Onc Nurse on Call

Oncology Nursing News
  • 5.0 (2)
  • MEDICINE

Onc Nurse on Call is bi-weekly oncology nursing podcast by Oncology Nursing News delivering practical strategies, expert insights, and real-world tips you can use in oncology practice anytime, anywhere. Learn about immunotherapy, targeted therapy, survivorship care, resilience, and other critical topics from experienced oncology nurses and guest experts.

  1. 2D AGO

    DIVAs in Oncology: Improving IV Access Procedures for Patients With Cancer

    Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call, the new podcast from Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers, DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time. In this episode, the hosts speak with Emely Alfaro, RN, MSN, CNS, OCN, a clinical nurse specialist at University of California San Francisco Health who oversees infusion services across sites. With 2 decades of experience in solid tumor malignancies, Alfaro discusses her clinical focus on difficult IV access (DIVA), a term used in pediatric and emergency medicine that she has worked to validate within oncology. Alfaro’s research, conducted during her Doctor of Nursing practice (DNP) program, addressed a gap in the literature regarding specialized tools for assessing DIVA in cancer patients. She developed the “ANA tool” by modifying the established adult difficult IV access (A-DIVA) tool to include 6 cancer-specific characteristics, such as the presence of metastatic disease and limitations due to lymph node dissections. Her findings confirmed that higher DIVA scores correlate with a higher number of required insertion attempts, reinforcing the importance of early identification. “We have [post-intervention] data and we’ve seen a much bigger decrease in patients who are getting stuck more than 3 times, which was our goal,” said Alfaro.

    20 min

  2. FEB 4

    Differentiating Denial From Coping Mechanisms in Oncology

    Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call, the new podcast from Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers, DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time. This week Kelly Grosklags, LICSW, BCD, FAAGC, FT, shares advice for oncology nurses and advanced practice providers (APPs) dealing with grief at the end of patients’ lives. Grosklags, founder of Conversations With Kelly, explained that patients perceived as being in “denial” of their prognosis are often in need of someone to listen to them, or they are perceived that way as a result of a provider requiring closure of the patient. Patients who seem unable to approach conversations about the end of life may simply need a conversation about why that is the case. “Sometimes our psyche can’t take in all this information at once, so we have to compartmentalize it,” said Grosklags. “I’ve never met a patient who…looked like they were denying something that didn’t at some point acknowledge it. You have to acknowledge something to deny it.” Understanding the mindset of these patients, Grosklags said, may take stepping back and recontextualizing the patient’s experiences. “Is this part of my own agenda as a provider that I need them to be able to talk about this?” asked Grosklags. “Why am I so activated by this patient and their ‘inability’ to [acknowledge their prognosis]?”

    21 min

  3. JAN 21

    The Responsibility to Be Honest With Patients With Cancer

    Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call, the new podcast from Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers (formerly Jackson), DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time. This week, social worker Kelly Grosklags, LICSW, BCD, FAAGC, FT, founder of Conversations With Kelly, shared advice for dealing with difficult conversations and false hope in the care of patients with cancer. The inspiration for her work, Grosklags said, comes from losing her mother when she was 11. While her mother, in her thirties at the time, suffered from heart disease, her young age caused clinicians to approach her care with an emphasis solely on lengthening her lifespan, rather than making the most of the reality her family was faced with. “The whole goal was to keep her going, keep her going—and no one wanted to talk about the hard stuff,” Grosklags recalled. Further, some patients develop what Grosklags referred to as “good patient syndrome,” where they fear exposing their care team to the emotional burden of difficult conversations around death and try to shield them from these by acting as if they don’t need them. Grosklags stressed that hope is cyclical and can occur at any stage of a patient’s care, even at the end of life. The goal of care may not always be cure; it may evolve to become other milestones, like seeing a child graduate high school. “Part of our job as social workers, as physicians—as anybody working in oncology—is to help introduce patients to that evolution-of-hope cycle.”

    19 min

  4. JAN 7

    Handling Ethical Dilemmas With Care in Oncology Nursing

    Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call, the new podcast from Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers (formerly Jackson), DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time. This week delivers the second part of an interview with ethics expert Katherine Brown-Saltzman, MA, RN, president of Ethics of Caring, the organization behind the National Nursing Ethics Conference (NNEC). Ethical concerns can grow into pressing issues, said Brown-Saltzman, when nurses don’t confront the concern early on, comparing these situations to the rapid spread of a forest fire. “By the time you are outraged, you’re in moral distress,” said Brown-Saltzman. “To bring these issues up early really helps because then you aren’t completely locked down into conflict.” In these cases, she said that the best thing a nurse can do to intervene early on is to simply ask a question. “The wisest thing that I learned along the way was instead of pointing the finger…to put a question on the table,” said Brown-Saltzman. “’I’m beginning to have these ethical concerns and wondering, are we approaching this family in the best way?...I’m wondering how we can better approach them with questions about stopping treatment.’”

    21 min

  5. 12/24/2025

    Being a “Last Responder” to Patients With Cancer With Melinda Mayorga

    Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call, the new podcast from Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers (formerly Jackson), DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time.This episode’s guest, Melinda Mayorga, RN, MSN, CNS, AGCNS-BC, OCN, a clinical nurse specialist at Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Southern California in Los Angeles, discussed end of life care and those she calls “last responders.”Mayorga described an experience in which she accompanied a patient through the last 32 minutes of her life, which, if not for the nursing staff, would have otherwise been spent alone—an occurrence altogether too familiar for many nurses.Inspired by this experience, Mayorga developed a volunteer program that pairs individuals with those at the end of life to avoid patients dying alone, as well as an interdisciplinary toolkit that involved a chaplain, mental health professionals, the arts, and even environmental manager. The program provides QR codes to instantly reach prayers prepared by the chaplain along with videos on stages of grief, battery-operated candles to light, and the option to paint a rock in someone’s memory.

    23 min

  6. 12/10/2025

    Practical Tactics and Patient Trust With an Integrative Oncology PA

    Onc Nurse On Call is the new podcast by Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers (formerly Jackson), DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time.  This week, our hosts sit down with Lillian Rodich, PA-C, MPH, an integrative oncology physician assistant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Bendheim Integrative Medicine Center in New York, New York. She also touches on how to talk to patients about outside herbs and other supplements, emphasizing that being open to discussing these with patients—and finding out for patients whether there may be interactions between the herb and the patient’s treatment instead of rejecting the topic—can build trust with patients and make them feel more comfortable being transparent with providers. Particularly, Memorial Sloan Kettering’s integrative services have a website and mobile application called “About Herbs,” which serves as a database for identifying whether an herb or supplement will have interactions with a patient’s medications. Rodich explained that there are ways to make integrative medicine more accessible to patients, regardless of what their insurance they have or what their financial situation is. “Integrative medicine shouldn’t be for the privileged few," says Rodich. "It should be standard-of-care practice for all patients, no matter where they’re receiving care.”

    26 min

  7. 11/26/2025

    Managing Patients on IO Over Holiday Weekends and Beyond With Kristin Daly

    Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call!Are you seeking practical insights to maximize your impact while staying at the forefront of cancer care? You’ve found the right place. Onc Nurse On Call is the new podcast by Oncology Nursing News, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers (formerly Jackson), DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time. This week’s episode brings more insights from Kristin Daly, MSN, ANP-BC, AOCNP, on caring for patients receiving immunotherapy who require medical attention for adverse effects (AEs) of immunotherapies, including outside of typical clinic hours.

    15 min

  8. 11/12/2025

    What Is an Oncology Nurse’s Ethical Responsibility?

    Welcome to Onc Nurse On Call!Are you looking for practical insights for maximizing your impact while staying on the cutting edge of cancer care? You’ve found the right place. Onc Nurse On Call is the new podcast by Oncology Nursing News’, hosted by editors-in-chief Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN, and Stephanie Desrosiers (formerly Jackson), DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, delivering maximum impact in minimum time.Today’s episode features Katherine Brown Saltzman, MA, RN, president of Ethics of Caring, the organization behind the National Nursing Ethics Conference (NNEC), who discusses ethics in nursing.

    21 min
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About

Onc Nurse on Call is bi-weekly oncology nursing podcast by Oncology Nursing News delivering practical strategies, expert insights, and real-world tips you can use in oncology practice anytime, anywhere. Learn about immunotherapy, targeted therapy, survivorship care, resilience, and other critical topics from experienced oncology nurses and guest experts.

Information

  • Creator
    Oncology Nursing News
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    90
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Onc Nurse on Call