Oncology Nurse Generalist Competencies: Oncology Nursing Society's Initiative to Establish Best Practice.

BACKGROUND: A project team was formulated to create evidence-based oncology nurse generalist competencies (ONGCs) to establish best practices in competency development, including high-risk tasks, critical thinking criteria, and measurement of key areas for oncology nurses.
. OBJECTIVES: This article aims to describe the process and the development of ONGCs. 
. METHODS: This article explains how the ONGCs were accomplished, and includes outcomes and suggestions for use in clinical practice. 
. FINDINGS: Institutions can use the ONGCs to assess and develop competency programs, offer educational strategies to measure proficiency, and establish processes to foster a workplace committed to mentoring and teaching future oncology nurses.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Development and Implementation of Electronic Treatment Orders in a Medical Oncology Department.

This article provides a review of the interdisciplinary approach, implementation methods, and subsequent outcomes of transitioning to an electronic-based chemotherapy and biotherapy ordering system in a community hospital-based ambulatory medical oncology department. The electronic medical record solution system platform that was used in this setting was Cerner PowerChart®, which is certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.
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Equianalgesic dosing: principles of practice for the care team.

Opioids are the basis for managing cancer-related pain. Pain assessment and management are critical competencies for the clinical care team to improve quality of life for patients with cancer. Knowledge and application of evidence-based practice approaches to cancer pain relief, including the principles of equianalgesic dosing, opioid switching and rotation, and use of coanalgesics, can lead to improved patient outcomes.

Dosing done right: a review of common chemotherapy calculations.

The potential for medication error is great with chemotherapy agents because of their high toxicity profile, small therapeutic index, and numerous dose-limiting adverse effects. The oncology team involved with chemotherapy treatment planning and administration assumes an active role in preventing such events by obtaining and maintaining competency in dose calculations, having knowledge of dose-limiting toxicities, appropriate ordering of drug regimens, and participation in safety verification processes. This article will provide a review of evidence-based formulas and their rationale for use in dosing chemotherapy, case scenarios with practice calculations, and recommendations for safe verification of chemotherapy drug order accuracy.

Assessing dyspnea in patients with non-small cell lung cancer in the acute care setting.

Dyspnea is a common and often overlooked symptom in patients with lung cancer. Oncology nurses are positioned to promptly assess, triage, and intervene to minimize dyspnea, but improved assessment is needed. As a result, this pilot study explores the validity and feasibility of two assessment scales on measuring the perception of dyspnea in patients with non-small cell lung cancer in the acute care setting.