I am considering nursing as a career, I just applied to a nursing school. How do you become an oncology nurse? Do you just take specialized classes or is there more I need to do, or can someone point me in the right direction?
submitted by Kelly in Pittsburgh, PA
When I started, 25 years ago, everything was in the hospital. Now, the desire to specialize can make you miss some really great opportunities. tart on a Med Surg unit if you have that available to you. All Oncology patients have a diverse list of co morbidities. It really important to learn about Diabetes and Heart Disease. If you do not have a Med Surg unit, a Medical Oncology Unit will do. I would suggest about one year there before you decide to specialize. Then you need a mentor to talk to to see where you might want to go and how. I was lucky enough to get invited to work at an inpatient Hospice Respite unit, the first of it's kind affiliated with a hospital. I loved it and knew Oncology would be for mr forever. After three years there, I went to a hospital based Chemotherapy team, a doctor's office where I mixed and administered chemo, a doctor's office where I was a practice manager, and a free standing chemotherapy suite where we gave chemo. Now I am doing Bone Marrow Transplant and Stem Cell collections. The point of this long winded story is that even in specializing, it is never stagnant!
Good luck!
Eileen
submitted by Eileen in Emerson,NJ
@ November 18, 2008 - 05:11 PM
Good luck!
Eileen