210 Volume 25, Issue 2, sprIng 2015 • CanadIan onCology nursIng Journal reVue CanadIenne de soIns InfIrmIers en onCologIe
FEA TUR ES /R U bR iq UE S internAtionAl PersPectiVe
by Savitri Singh-Carlson
T
he Oncology Nurses Association of India (ONAI), formed in November of 1994, is situated in the Nursing Department at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India (https://tmc.gov.in/med- ical/departments/nursing.htm#). The ONAI organization promotes Professional Nursing through membership of National Nurses Association (American Nurses Association, http://nursingworld.org/)and the National Oncology Nursing Association (Oncology Nursing Society
[ONS], https://www.ons.org/). It has an affiliation with International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC, http://
www.isncc.org/) and Australian Cancer Nursing Association (Cancer Nurses Society of Australia [CNSA], https://www.
cnsa.org.au/).
With five chapters within India, it has more than 400 active ONAI mem- bers. The ONAI set the criteria for starting a chapter as having a min- imum of 30 members according to Sulochana Retnamony, Deputy Nursing Superintendent of Tata Memorial Nursing and ONAI President. The vision of ONAI is: Excellence in Service, Research and Education. Its aims and objectives include:
a. To render quality patient care;
b. To update the current advances related to practice and skills;
c. To develop and disseminate evi- dence-based treatment, and;
d. To provide a link within India and outside India.
Its activities include yearly or biennial conferences for oncology nurses in India, with awards for conference presentations, and a quarterly newsletter “Oncology Nursing Newsletter”. ONAI continually
strives to provide timely educational sem- inars on cancer awareness for upcoming oncology nurses. This national orga- nization’s entrepreneurship in raising Professional Consciousness of Indian oncol-
ogy nurses is applauded for its innova- tiveness and for providing a forum for
integrity and advocacy of oncology nurs- ing in India.
As reported in an earlier article, “cur- ricula taught in nursing schools for edu- cation of the general nurse, as well as the standards of practice and guidelines under which each country prepares nurses for practice, differ from coun- try to country” (Singh-Carlson, 2014, p.
109). While this is true for general nurs- ing education standardized curricula in most countries, including the Indian Nursing Council, there is a challenge when developing practice standards and competencies for specialized oncology nurses. This is because a national foun- dation for professional oncology nurs- ing standards of care, and a definition of the roles and the necessary compe- tencies has not been put in place yet in India. Without a national foundational document that outlines guidelines for practice standards and competencies for specialized oncology nurses, each cancer setting (program or centre) has the task of preparing its own docu- ments and educational content when educating their staff nurses to be com- petent in preparing and delivering che- motherapy, radiation, and other related skills for providing quality cancer care.
In January 2015, Akanksha Dicholkar, Chief Nursing Officer, Dr.
Vivek Radhakrishnan, Chief Medical Oncologist of Aster MedCity Oncology Care in Cochin, Kerala, and I success- fully conducted a workshop in Oncology Nursing in India. An interdisciplinary team presented topics that were relevant to oncology care with invitations sent to nurses in neighbouring cancer settings.
Following this successful workshop and assessment of the nurses’ educa- tional needs, our next task was to pre- pare practice standards, competencies and guidelines for oncology specialized nurses in preparation for the opening of the new oncology unit at Aster MedCity.
After reviewing the Canadian Association of Nursing Oncology (CANO) and ONS published standards of practice and
competencies, the team created a docu- ment that ensured appropriate fields of education for the specialized oncology nurse and created skills mastery levels to be utilized as part of the curricula.
In order to ensure this document covered depth and specificity for qual- ity patient oncology care and safety stan- dards for nurses, the team approached the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Trivandrum to examine their exist- ing practice standards, competencies and curricula. This Kerala state-funded cancer centre has been in existence for more than 10 years. I was invited as a guest lecturer to the RCC and con- ducted a verbal assessment of the cur- rent educational level of specialized oncology nurses. This assessment revealed a depth of clinical and leader- ship expertise, which I recognized as a combination of academic and experi- ential knowledge comparable to that of cancer care nurses in most settings.
Most of the oncology nurses at RCC in Trivandrum had autonomy to make clinical decisions within their scope of practice. However, they also desired Professionalism, Advocacy, and the abil- ity to collaborate and share evidence from their practice that would allow change.
And they faced the continuing chal- lenge that oncology nurse leaders and educators at each cancer setting prepare their own documents for practice stan- dards, competencies and protocols to train nurses for moving from general to specialized oncology nurses. Content for developing these documents was derived from CANO and ONS, but mostly from the latter, as the RCC nurse educator was an ONS member. Credit was given to both these international organizations in their curricula.
Nurse leaders at RCC and Aster MedCity were able to share their knowl- edge and help to strengthen the devel- opment of practice standards and competencies to guide the special- ized oncology nursing training at Aster MedCity. Consequently, following the meeting of oncology nurse leaders from various centres, the next steps will be to unite Kerala oncology nurse leaders from various regional state and private cancer centres to collabo- rate on the development of a document
About tHe AutHor
Savitri Singh-Carlson, Associate Professor, California State University, Long Beach, California.
Email: [email protected]
211
Canadian OnCOlOgy nursing JOurnal • VOlume 25, issue 2, spring 2015 reVue Canadienne de sOins infirmiers en OnCOlOgie
FEA TUR ES /R U bR iq UE S
PersPectiVe internAtionAle
par Savitri Singh-Carlson
F
ondée en novembre 1994, l’Oncology Nurses Association of India (ONAI) est située dans le Service de Soins infir- miers du Tata Memorial Hospital à Mumbai en Inde (https://tmc.gov.in/medical/departments/nursing.htm#).
L’ONAI préconise des soins infirmiers pro- fessionnels à travers son appartenance à la National Nurses Association (American Nurses Association, http://nursingworld.
org/) et à la National Oncology Nursing Association (Oncology Nursing Society
[ONS], https://www.ons.org/). Elle est affiliée à l’International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC, http://
www.isncc.org/) et à l’Australian Cancer Nursing Association (Cancer Nurses Society of Australia [CNSA], https://www.
cnsa.org.au/).
Avec cinq sections régionales en Inde, l’ONAI compte plus de 400 membres actifs. Selon Mme Sulochana Retnamony, surintendante adjointe des soins infir- miers de Tata Memorial Nursing et prési- dente de l’ONAI, l’organisme a fixé comme
critère un minimum de 30 membres pour établir une section régionale. La vision de l’ONAI est la suivante : l’excellence dans les services, dans la recherche et dans l’en- seignement. Elle a les objectifs suivants : a. Offrir aux patients des soins de
qualité;
b. Adopter les progrès actuels en matière de pratique et de compétences;
c. Développer et diffuser des traite- ments fondés sur des preuves;
d. Établir un lien au sein et à l’extérieur de l’Inde.
Parmi ses activés, l’ONAI organise des conférences annuelles ou bien- nales pour les infirmières en oncolo- gie de l’Inde, au cours desquelles elle remet des prix pour les présentations, et publie un bulletin trimestriel, Oncology Nursing Newsletter. Elle s’efforce conti- nuellement d’offrir des séminaires éducatifs de sensibilisation au cancer pour les infirmières et infirmiers en oncologie débutants. L’initiative de cet organisme national cherchant à déve- lopper la conscience professionnelle des
infirmières et infirmiers en oncologie indiens a été applaudie pour son inno- vation et pour avoir établi un forum de discussion sur l’intégrité et la promo- tion des soins infirmiers en oncologie en Inde.
Comme signalé dans un article pré- cédent, « Les programmes d’études enseignés dans les écoles de sciences infirmières pour la formation des infir- mières généralistes, ainsi que les lignes directrices et les normes de pratique en vertu desquelles chaque pays assure la formation de ses infirmières, diffèrent d’un pays à l’autre. » (Singh-Carlson, 2014, p. 113). C’est sans doute vrai en ce
qui concerne les programmes éducatifs normalisés en soins infirmiers géné- raux, y compris ceux de l’India Nursing Council. Cependant, c’est un défi que d’élaborer les normes de pratique et les compétences pour les infirmières et infirmiers spécialisés en oncologie. Cela est dû au fait que des normes profes- sionnelles de soins infirmiers en onco- logie, ainsi qu’une définition des rôles et des compétences nécessaires, n’ont pas encore été établies en Inde. En l’absence d’un document de base national décri- vant les lignes directrices des normes de pratique et des compétences néces- saires aux infirmières et infirmiers spé- cialisés en oncologie, chaque milieu de that describes practice standards and
competencies and will guide special- ized oncology nursing practice at the state level. There will be several proce- dural steps to undertake and organiza- tions with whom to engage. However, their mission is to promote Excellence in Oncology Nursing that enhances the quality of cancer care for patients and their families. Their aim is to develop a strategic plan that will promote profes- sionalism, innovation, autonomy, advocacy, collaboration, research, and continued edu- cation. The ultimate goal is to gather
evidence that will inform policy changes at the national ONAI level for the stan- dardization of curricula and to develop an advanced practice nurse role as an oncology clinical nurse specialist.
Is this a lofty goal? We don’t think so. This goal is in sync with the ISNCC World Cancer Day 2015 statement on The Role of Cancer Nurses in the World: “Internationally, the contribu- tion of cancer nurses must be valued at all levels of the health care and polit- ical system; failure to do so will have a detrimental impact globally” (ISNCC).
In order to deliver quality cancer care, oncology nurses require proper educa- tion if they are to gain knowledge, be skilful, and master competencies that are unique to cancer care. ISNCC fur- ther states that cancer nursing educa- tion must be: “based on standardized, evidence-based curricula, adapted to meet each country’s needs and based on lifelong learning” (ISNCC, n.d.) http://
www.isncc.org/?page=WCD2015. We will report on the ongoing success of this goal in future reports.
reFerences
International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC). World Cancer Day 2015. Retreived from http://www.isncc.
org/?page=WCD2015
Singh-Carlson, S. (2014). Cancer nursing in low-middle income countries. Canadian Association of Nursing Oncology, 4(2), 109–112.
Au suJet De l’Auteure
Savitri Singh-Carlson, Professeure agrégée, California State University, Long Beach, Californie.
Email: [email protected]
