“In men­tor­ing, excel­lence in the pro­fes­sion of oncol­ogy nurs­ing is assured. A legacy is guar­an­teed,” says Bertie Ford, RN, MS, AOCN®.

“Pio­neer . . . does that mean old?” asks ONS mem­ber Bertie Ford, RN, MS, AOCN®, an oncol­ogy nurse with 28 years of expe­ri­ence who is a clin­i­cal oncol­ogy spe­cial­ist for Genen­tech BioOn­col­ogy. Although some might think pio­neer means old, in the field of oncol­ogy nurs­ing, the term rec­og­nizes the nurses who started and devel­oped the profession.

The 2011 Oncol­ogy Nurs­ing Cer­tification Cor­po­ra­tion Recog­nition Break­fast at the ONS 36th Annual Con­gress in Boston paid trib­ute to all of the nurses who had been con­tin­u­ously cer­ti­fied for 25 years. That unique dis­tinc­tion is held by 160 oncol­ogy nurses. That first year, 1986, 1,384 nurses received the cre­den­tial of OCN®. As of 2009, that num­ber stood at 26,043. It’s also impor­tant to remem­ber ONS’s char­ter mem­bers, 488 ded­i­cated oncol­ogy nurses who formed the orga­ni­za­tion in Jan­u­ary 1976. Today, ONS has a mem­ber­ship of more than 35,000 oncol­ogy nurses, includ­ing inter­na­tional mem­bers. The wealth of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence these pio­neers have in the field of oncol­ogy nurs­ing is invalu­able to new and mid-​​career nurses. The good news is, pio­neers like Ford are pass­ing on their knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence to the next gen­er­a­tion of oncol­ogy nurses through mentoring.

Pat Buch­sel, RN, MSN, OCN®, FAAN (left), says that she seeks to men­tor nurses who are will­ing to learn, grow, and be lead­ers in their cho­sen field.

Shar­ing Knowl­edge and History

“I always say I was in oncol­ogy before I was a nurse,” says Ford, who is a mem­ber of the Colum­bus ONS Chap­ter. “I vol­un­teered for the Ohio Can­cer Infor­ma­tion Ser­vice as a strat­egy for get­ting in to nurs­ing school.”

ONS mem­ber Pat Buch­sel, RN, MSN, OCN®, FAAN, a fac­ulty mem­ber in the Col­lege of Nurs­ing at Seat­tle Uni­ver­sity in Wash­ing­ton and an oncol­ogy nurse for 23 years, shares, “I started prac­tic­ing in oncol­ogy at the Fred Hutchin­son Can­cer Cen­ter as an Out­pa­tient Man­ager of their newly devel­oped clinic. Hematopoi­etic cell trans­plan­ta­tion recip­i­ents were being dis­charged from the hos­pi­tal but required fol­low up after dis­charge until they returned home to their refer­ring physi­cians. A ded­i­cated out­pa­tient depart­ment was greatly needed to care for this grow­ing patient population.”

Both of these oncol­ogy nurs­ing pio­neers were not con­tent to spend their careers acquir­ing this knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence and not share it, so they turned to men­tor­ing new-​​to-​​oncology nurses.

“Many years ago I served as a pre­cep­tor on the unit, of course, but that is quite remote. My role has been men­tor­ing more on the level of pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment,” Ford explains.

“I inter­act with many stu­dent nurses, act­ing as a clin­i­cal instruc­tor. This is a rich envi­ron­ment for being a role model and men­tor to many future nurses,” says Buch­sel, who is a mem­ber of the Puget Sound ONS Chap­ter. “Hav­ing been an oncol­ogy nurse for so many years, I, like many pro­fes­sional nurses, would say I’ve men­tored hun­dreds of new-​​to-​​oncology nurses. This is in the true sense of the word ‘men­tor.’ A men­tor is much more than a role model or a preceptor.”

The Men­tor­ing Relationship

“Tech­ni­cally a men­tor is the one who reaches out to mentees, so I have two approaches. I rec­og­nize those new to the pro­fes­sion who demon­strate a will­ing­ness to learn, grow­ing their clin­i­cal skills in depth and show­ing pas­sion and eager­ness in their cho­sen field. I espe­cially look for lead­er­ship skills,” Buch­sel explains.

“The sec­ond approach is to be sen­si­tive to those who wish to be men­tored. Many oncol­ogy nurses want to even­tu­ally pub­lish, to present at ONS Con­gress, obtain an advanced degree, and pur­sue other activ­i­ties that pro­mote per­sonal and pro­fes­sional growth. Herein lays the joy of men­tor­ing. When I see the faces of those who have pub­lished their first arti­cle, gave a pre­sen­ta­tion at a pro­fes­sional meet­ing, or decide to advance their pro­fes­sional prac­tice through an advanced degree, I know the value of mentoring.”

Ford has also expe­ri­enced the rewards of being a men­tor. “Pro­fes­sional involve­ment feeds your soul. I came up with a Rookie of the Year Award to reward young nurses who became involved in my chap­ter and made a dif­fer­ence early on. Our first Rookie of the Year is now president-​​elect of our chapter!”

“The rewards are great.” Buch­sel says. “In men­tor­ing, excel­lence in the pro­fes­sion of oncol­ogy nurs­ing is assured. A legacy is guar­an­teed. I have been men­tored by many ONS lead­ers, so I wanted to share what these excel­lent role mod­els taught me.”

The Chang­ing Face of Mentoring

Just as the field of oncol­ogy nurs­ing has changed in the past 35 years, so has men­tor­ing for these pio­neers. “My men­tor­ing has become more global in terms of both my think­ing and action,” Ford says. “My men­tor­ing changed from just local chap­ter to regional to national, and then encour­ag­ing involve­ment in that regard. I can reach across the United States thanks to the use of Face­book and the Inter­net. It’s eas­ier to be a men­tor with these tools. I have a mentee at Memo­r­ial Sloan-​​Kettering Hos­pi­tal in New York that I met at ONS Con­gress last year.”

Buch­sel agrees. “Tech­nol­ogy has changed global com­mu­ni­ca­tion tremen­dously. I find it much eas­ier to meet with some­one I am men­tor­ing online, and read their drafts or arti­cles or other pro­fes­sional work they are pur­su­ing. I have moved from the library sys­tem of card cat­a­logues to the won­ders of the Internet!”

If she could only share one thing with new-​​to-​​oncology nurses, Buch­sel says, “Find a men­tor. Iden­tify the qual­i­ties and goals you seek, and find that men­tor who will be a match for you. And I gen­tly remind you to ‘remem­ber your mentor’!”

Ford’s advice is equally straight­for­ward. “I can’t imag­ine being any­thing but an oncol­ogy nurse. It is chal­leng­ing, but most reward­ing and a place where you can truly make a difference.”