ASCO Offers an ‘Eye-Opening Experience’ for Nurse Practitioners
An oncology nurse practitioner highlights the benefits of attending conferences like the ASCO Annual Meeting.
The ASCO Annual Meeting can help oncology nurses network and see how clinicians around the globe are treating patients with cancer, explained Rosemarie Wellman, APN.
Wellman is a nurse practitioner manager at the John Theurer Cancer Center in Hackensack, NJ. She sat down with Oncology Nursing News at the conference to explain what she and her colleagues can take away from ASCO. She mentioned the networking potential with doctors, nurses, and drug representatives. The sessions have also allowed her to see the latest treatments and research, as well as how her cancer care colleagues treat the disease. Wellman mentioned that she hopes to attend a session for every disease type.
“It has been an eye-opening experience to talk to other people and see what they do [in cancer care],” Wellman said.
Additionally, Wellman mentioned that research being presented at the conference has potential to change the way that oncology nurses care for their patients.
“There's such a wide array of sessions and posters, and I think that nurses could come away with a lot of information that will be put to practice into their practice.”
Transcript:
This is actually the first time I am attending ASCO. And I have found it to be wonderful because of what's here.
There's great networking potential because you get to meet doctors, nurses, drug [representatives]. So it has been an eye-opening experience to talk to other people and see what they do and where they're from.
And then going to the sessions. I've only been to a few so far, but they have been amazing. And you get to learn so much and see what other people are doing.
Even the [presentations] that are geared towards doctors, as a nurse practitioner, I feel like I'm learning. And then I can always go to one of my physicians if I have any questions. But I think there's enough. There's such a wide array of sessions and posters. And I think that nurses could come away with a lot of information that will be put...into their practice.
