The Oncology Nursing Society Board of Directors has approved the merger of the Home Care and Hospice SIGs. The new name will be the Home Care & Palliative Care (HOM) SIG.

Marie Bakitas had an article, Effects of a Palliative Care Intervention on Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Advanced Cancer: The Project ENABLE II Randomized Controlled Trial, published in JAMA. She is an ONS member and Advanced Nursing Research member.

Beth Mena Coordinator and Cyndi Cramer Coordinator-Elect 2010-2011

Peter Miller Newspaper editor and Beth Mena Coordinator

Just a small note to welcome you to our Home Care and Palliative Care SIG.  Our SIG was formed from members of both the Home Care and Hospice SIGs in 2009. We welcome new ideas for projects, Congress and IOL Submissions, Newsletter articles and any updated information you wish to share with our members.  Your Leadership team members are

Beth Mena Coordinator
bethmena@charter.net

Cynthia Cramer, Coordinator-Elect
cyndi@realnurseed.com

Peter Miller, Newsletter Editor 
Pal8pete@wildblue.net

Pat Frank, Web Administrator 
charlesfrank@comcast.net.

Dear All

APF members,FDA Briefing on Unapproved Opioids was held on April 9, 2009.An emergency stakeholder briefing was convened via conference call by the FDA to address concerns that have been raised by the pain and palliative care communities regarding warnings to nine companies to stop manufacturing and distributing 14 opioid analgesics within 60 days. APF participated in this briefing. A replay of the briefing will be available until April 15, 2009 at 11:59 PM EDT. To hear the replay, callers can dial 1-866-419-2678.Douglas Throckmorton, M.D., Deputy Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research stated that the FDA understands that patients dealing with terminal illness have unique needs that should have been taken into consideration. The FDA reported that they are taking immediate corrective action regarding the availability of the 20mg/ml morphine sulfate solution. They regretted that they failed to include representatives from hospice and palliative care organizations in deliberations over this particular issue and will improve their consultation process with key stakeholders in the future.

The FDA commented that they were not aware of the extent of disruption in patient care because of their ruling or that a critical shortage of some of these medications already exists. We would like to acknowledge them for their swift action in this case as they became aware of the impact this disruption was having on the community. In order to help remedy this; they would like to hear from providers if there are critical shortages in medications to help manage patients optimally.

The FDA has asked to be notified of drug shortages in your area as they arise. Contact FDA by emailing this information to drugshortages@fda.hhs.gov. All correspondence should include your professional information, name of the drug, your location, name of wholesaler (if available) and identify yourself as an APF member.To stay informed of drug shortages, visit the FDA website at: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/shortages/Our voices can make a difference.If you are receiving this e-mail for the first time as a forward from a friend, please register here to continue to receive news and action items regarding pain management.

Sincerely,

It is a time to focus on the need for mentoring and to assure a brighter future. You can partricipate by becoming a mentor or mentee through the Home Care & Palliative Care SIG Mentoring Program.

Did you know that the Home Care & Palliative Care SIG provides a formal mentoring program for oncology nurse professionals? Joining is easy. To enroll, visit www.3creekmentoring.com/ONS to start the process.

Mentoring relationships officially begin once a mentee contacts a prospective mentor (through the online program) and both parties agree to a mentoring arrangement. These relationships are ongoing with the majority of communication occurring by email and through the online program. However, mentors and mentees may also connect in-person or by telephone (at their own expense) as deemed appropriate and convenient for them.

Mentoring relationships can be either short or long in duration. However, participants should be willing to make a minimum commitment of two hours per month to the program. If at anytime an arrangement is not meeting the desired expectations, a mentor or mentee can be paired with another member participating in the program.

Please direct any questions to membership@ons.org.

Beth Mena our Coordinator received one of the Congress Scholarships this year.

Cyndi Cramer is our new Coordinator- elect. Welcome aboard the leadership team.

Peter Miller our newsletter editor is in the final stage of writing a chapter for the updated ONS publication "Nursing Management". 

Pat Frank received a grant from Penns Wood Chapter to attend 2010 Congress.

The entire leadership team attended Congress this year.  Our annual meeting was attended by 35 people.  We were able to offer CNE for our 3 topic roundtable discussions monitored by the leadership team.  Topics included - Oral Chemotherapy Education and Resource Tools on our SIG VC - Best practice method for care planning and transitioning care plans from hospital to home effectively - Ethical issues with futile care - how do we cope?  Check out a summary of the discussion in the our next newsletter.

Great job was done by all the presenters at Congress - our SIG sponsored multiple sessions this year.

Beth Mena and Pat Frank will be attending the 2010 SIG Leadership Workshop in Pittsburgh July 15-17th. Pat wil be talking on Leadership and Mentorship.