May 2013 New!

Podcast Title: Exploring the Needs and Experience of Being an Adult Survivor of Childhood Cancer

What is it like to be an adult survivor of childhood cancer? What physical effects occur long-term? What information would be helpful for survivors?

Lead author Wendy McClellan, RN, BSN, presents information about the physical late effects and educational needs of adult survivors of childhood cancer as she discusses her May 2013 ONF article “Understanding the Functional Late Effects and Informational Needs of Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer.” With the projected increase in the number of adult survivors of childhood cancer, pediatric oncology long-term follow-up programs afford an opportunity to provide education and screen for late effects. The descriptive mixed-method study featured in the article explores functional late effects, experiences, and educational needs of adult survivors. Understanding the needs of this unique population can guide patient education and nursing interventions for patients experiencing long-term effects from therapy and identify potential areas for future research.

McClellan has been a pediatric oncology nurse for the past 10 years and is currently the nurse coordinator for the Survive and Thrive Long-Term Follow-Up Program at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, MO.

March 2013

Podcast Title: How Do Cancer Survivors Describe Self-Advocacy?

How do cancer survivors manage symptoms? How does self-advocacy impact symptom management? How can healthcare providers facilitate patient empowerment?

Listen in as lead author Teresa Hagan, BSN, RN, BA, responds to these and similar questions as she discusses her March 2013 ONF article “Ovarian Cancer Survivors’ Experiences of Self-Advocacy: A Focus Group Study.” In this podcast, the concept of self-advocacy, as defined in the literature, is discussed in regard to how it applies to the cancer survivor. Also, themes that emerged from focus groups will be presented from the perspective of the ovarian cancer survivor, and nursing implications for clinical practice will be described to support survivors’ symptom management and the process of self-advocacy.

Hagan is a predoctoral fellow in the Department of Acute and Tertiary Care in the School of Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Her research focus is on the concept of self-advocacy for the cancer survivor and tool development assessing self-advocacy.

January 2013

Podcast Title: Strategies to Manage Uncertainty in Younger African American and Caucasian Breast Cancer Survivors

What uncertainties are experienced by breast cancer survivors? Does an uncertainty management intervention change coping strategies? Are there differences between uncertainty management between younger African American and Caucasian breast cancer survivors?

This month, lead author Barbara B. Germino, PhD, RN, will describe uncertainty in young breast cancer survivors and respond to these and similar questions as she discusses her January 2013 ONF article "Outcomes of an Uncertainty Management Intervention in Younger African American and Caucasian Breast Cancer Survivors". Highlighted in this podcast is the uncertainty management intervention, which was intended to teach strategies for managing uncertainty in younger breast cancer survivors.

Dr. Germino is a research professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC.

November 2012

Podcast Title: Problems With Sexuality Associated With Treatment: Understanding the Role of the Oncology Nurse

Do all patients experience sexuality problems associated with diagnosis and treatment? What is the best approach to discuss sexuality with patients? What are nursing interventions to assist patients with sexuality issues?

This month, Pam McGrath, BSocWk, MA, PhD, will discuss these questions and present implications for oncology nurses during a podcast interview about her November 2012 ONF article "The Impact on Sexuality After Diagnosis and Treatment for a Hematologic Malignancy: Findings From Australia." Previous research investigating the impact of diagnosis and treatment on sexuality has been limited. This qualitative research, which was part of a larger study exploring issues associated with the experience of survivorship, expands on previous research by exploring sexuality in patients undergoing treatment for hematologic malignancies.

McGrath is an associate professor and senior research fellow in the Population and Social Health Research Program in the Griffith Health Institute at Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Her study was funded by the Leukaemia Foundation of Queensland. McGrath has written five books and more than 180 peer-reviewed articles on various topics of importance to oncology nurses, patients with cancer, and others.

September 2012

Podcast Title: Usage of Phenomenologic Inquiry to Explore the Lived Experience of Prostate Cancer

Would you like to know more about phenomenological inquiry and analysis? What is a man's experience and perspective of being diagnosed with prostate cancer? What did men describe as most helpful to them when they received their diagnosis?

In this podcast, co-author Norma Krumwiede, EdD, RN,describes van Manen's phenomenological inquiry and analysis and explores these and similar questions as she discusses her September 2012 ONF article "The Lived Experience of Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer." The aim of this qualitative study was to explore men's experiences and perspectives of prostate cancer to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon and related coping mechanisms and needs. During the podcast, van Manen's four fundamental existentials will be highlighted and phenomenological analysis will be explained.

Dr. Krumwiede is a professor in the College of Allied Health and Nursing at Minnesota State University in Mankato. Her previous research focused on the investigation of family caregiving experiences with neutropenia and rural nursing.

July 2012

Podcast Title: Viewing Self in the Mirror: Promoting Psychosocial Wellbeing for Women Who Have Had a Mastectomy

What is the meaning and experience of viewing oneself in the mirror for women who have had a mastectomy? And how can nurses facilitate this experience?

This month, lead author Wyona Freysteinson, PhD, MN, answers these questions and others during a podcast interview about her July 2012 ONF article "The Experience of Viewing Oneself in the Mirror After a Mastectomy." From a phenomenological perspective, this study presents the unique experience from the viewpoint of a woman viewing herself in a mirror following a mastectomy. Findings suggest that each woman creates her own meaning and interpretation of self by explaining what she sees in a mirror. With a greater understanding of this phenomenon, oncology nurses can facilitate a positive experience and develop personalized discussions and interventions for women who have had a mastectomy.

Dr. Freysteinson is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at Texas Woman's University in Houston. For over 20 years, her body image research program has focused on the use of mirrors in patient care, resulting in several publications and local, national, and international presentations.

May 2012

Podcast Title: Living Through Head and Neck Cancer Treatment: Exploration of Coping Strategies and Resources Utilized by Patients with Laryngeal or Oropharyngeal Cancer

What coping strategies do patients use while receiving radiation treatments for head and neck cancer? When are physical side effects most problematic? What coping resources assist patients as they undergo treatment?

During this month's podcast, lead author Mary Ellen Haisfield-Wolfe, PhD, RN, OCN^®, will answer these questions and discuss strategies to assist patients with head and neck cancer that were presented in her May 2012 ONF article "Perspectives on Coping Among Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Receiving Radiation." Previous research investigating head and neck cancer treatment found that patients' illness experiences include physical symptoms, side effects from treatment, symptom distress, and psychological distress. This qualitative study explores coping strategies and resources utilized by patients with laryngeal or oropharyngeal cancer over four time points during radiation with or without chemotherapy.

Dr. Haisfield-Wolfe is a research nurse at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Her research focuses on the area of symptoms, including depressive symptoms, symptom distress, and uncertainty among patients with head and neck cancer.

March 2012

Podcast Title: Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting: Exploring Frequency and Coping Strategies Among Pediatric Patients With Cancer

When does nausea and vomiting usually occur in children receiving chemotherapy? What strategies do they use to cope? How effective are these strategies?

In this month's podcast, lead author Cheryl Rodgers, PhD, RN, CPNP, CPON^®, addresses these questions and presents implications for oncology nurses as she discusses her March 2012 ONF article "Children's Coping Strategies for Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting." Previous research investigating the frequency and duration of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in pediatric patients with cancer has been limited. This descriptive study not only evaluates frequency, duration, and distress of CINV but also expands upon previous research. With a greater understanding of this chemotherapy symptom experience, effective management strategies can be developed for this patient population.

Dr. Rodgers is a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatric nurse practitioner in the Cancer and Hematology Service at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Her research program focuses on symptom experiences and symptom-management interventions for pediatric bone marrow transplant recipients.

January 2012

Podcast Title: "Colorectal Cancer Screening: Factors Affecting the Decision-Making Process"

What sociocultural factors influence colorectal cancer beliefs among African Americans? Do they differ among men and women?

This month, lead author Kelly Brittain, PhD, RN, will explore these and similar questions as she discusses her January 2012 ONF article "Sociocultural Differences and Colorectal Cancer Screening Among African American Men and Women." This study expands on previous research to investigate the relationship between cultural identity; family support and influence; colorectal cancer beliefs; and informed decision making among African Americans. In this podcast, factors that affect the decision-making process related to colorectal cancer screening are presented, highlighting differences and similarities among African American men and women.

Dr. Brittain is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at Michigan State University. Her research program focuses on health behaviors with the long-term goal to develop interventions to enhance the decision-making models for appropriate colorectal cancer screening, thereby increasing screening guideline adherence and early detection and improving health outcomes.

November 2011

Podcast Title: "Coming to a Clearing in the Woods: Understanding the Personal Meaning of Breast Surveillance"

The philosopher Martin Heidegger often used the metaphor of "coming to a clearing in the woods" as a way of coming in touch with an enlightened interpretation of the world (Conroy, 2003). Lead author Meghan L. Underhill, PhD, RN, AOCNS^®, brings us to the philosophical clearing in the woods in regard to breast surveillance with her November 2011 CJON article "Engaging in Medical Vigilance: Understanding the Personal Meaning of Breast Surveillance" (co-authored by Suzanne S. Dickerson, RN, DNS).

In this podcast, Underhill and CJON Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, CRNP, explore in depth hermeneutic phenomenology and discuss how this approach to understanding the phenomenon of breast surveillance can help nurses prepare to work with women who are the "experts on their illness."

Underhill is a postdoctoral research fellow and Clinical Inquiry Specialist in the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Reference: Conroy, S. (2003). A pathway for interpretive phenomenology. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2(3), 1–43.

May 2011

Podcast Title: "Caring From Afar: How Do We Measure Distance?"

How do we define “distance” in caregiving? Is it measured in miles, time, feelings, or relationships?

This month, lead author Polly Mazanec, PhD, ACNP, AOCN^®, answers these and similar questions as she discusses her May 2011 ONF article “Lack of Communication and Control: Experiences of Distance Caregivers of Parents With Advanced Cancer.” This is the first study of its kind to describe the experience of distance caregiving, an emerging phenomenon in the United States. In this podcast, the benefits and burdens of distance caregiving are explored as well as ways to support adult children of parents with advanced cancer.

Dr. Mazanec is an assistant professor in the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, and the director of the Adult/Oncology/Palliative Care MSN Program. She also is an advanced practice nurse at the University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland. Dr. Mazanec has been a core faculty member of the End-of- Life Nursing Consortium project since 2001, teaching palliative care across the United States and internationally.

March 2011

Podcast Title: "Helping Her Heal: The Social Construction of Recovery"

Listen in as ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, interviews Barbara Cochrane, PhD, RN, FAAN, the lead author of  the March 2011 ONF article “Exploring a Diffusion of Benefit: Does a Woman With Breast Cancer Derive Benefit From an Intervention Delivered to Her Partners?” In this podcast, Dr. Cochrane elaborates on the role of partners and the promise of an indirect effect of a nursing intervention on  the psychosocial well-being of women with breast cancer.

Dr. Cochrane is an associate professor in Family and Child Nursing and the de Tornyay Endowed Professor in Healthy Aging in the School of Nursing at the University of Washington in Seattle. She also is an associate member in Public Health Sciences at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and has been a co-investigator with the Women’s Health Initiative Clinical Coordinating Center there since 1992. For the past 20 years, Dr. Cochrane’s research has focused on older women’s health and healthy aging, specifically cardiovascular health, breast cancer prevention and survivorship, menopausal symptoms, and family functioning in the context of chronic illness.

January 2011

Podcast Title: "Caring at the End-of-Life:  A Time for Personal Growth"

This month's podcast features an interview with Carla P. Hermann, PhD, RN, the lead author of the January 2011 ONF article "Determinants of Quality of Life in Patients Near the End of Life: A Longitudinal Perspective." Dr. Hermann is an expert on quality of life for patients with advanced cancer and an associate professor and director of the PhD program at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

In addition to her research interests related to quality of life at the end of life and the spiritual needs of patients with cancer,  Dr. Hermann has received such honors as the Jewish Hospital Innovation in Nursing Research Award, University of Louisville School of Nursing Research Facilitation Award, Outstanding Faculty Award  (at University of Louisville School of Nursing), and the American Cancer Society Lifesaver Award. Dr. Hermann received her PhD and Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Kentucky.

November 2010

Podcast Title: "Why Didn’t You Tell Us You Can’t Stand or Walk?!" Physical Access Barriers: A Pervasive Problem in Cancer Care

This month, ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, interviews Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc, lead author of the November 2010 ONF article "Physical Access Barriers to Care for Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer Among Women With Mobility Impairments."

Dr. Iezzoni is a physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She has published and spoken widely on risk adjustment and also studies health care quality, delivery system, and policy issues relating to persons with disabilities. Her books include When Walking Fails (2003), More Than Ramps: A Guide to Improving Health Care Quality and Access for People With Disabilities (2006), and Multiple Sclerosis (2010). Dr. Iezzoni is a member of the Institute of Medicine in the National Academy of Sciences.

July 2010

As children approach and move through adolescence, we catch glimpses of their delightful discovery of insight and imagination about their future. The diagnosis of cancer and the onset of symptoms associated with treatment must be unimaginably disruptive during this delicate time and emergence of identify. How does the experience of treatment-related fatigue affect the adolescent? Do boys experience it differently than girls? Are older teens more distressed than younger ones?

This month, ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, interviews Jeanne Erickson, PhD, RN, AOCN^®, the lead author of the July 2010 ONF article “Patterns of Fatigue in Adolescents Receiving Chemotherapy.” Listen in as Dr. Erickson discusses her article and describes patterns of fatigue through the eyes of the adolescent.

Dr. Erickson is an assistant professor and Roberts’ Scholar in the School of Nursing at the University of Virginia (UVa) in Charlottesville. She teaches oncology nursing and end-of-life care, and her program of research focuses on management of symptoms in adolescents and young adults during chemotherapy. Her research on interprofessional teaching and undergraduate nursing education led to her involvement in the Interprofessional Education Initiative between the Schools of Nursing and Medicine at UVa.

May 2010

ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, interviews authors Carolee Polek, RN, PhD, AOCNS^®, and Thomas Hardie, EdD, PMHCNS-BC, about their May 2010 ONF article “Lesbian Women and HPV Knowledge.” Cultural awareness extends beyond race and ethnicity. Every woman, regardless of her sexual orientation, needs to be informed about routine health screenings and her relative risk for the development of diseases. Despite extensive outreach aimed at younger women, it appears that our public health messages have failed to reach a sexually active subset of women.

Dr. Polek is an associate professor at the University of Delaware in Newark. She is an oncology clinical nurse specialist with AOCNS^® certification. Her specialty is cancer disparities and cancer in vulnerable populations. Dr. Polek sits on the Detection and Early Prevention Committee of the Delaware Cancer Consortium. Dr. Hardie’s specialty is psychiatry. He is a full professor and Director of Nursing Research and Grants at Widener University in Chester, PA. He also is adjunct full professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia.

March 2010

How do parents make end-of-life decisions for their children? How can nurses help parents to accept the inevitable? Is end-of-life decision making in pediatric BMT the same as for children dying from cancer?

Cindy Rishel, RN, BSN, OCN^®, will address these questions and discuss why pediatric bone marrow transplant nursing should be viewed as a specialty practice and not merely an extension of pediatric oncology nursing. Rishel is lead author of the article "Conceptual Framework for the Study of Parental End-of-Life Decision Making in Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation," which was published in the March 2010 issue of the Oncology Nursing Forum.

Rishel is the Patient Care Manager for Adult and Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant and Adult Hematology/Oncology Inpatient Unit at University Medical Center in Tucson, AZ. She also is a doctoral candidate in nursing at the University of Arizona, College of Nursing. Her special interest is pediatric oncology, and her dissertation focuses on parent decision making for DNR for a child who is dying following a bone marrow transplant.

November 2009

What do you do if your patient says "If I can’t feel it, it’s not there"? What situational and cultural factors are barriers to participating in clinical trials? What are women’s reasons for diagnostic delay?

Debra Wujcik, RN, PhD, AOCN^®, will answer these and other questions in her interview for the November ONF Podcast. Wujcik’s research focuses on barriers to cancer care and clinical trial participation in minority and medically underserved populations. In this podcast, she will help us understand why one-third of women with abnormal mammograms experienced diagnostic delay and why women with self-reported breast symptoms are more likely to experience delay than women with mammography-identified abnormalities.

Wujcik is a long-time member of the Oncology Nursing Society, the editor of ONS Connect, and the lead author of the November 2009 ONF article "Delay in Diagnostic Testing After Abnormal Mammography in Low-Income Women." Wujcik also is director of clinical trials at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and associate professor in the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt University.

September 2009

What cultural beliefs are counterproductive to patient care? How do healthcare providers and family members opinions differ on care giving? Are there ways to optimize staffing models to improve culturally sensitivity of the healthcare culture?

Carolyn Spence Cagle, PhD, RNC, will answer these and other questions in her interview for the September 2009 ONF Podcast. Dr. Cagle is lead author of the September ONF article "Blending Voices of Mexican American Cancer Caregivers and Healthcare Providers to Improve Care." Her co-author on the article is Elizabeth Wolff, RN, BSN.

Dr. Cagle is associate professor of nursing at the College of Health and Human Sciences at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. Her research for her article was supported by the Beta Alpha Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau Grant, and by the Texas Christian University Undergraduate Research Grant to support Foundational Ideas for Development awarded to co-author Elizabeth Wolffe.

July 2009

What is the evidence for the positive effect of prayer? How can a nurse determine which patients would or could benefit from this intervention? How does centering prayer differ from transcendental meditation, progressive relaxation, or just "praying"?

In the July 2009 ONF Podcast, Mary Johnson and Marlene Frost, RN, PhD, AOCN^®, share their experience with, demonstrate their dedication to, and describe their research on this provocative topic. Listen in as Johnson and Frost are asked questions about centering prayer and discuss their July ONF article "Centering Prayer for Women Receiving Chemotherapy for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer: A Pilot Study," which was co-authored by Johnson, Frost, Teri Britt Pipe, RN, PhD, Wesley O. Petersen, PhD, Mashele Huschka, RN, Mary M. Gallenberg, MD, Prema Peethambaram, MD, and Jeff Sloan, PhD.

Chaplain Johnson is an assistant professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and the Coordinator of Education for Mayo Chaplain Services. Her area of specialty is gynecologic oncology, and her research interests focus on coping and adaptation in the setting of ovarian cancer. She has been a chaplain at Mayo Clinic for nearly 30 years.

Dr. Frost is an assistant professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and a professional associate in research. Her research areas of expertise include quality of life, patient-reported outcomes among patients with benign breast disease, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and women at increased risk for breast cancer.

March 2009

Breast cancer survivors can feel alone as they experience ongoing symptom burden and a changed sense of identity and connection. Mary Rosedale, PhD, PMHNP-BC, NEA-BC, who is the author of the March 2009 ONF article "The Survivor-Loneliness of Women Following Breast Cancer," says, "As even more women live with ongoing symptoms and awareness of their mortality, it is vital that treatment shifts toward greater attention to survivorship." Dr. Rosedale discusses this and more thoughts on loneliness in the March installment of ONF Podcast.

Dr. Rosedale is an assistant professor at New York University in Greenwich Village. There, she specializes in women's mental health issues across the lifespan. She is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner in private practice and is involved in the emerging area of novel brain stimulations treatments for psychiatric illness.

January 2009

ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, interviews Ruth McCorkle, PhD, FAAN, about her perspective on the ONS research agenda, translating research into practice, the "best of the past," and more. (View the abstracts for the ONS 10th National Conference on Cancer Nursing Research.)

Dr. McCorkle is Florence Schorske Wald Professor of Nursing, interim director of the Adult Advanced Practice Nursing Specialty, and co-director of Dissemination Core of the Center for Self and Family Management of Vulnerable Populations at Yale School of Nursing in New Haven, CT. She served as chair of the Doctor of Nursing Science Program from 1998-2004, is the program leader for Cancer Control at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Yale School of Medicine.

The National Institutes of Health and other prestigious groups continuously have funded Dr. McCorkle's work on managing life with cancer. Her research addresses the effects of the APN role on patient and caregiver outcomes across the illness trajectory. Besides her current professorship at Yale, Dr. McCorkle has taught, conducted research, and mentored new investigators at a variety of institutions across the country, including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, and University of Iowa. Some of her many honors include the Distinguished Merit Award from the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care, the Distinguished Research Award from the Oncology Nursing Society, and the title of Nurse Scientist of the Yearby the Council of Nurse Researchers of the American Nurses Association.

November 2008

ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, interviews Verna Hendricks-Ferguson, RN, PhD, about her November 2008 ONF article "Physical Symptoms of Children Receiving Pediatric Hospice Care at Home During the Last Week of Life."

This important contribution to the scientific literature

• Explores the experiences of children of various ages as they receive end-of-life care from a pediatric hospice
• Reveals parents' preferences for strategies used by pediatric hospice programs to support dying children
• Examines hope and spiritual well-being in adolescents with cancer.

Dr. Hendricks-Ferguson is professor at the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College in St. Louis, MO, where she lectures about and studies palliative and end-of-life care communication with children diagnosed with cancer and their parents. Dr. Hendricks-Ferguson has experience in pediatric oncology working with nurses during this difficult period of care. In 2007, she was the recipient of a grant from the Oncology Nursing Foundation to study palliative and end-of-life communication by pediatric oncology nurses.

September 2008

ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, CRNP, interviews Sally L. Maliski, RN, PhD, about her September 2008 ONF article "Symptom Clusters Related to Prostate Cancer Treatment." Listen to Dr. Maliski as she "weighs in" on the current controversy about prostate cancer screening and answers the questions "Who is the best observer of clusters of symptoms—the patient or the spouse/partner?" and "Do symptoms always cluster?" Her important contribution to the scientific literature represents the only published exploration of symptom clusters among men treated for early-stage prostate cancer.

Dr. Maliski is assistant professor at University of California in Los Angeles School of Nursing, where she teaches qualitative research methods. Dr. Maliski has studied the experiences of patients with prostate cancer and their spouses for over 15 years and has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles on the experiences of patients with prostate cancer and their spouses. She is an expert in the field and suggests that this group of men may benefit from interventions targeting clusters of symptoms.

July 2008

Are anger and feelings of blame appropriate emotions for family members who are caring for a loved one with cancer? Is the withholding of helping behaviors ever justified or understandable? These and other provocative questions are answered by Michelle M. Lobchuk, RN, PhD, as she shares her experiences working with family caregivers of people with lung cancer and talks about the July 2008 ONF article that she co-authored with Susan E. McClement, RN, PhD, Christine McPherson, RN, PhD, and Mary Cheang, M Math. The article is titled "Does Blaming the Patient With Lung Cancer Affect the Helping Behavior of Primary Caregivers?"

Listen in as ONF Associate Editor Ellen Giarelli, EdD, RN, CRNP, interviews Dr. Lobchuk about how she uses attribution theory to clarify these controversial feelings experienced by family members and describes the value of empathic communication. She also will provide suggestions for how nurses may help caregivers and patients work through the negative feelings associated with a lung cancer diagnosis and turn destructive responses to helping responses.

Lobchuk is an assistant professor on the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada. She holds a Research Scientist Award with the National Cancer Institute of Canada, and her work is funded by the Canadian Cancer Society. She is the author of numerous articles describing communication competence, perspective-taking, and the complex and enigmatic dynamics between patients with cancer and their family caregivers during the illness experience.

May 2008

Listen in as ONF Editor Rose Mary Carroll-Johnson, MN, RN, interviews Cheryl Cox, RN, PhD, lead author of the May 2008 ONF article "Supporting Breast Self-Examination in Female Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Secondary Analysis of Behavioral Intention." The article contributes some important findings to the growing body of knowledge about the care of survivors of childhood cancer. Dr. Cox shares her research experiences with children who have survived childhood cancer and its treatments and relates what we have learned about survivorship in general from this ever-increasing population of patients with special nursing needs.

Dr. Cox is an associate member of the Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN.

March 2008

Listen in as ONF Editor Rose Mary Carroll-Johnson, MN, RN, interviews Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, FAAN, and Nessa Coyle, PhD, RN, FAAN, about their March 2008 ONF article "The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing." The article touches on some of the content in their newly published book on the same topic. Both authors share their experiences with suffering in caring for patients with cancer and discuss how nurses can develop techniques for easing patient suffering and the role of nursing education and mentoring in this process. Nurses who care for patients and families regularly also need to protect themselves from compassion fatigue. Dr. Coyle and Dr. Ferrell discuss this danger and some of the ways in which nurses can develop some resilience.

Ferrell is a world-renowned expert in nursing research and end-of-life care of patients with cancer. She is a Research Scientist at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Southern California. Coyle is a Nurse Practitioner in the Supportive Care Program of the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Ferrell and Coyle are authors of a book titled The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing, published in 2008 by Oxford Press.