NCCAM, 2006a)

Figure 1. Ten Most Common Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies N = 31,044 Note. Based on information from NCCAM, 2006a

What’s It All About?
In its simplest form, prayer is thought—a desire of the heart and often a call for help in what can best be described as a plea for divine intervention. The premise of prayer as a healing modality is faith—the belief that each person is connected to a divine source, a higher power, or ultimate authority.

IP, also called distant prayer or healing, is defined as the desire of one person interceding through prayer on behalf of another (NCCAM, 2006b). Seaward (2004) defined IP as a form of energetic human consciousness or energy medicine (EM).

A Form of Human Consciousness
Dossey (1993) looked closely at experiments with microorganisms (i.e., bacteria). Dossey believed that controlling the variables with lower life forms was easier because of the relative certainty that they do not pray for themselves or each other. The author reasoned that bacteria respond to human consciousness by growing more slowly when receiving IP than control groups not receiving IP.

Radin and Nelson (1994) tracked 152 reports describing 597 experimental studies and 235 control studies from 68 investigators that analyzed whether the influence of human consciousness can affect the physical world at a distance. Using meta-analytic techniques to assess methodologic quality and overall effect size, results showed effects conforming to chance expectation in control conditions and obvious non-chance effects in experimental conditions. Radin and Nelson felt that unless reviewers wanted to challenge the investigators or suggest a procedural artifact common to hundreds of experiments conducted over nearly 30 years, there was no escaping the conclusions that prayer is effective.

Researchers also have studied the effects of human consciousness to change biologic systems (Dossey, 1996). Controlled studies examined the effects of human consciousness often expressed through prayer on biologic reactions of the recovery rate of animals from anesthesia, tumor growth rates, wound healing rates, red cell hemolysis, and replication of microorganisms in vitro. These studies have been published in high-quality peer-reviewed journals, have been replicated by different investigators, and make up the basic research or bench science underlying the objective study of IP.

Energy Medicine
NCCAM categorized IP as a modality under EM. The concept that sickness and disease change balances in the vital energy field of the body has led to many forms of therapy (NCCAM, 2006b).

EM deals with energy fields of two types: veritable (conforming to truth or fact) and putative (supposed or reported) (Berman & Straus, 2004; NCCAM, 2006b). Veritable energies employ mechanical vibrations (i.e., sound) and electromagnetic forces, including visible light, magnetism, monochromatic radiation (i.e., laser beams), and rays from other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. They involve the use of specific, measurable wavelengths and frequencies to treat patients (Vallbona & Richards, 1999). The following are energies recognized in the veritable energy field (Berman & Straus; NCCAM, 2006b).

• Light energy
• Magnetic
• Sound

Putative energies are based on the concept that human beings are infused with a subtle form of energy. It has been hypothesized that the body’s primary gamma emitter, potassium-40, represents a self-regulation of energy within the body (Benford, 2001). This energy or life force is known under different names in different cultures (e.g., qi in traditional Chinese, ki in Japanese, doshas in Ayurvedic medicine) (Hintz et al., 2003). The following are energies recognized in the putative energy field (Berman & Straus, 2004; NCCAM, 2006b).

• Acupuncture
• Homeopathy
• Intercessory prayer
• Qi gong
• Therapeutic touch

Research Studies
David Larson, MD, MSPH, president of the National Institute for Healthcare Research, stated that research focusing on the power of prayer and IP in healing has nearly doubled in the past 10 years (NCCAM, 2006b).

Of 212 published studies that have assessed the effects of spiritual factors on healthcare outcomes, 159 (75%) reported a positive effect, 37 (17%) reported no effect, and 15 (7%) reported a negative effect (Matthews & Larson, 1995). Marwick (1995) reviewed 115 articles on prayer and health outcomes: 47 (41%) showed a negative effect, 37 (32%) showed a positive effect, and 31 (27%) showed neither (1995). The articles did not analyze the studies themselves or mention what the negative and positive effects were.
 
Randolph Byrd conducted a well-known study on IP in 1988. In the study, 393 patients in a coronary care unit (CCU) participated in a double-blind study to assess the therapeutic effects of IP. Patients were randomly selected by computer to either receive or not receive IP. All participants, including patients, doctors, and the conductor of the study, remained blind throughout the study to guard against biasing. The patients were not contacted again after it was decided which group would receive IP and which would not. The results of the study showed that patients who received IP were healthier than those who had not. The IP group was five times less likely to require antibiotics and three times less likely to develop pulmonary edema, and none of the IP patients required endotrachial intubation, whereas 12 of the patients who were not prayed for required the procedure. The IP group also had a diminished necessity for diuretics (Byrd, 1988). The study did show the important role that IP may play in illness.

Byrd’s (1988) study was criticized on many design points. Limitations of the study included the inability to determine which patients prayed for themselves or had family praying for them and the potential interpretation bias of the author because of personal religious values. Interestingly, many criticisms of studies involving IP are on the very same design limitations.
 
Sicher, Targ, Moore, and Smith (1998) found that distant healers using IP for 106 patients with AIDS over a six-month period helped to significantly decrease outpatient doctor visits. The patients also had fewer hospitalizations, fewer days of hospitalization, fewer new AIDS-defining diseases, and a lower illness severity as defined by the Beck Hopelessness Scale^®.
 
Byrd’s 1988 study was replicated in 1999 at the Mid American Heart Institute, enrolling 990 hospitalized patients in the CCU. The results showed that the prayed-for patients stayed in the hospital the same average length of time as the not-prayed-for patients, but their overall CCU course scores were significantly lower. In this study, only 51 (10.9%) of the prayed-for patients required major surgery, whereas 76 (14.5%) of the control group did; only 12 (2.6%) of the prayed-for patients required intra-aortic balloon pumps, whereas 20 (3.8%) of the control group did (Harris et al., 1999).
 
A randomized control trial conducted at a Midwest medical center with 799 CCU patients used IP at least once a week for 26 weeks administered by five intercessors of prayer per patient. The study concluded that IP had no significant effect on medical outcomes after hospitalization in the CCU (Aviles et al., 2001).
 
Researchers at a university medical center studied the effects of 748 patients who underwent heart surgery. The patients were divided into four groups: a group that received off-site prayers by Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, and Jewish practitioners; a group that received a 40-minute music, imagery, and touch therapy treatment; a group that received both prayer and touch therapy; and a control group. According to the report, neither IP nor touch therapy significantly improved clinical outcomes. The study did show, however, that six months later, the cardiac mortality rates were found to be significantly lower in patients treated with both IP and bedside touch therapy (Krucoff et al., 2005).
 
Despite the challenges essential to studies attempting to incorporate scientific and spiritual variables, reported results are encouraging enough to keep interest in these investigations.
 
Implementation
IP may play an important role in recovery from or alleviation from suffering associated with illnesses. It is the willingness of those of us who recognize that IP is effective, and our ability to share our understanding with others, that will make IP an accepted practice.
 
If you feel comfortable, ask your patients for what they would like you to pray. Sometimes, prayer may be all that patients want to make the journey with their illness easier for them and their family.
 
If the comfort level is absent for the healthcare provider, many hospital settings have a chaplain service available. In our age of computers, an online search link may be found for IP, such as the Intercessory Prayer Ministry at Dallas Baptist University (2006). The Intercessory Prayer Ministry receives prayer requests in person and via voicemail and e-mail. Specific cancer concerns are sent to a cancer support group.

The Future
Research questions remain about which approaches can and should be addressed using existing technologies. The underlying principle of IP through human consciousness is what the scientific community is looking at to prove. To date, no standard instrumentation has been developed to measure the constructs. Questions surrounding IP may diminish with time as knowledge about the mechanism involved is understood. For the present time, people will continue to pray for others using a faith-based principle for healing, and patients will continue to ask care providers and others to pray for them.

Personal Vignette
My son departed this life suddenly. We received hundreds of cards, letters, and personal acknowledgments with the same message: “You’re in my thoughts and prayers.” My family and I were aware of an overwhelming feeling of peacefulness. Was it because so many people where showing their concern, or was it the actual prayers that helped my family and me to survive those first few days, weeks, and months that followed? It is my personal belief that we coped better with so many people interceding for us with prayer.

As a Christian, I have just believed in the power of prayer. Needing to understand the mechanism behind the effects of prayer somehow removes the charm. The mechanism of Tylenol^® is not known, but the drug is used widely in medicine. One would think that an intervention such as IP, which appears to have no apparent adverse side effects, limited (if any) cost factors, and documented positive effects would be prescribed and used as an adjunct.
 
References

Aviles, J.M., Whelen, S.E., Hernke, D.A., Williams, B.A., Kenny, K.E., O’Fallon, W.M., et al. (2001). Intercessory prayer and cardiovascular disease progression in a coronary care unit population: A randomized controlled trial. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 76, 1192–1198.

Benford, M.S. (2001). Radiogenic metabolism: An alternative cellular energy source. Medical Hypotheses, 56(1), 33–39.

Berman, J.D., & Straus, S.E. (2004). Implementing a research agenda for complementary and alternative medicine. Annual Review of Medicine, 55, 239–254.

Byrd, R. (1988). Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population. Southern Medical Journal, 8, 826–829.

Dallas Baptist University. (2006). Intercessory prayer ministry.Retrieved June 19, 2006, from http://www.dbu.edu/ministry/prayer.asp

Dossey, L. (1993). Healing words: The power of prayer and the practice of medicine. San Francisco: Harper.

Dossey, L. (1996, Summer). Distant intentionality: An idea whose time had come. Advances: The Journal of Mind–Body Health, 12, 9–13.

Friedman, T., Slayton, W.B., Allen, L.S., Pollock, B.H., Dumont-Driscoll, M., Mehta, P., et al. (1997). Use of alternative therapies for children with cancer. Pediatrics, 100(6), E1.

Harris, W.S., Gowda, M., Kolb, J.W., Strychacz, C.P., Vacek, J.L., Jones, P.G., et al. (1999). A randomized controlled study of the effects of remote, intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients admitted to the coronary care unit. Archives of Internal Medicine. 159, 2273–2278.

Hintz, K.J., Yount, G.L., Kadar, I., Schwartz, G., Hammerschlagg, R., & Lin, S. (2003). Bioenergy definitions and research guidelines. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 9(Suppl. 3), A13–A30.

Krucoff, M.W., Crater, S.W., Gallup, D., Blankenship, J.C., Cuffe, M., Guameri, M., et al. (2005). Music, imagery, touch and prayer as adjuncts to interventional cardiac care: The Monitoring and Actualisation of Noetic Trainings (MANTRA) II randomised study. Lancet, 366, 211–217.

Marwick, C. (1995). Should physicians prescribe prayer for health? Spiritual aspects of well-being considered. JAMA. 273, 1561–1562.

Matthews, D.A., & Larson, D.B. (Eds.). (1995). The faith factor: An annotated bibliography of clinical research on spiritual subjects. Volume III: Enhancing Life Satisfaction. Rockville, MD: National Institute for Healthcare Research.

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health. (2006a). Statistics of CAM use in the United States. Retrieved March 1, 2006, from http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camstats.htm

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health. (2006b). Energy medicine. Retrieved March 1, 2006, from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm

Radin, D.L, & Nelson, R.D. (1994). Consciousness-related effects for an anomalous process of information transfer. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 4–18.

Seaward, B.L. (2004). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being (4th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
 
Sicher, F., Targ, E., Moore, D., & Smith, H.S. (1998). A randomized double blind study of the effect of distant healing in a population with advanced AIDS: Report of a small scale study. Western Journal of Medicine, 169, 356–363.

Vallbona, C., & Richards, T. (1999). Evolution of magnetic therapy from alternative to traditional medicine. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America, 10, 729–754.

Virtual Community Navigation 101
Take a Tour of Your SIG’s Virtual Community

All oncology nurses spend hours every day navigating patients through the bewildering maze of the medical system. Why not also take time to navigate through your SIG’s virtual community (VC)? It can serve as a library for all kinds of information, professional support, and resources for you and your patients.
To access your SIG’s VC, follow these steps.

• Log on to the Internet.
• Type www.ons.org in your browser's address box.
• Select the "Membership" tab.
• Click on "Special Interest Group (SIG) Virtual Community."
• Arrive at the "SIGs Virtual Community Main Page" of the SIGs Virtual Communities.
• Select "Find a SIG" from the top of the main page.
• Click on your SIG’s link to access the VC.

You've arrived! To ensure easier access, make your SIG’s VC one of your "Favorites" by clicking on Favorites located on your computer’s tool bar at the top of the display.

Now you can check out all that your SIG’s VC has to offer. You do not need to log in to look through the page. At the top of the page, you will see a tool bar with tabs on it. The tabs include My SIG Page, About Us, News, Scrapbook, Calendar, Discussion, Find a SIG, and ONS National Announcements. Let’s look at some of the key sections of select tabs.

SIG Home

• Join: Find details about joining an additional SIG; one is free with your membership.
• Membership Directory: Log in using your ONS user name and password to search for a member of your SIG.
• Contact ONS: Learn how to contact ONS’s Membership/Leadership team by postal or e-mail.

About Us

• Our Leadership: Locate members who are currently serving as your SIG’s leaders.
• Strategic Plan: View your SIG's mission statement and strategic plan.

News

• Educational News: Find available resources for nurses.
• Minutes: Read various meeting minutes.
• SIG Newsletters: View previous newsletters.
• Scrapbook: View photographs from SIG meetings.

Calendar

• Refer to a month-by-month calendar of events relating to your SIG.

Discussion

• Network with colleagues who share similar interests and expertise.

ONS National Announcements

• Locate updated information pertinent to the entire ONS membership.

Reports
Institute of Medicine Releases Report on Psychosocial Care for Patients With Cancer

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a special committee to look at the delivery of psychosocial services to patients with cancer and their families and identify ways to improve the provision of care. The results, which were released in November 2007, are published in Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs.

The findings state that many patients with cancer have psychosocial needs. Although the supply of services is insufficient to address all patient needs, untapped resources exist, frequently at no additional cost. Patients, however, often are unaware of these resources. The committee proposed that all components of the healthcare system incorporate attention to patient psychosocial needs into practice. This new standard of care recommends that all cancer care should ensure the provision of appropriate psychosocial services by

• Facilitating effective communication between patients and providers
• Identifying patients’ psychosocial health needs
• Designing and implementing a plan that
  –Links patients with needed psychosocial services
  –Coordinates biomedical and psychosocial care
  –Engages and supports patients in managing their illness and health.
  
• Systematically following-up on, reevaluating, and adjusting plans.

News From ONS National

Step Up and Become a Diversity Champion
We need you to serve as a diversity champion in your chapter and community! Diversity champions are a vital team of ONS members who serve as a bridge, welcoming all to participate and contribute their knowledge to inclusiveness initiatives—a core value of ONS. Take the challenge! For more information, click here.

Updated 2005–2009 ONS Research Agenda Now Available for Review
The 2007 revision of the 2005–2009 Research Agenda and executive summary are now available for review. The ONS Research Agenda focuses on gaps in the knowledge base for oncology nursing practice. Priority areas, needed funds, mechanisms for funding, and timelines are outlined in the Research Agenda. For more information, click here.

Free Member Benefit! Connect With Nurses in Your Subspecialty
Cancer care encompasses many subspecialties. ONS special interest groups (SIGs) put you in touch with other members practicing in the same area as you so you can share ideas and knowledge with each other. All members can join one SIG for free. For more information, click here.

ONS Offers Online Tools for Nurse Researchers
The ONS Web site provides valuable resources for nurse researchers. Be sure to check out the Research Area to find out information on the ONS Research Agenda, funding opportunities, grant writing resources, and links to helpful research-related Web sites. The ONS Evidence-Based Practice Resource Area offers general information and strategies for using evidence to solve clinical problems. The ONS Outcomes Resource Area provides information about evidence-based oncology nursing interventions and patient outcomes.

Wanted: Your Expertise!

Share your expertise in the Complementary and Integrative Therapies SIG Newsletter. We are looking for articles on integrating care into practice, including practical experiences and research summaries. Articles should be approximately 500–1,000 words, with references formatted per American Psychological Association style. We need your submissions now! For more information, please contact Editor Pamela Potter, DNSc, APRN, BC, at potter@up.edu or 503-943-8620.

Membership Information

SIG Membership Benefits

• Network with colleagues in an identified subspecialty area around the country.
• Contribute articles for your SIG’s newsletter.
• Participate in discussions with other SIG members.
• Contribute to the future path of the SIG.
• Share your expertise.
• Support and/or mentor a colleague.
• Receive information about the latest advancements in treatments, clinical trials, etc.
• Participate in ONS leadership by running for SIG coordinator-elect or join SIG work groups.
• Acquire information with a click of a mouse at http://ons.org/membership including
• Educational opportunities for your subspecialty
• Education material on practice
• Calls to action
• News impacting or affecting your specific SIG
• Newsletters
• Communiqués
• Meeting minutes.

Join a Virtual Community

A great way to stay connected to your SIG is to join its Virtual Community. It’s easy to do so. All you will need to do is

• Log on to the ONS Web site (http://www.ons.org/).
• Select "Membership" from the tabs above.
• Then, click on "ONS Chapters and Special Interest Groups."
• Scroll down to "Visit the ONS Special Interest Groups (SIG) Virtual Community" and click.
• Now, select "Find a SIG."
• Locate and click on the name of your SIG from the list of all ONS SIGs displayed.
• Once the front page of your SIG’s Virtual Community appears on screen, select "New User" from the top left. (This allows you to create log-in credentials.)
• Type the required information into the text fields as prompted.
• Click "Join Group" (at the bottom right of the text fields) when done.
  
  Special Notices
  
  
• If you already have log-in credentials generated from the ONS Web site, use this information instead of attempting to generate new information.
• If you created log-in credentials for the ONS Web site and wish to have different log-in information, you will not be able to use the same e-mail address to generate your new credentials. Instead, use an alternate e-mail address.

Subscribe to Your SIG’s Virtual Community Discussion Forum

All members are encouraged to participate in their SIG’s discussion forum. This area affords the opportunity for exchange of information between members and nonmembers on topics specific to all oncology subspecialties. Once you have your log-in credentials, you are ready to subscribe to your SIG’s Virtual Community discussion forum. To do so,

• Select "Log In," located next to "New User," and enter your information.
• Next, click on the "Discussion" tab on the top right of the title bar.
• Now, select "Featured Discussion" from the left drop-down menu.
• Locate and select "Subscribe to Discussion" inside the "Featured Discussion" section.
• Go to "Subscription Options" and select "Options."
• When you have selected and entered all required criteria, you will receive a confirmation message.
• Click "Finish."
• You are now ready to begin participating in your SIG’s discussion forum.

Participate in Your SIG’s Virtual Community Discussion Forum

• First, log in. (This allows others to identify you and enables you to receive notification [via e-mail] each time a response or new topic is posted.)
• Click on "Discussion" from the top title bar.
• Select "Featured Discussion" from the left drop-down menu.
• Click on any posted topic to view contents and post responses.

Sign Up to Receive Your SIG’s Virtual Community Announcements

As an added feature, members also are able to register to receive their SIG’s announcements by e-mail.

• From your SIG’s Virtual Community page, locate the "Sign Up Here to Receive Your SIG’s Announcements" section. This appears above the posted announcements section.
• Select the "Click Here" feature, which will take you to a link to subscribe.
• Once the "For Announcement Subscription Only" page appears on select how you wish to receive your announcements.
• As individual e-mails each time a new announcement is posted
• One e-mail per day comprised of all new daily announcements posted
• Opt-out, indicating that you will frequently browse your SIG’s Virtual Community page for new postings
• Enter your e-mail address.
• Click on "Next Page."
• Because you have already joined your SIG’s Virtual Community, you will receive a security prompt with your registered user name already listed. Enter your password at this prompt and click "Finish."
• This will bring up a listing of your SIG’s posted announcements. Click on "My SIG’s Page" to view all postings in their entirety or to conclude the registration process and begin browsing.

Know someone who would like to receive a print copy of this newsletter?
To print a copy of this newsletter from your home or office computer, click here or on the printer icon located on the SIG Newsletter front page. Print copies of each online SIG newsletter also are available through the ONS National Office. To have a copy mailed to you or another SIG member, contact Membership/Leadership Administrative Assistant Carol DeMarco at cdemarco@ons.org or 866-257-4ONS, ext. 6230.

To view past newsletters, click here.

ONS Membership/Leadership Team Contact Information

Angie Stengel, MS, CAE, Director of Membership/Leadership
astengel@ons.org
412-859-6244

Diane Scheuring, MBA, CMP, Manager of Member Services
dscheuring@ons.org
412-859-6256

Carol DeMarco, Membership/Leadership Administrative Assistant
cdemarco@ons.org
412-859-6230

The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) does not assume responsibility for the opinions expressed and information provided by authors or by Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Acceptance of advertising or corporate support does not indicate or imply endorsement of the company or its products by ONS or the SIG. Web sites listed in the SIG newsletters are provided for information only. Hosts are responsible for their own content and availability.

Oncology Nursing Society
125 Enterprise Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA 15275-1214
866-257-4ONS
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