Episode 323: What It’s Like to Participate in an ONS Think Tank

“Instead of creating silos, how can we work together, create networks, and elaborate more in the future? Because we have such a robust wealth of knowledge and expertise, that ONS is very good at helping to facilitate that,” Jan Tipton, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCN®, clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about her volunteer experience in a think tank held during the 2024 ONS Congress®.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 

Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by August 2, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to participation in professional collaboration opportunities. 

Episode Notes 

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. 

To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast™ Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

Highlights From This Episode

“Individuals that would be helpful for this type of think tank would be those that view themselves as change agents, those who are willing and motivated to confront uncomfortable truths, persistent issues, that might think of a better way to do things. In addition, people that are highly inquisitive, curious, eager to learn, and those that have out-of-the-box type thinking, flexible, creative, and would work well in this group environment.” TS 3:29

“We all came from very diverse backgrounds, all over the country, and it was a great opportunity to blend our backgrounds in academia, clinical practice, and then be able to share not only some of the dilemmas and hardships that we see, but then to recommend some actions for the future.” TS 6:12

“But things that sparked my interest were things that were very small scale and then things that were very large scale that everyone could benefit from hearing. And one that comes to mind was, in a very small way, how can we collaborate with our various backgrounds and PhDs and DNPs and have more of a meet-and-greet? We’re sometimes in our silos. And how can we create opportunities for each other to learn from each other, to have these meetings, maybe in social venues, to learn about interests, research, collaborations in the future?” TS 6:55

“I think it’s important to challenge yourself to be open to new ideas, to keep an open mind. Consider that your idea may not be agreeable to everyone. So to think through, everyone that you may be participating with and have a heightened awareness of all the differences that we may have in our different backgrounds, gender, characteristics that we believe in, in terms of our practice. So thinking through those things in advance and being open to new ideas, I think, is really important and sort of self-reflecting before the event.” TS 15:41

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