Strategies for effective continuing education by oncology nurses.

Oncology nurses in many roles, including educator, clinical specialist, manager, and nurse practitioner, frequently are involved in continuing-education (CE) activities. The rapidly changing field of oncology demands constant education of staff regarding new innovations in care, including new drugs and treatments available. A continuous need also exists for basic oncology education of new employees and graduates to address the key topics of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, pain and symptom management, and others. The authors, nurse researchers at City of Hope (COH) National Medical Center in Duarte, CA, have had the opportunity to implement several major CE programs over the past few years (see Table 1). Through this article, the authors hope to share some of the strategies they have found most effective in teaching oncology nurses. This article presents a summary of the educational programs from which the strategies were derived followed by a list of strategies synthesized from the projects.