ONS Walks the Talk
Rosemary Ford, RN, BSN, OCN^®
Coordinator, Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant SIG



I felt a unique sense of satisfaction about attending the SIG Leadership Orientation Workshop prior to this year’s ONS Congress. Fifteen years ago, I had the honor of chairing the initial ONS SIG Committee, which reported to the ONS Board of Directors from 1989–1991. The committee's challenge was to operationalize SIGs in ONS.

The concept of SIGs was not accepted universally in the ONS leadership at that time. A great deal of concern existed that SIGs would splinter ONS or provide the structure for large groups such as Radiation Oncology or Stem Cell Transplant to organize and split into new nursing organizations. Fortunately, strong leaders listened to the membership and understood that many subspecialties and subinterests exist under the large umbrella of oncology nursing. ONS had to address the need for nurses to network in these subgroups (which was happening on an ad hoc basis anyway). The structure that the committee set up needed to be flexible enough to be as formal or informal as a SIG’s members wanted for their own unique topics.

Sitting with the other SIG leaders at this year’s workshop, I realized that the expertise and passion each had for their subspecialties were tangible, and each had a slightly different approach in his or her group. Everyone in the room had respect and acknowledgement for each other’s expertise.

I have found that feeling a sense of completion has been rare in my 27 years in nursing leadership. There is always the next research protocol, the next nursing vacancy to fill, preparation for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations survey, and education to plan and schedule. The SIG Leadership Orientation Workshop was a gift for me to pause in time and appreciate a long-ago vision materialized.


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