About this episode
"Don't be afraid of applying, even if you've never planned a conference before, and you think, 'Well, I have no idea what I'm doing.' You probably know more than you think you do. You probably have more connections than you think you do, and it is such a worthwhile experience," Colleen Erb, MSN, CRNP, ACNP-BC, AOCNP®, hematology and oncology nurse practitioner at Jefferson Health Asplundh Cancer Pavilion in Willow Grove, PA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, conferences oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about serving on a planning committee for an ONS conference. Music Credit: " Fireflies and Stardust " by Kevin MacLeod Episode Notes Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes This episode is not eligible for NCPD contact hours. Oncology Nursing Podcast ™ episodes: Episode 323: What It's Like to Participate in an ONS Think Tank Episode 320: What It's Like to Be a Peer Reviewer or Associate Editor for an ONS Journal Episode 309: What Brings You to ONS Congress®? Episode 183: How Oncology Nurses Find and Use Credible Patient Education Resources ONS Voice articles: What Brings You Value in ONS? You Can Thank a Volunteer for That The Power of Connection in Oncology Nursing What Brings You Value in ONS? You Can Thank a Volunteer for That The Power of Connection in Oncology Nursing Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: What Is It Like to Chair the ONS Bridge™ Content Planning Team? ONS Volunteer Opportunities ONS Congress ONS Evidence-Based Practice Learning Library 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 "I saw a link on the ONS website looking for volunteer opportunities and applied, not thinking that I'd actually get chosen because I had never done anything like this before. I had spoken at conferences, but I had never been part of the planning committee. The application [had] some open-ended questions about what your expertise is and where your interests lie. … And then I got a phone call from the planning chair for that year, and we talked a little bit more in depth about the questions that were on the application, and my interests, and how I thought I would fit on the team." TS 2:05 "The main part [of the work] was topic selection and then speaker selection once we narrowed down the topics. I feel like there was a lot of brainstorming and group effort to both of those things. You don't have to individually have an exact topic or an exact speaker. There was a lot of 'I think this general broad topic would be good,' and then we narrowed it down as a group to something that would fit into a 45-minute presentation." TS 4:30 "We talked about interventional radiology and how it seemed like it was taking on much more of a bigger role in oncology and how that could fit into the conference and whether we wanted to have a specific topic or an overview of the things that interventional radiology can offer for oncology patients. And we ended up doing kind of like a 101 topic on that one, because it was a newer topic that people were kind of interested in just hearing, like, 'Hey, what do you guys do for cancer patients?'" TS 8:44 "I learned a lot about the backstage process of conferences. I had spoken before, but seeing the other side of it was a whole different picture—and all the work that goes into it—and I really learned a lot about picking the topics and how do we find the best information and the best sort of new themes to present to every time." TS 12:04 "Just do it. Don't be afraid of applying, even if you've never planned a conference before, and you think, 'Well, I have no idea what I'm doing.' You probably know more than you think you do. You probably have more connections than you think you do, and it is such a worthwhile experience. And you learn so much about yourself and about the other people on the team. And the information that you're presenting just is huge for a lot of people. So if you're even thinking about it, just fill out the application." TS 14:06