Learn how nurse advocates can help the oncology nursing workforce in California cope with retention and burnout while addressing the increasing needs of the aging population with ANA\California Member and media-trained nurse, Cristine Joligon, MSN, BSN, RN, OCN, BMTCN, NI-BC.
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Jared Fesler 0:16
Welcome to the Amplified RN News Show where we're turning up the volume on nursing news in California. I'm your host, Jared Fesler and today we're going to be diving into the topic of thriving in oncology and approaches to mitigate burnout and enhance nurse retention. We're joined by ANA\California member and media-trained nurse Cristine Joligonn. Cristine, thank you so much for being here today. Tell us why you're an expert on this topic.
Cristine Joligon 0:38
Hi, Jared, thank you for having me. It's really quite a treat to be here. Well, my name is Cristine Joligon. I'm a senior oncology nurse navigator for National Cancer Institute or NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in southern California. With over 15 years of nursing experience and three board certifications in various fields, such as oncology, and nursing informatics, I'm excited to share my expertise related to keeping nurses balanced and keeping oncology nurses within oncology.
Jared Fesler 1:11
Wonderful. So we're no stranger and our nurses tuning into the amplified our news show are no stranger to burnout. And the discussions around nursing shortages here in California. So can you tell us a little bit more about what is the impact happening within the oncology nursing community?
Cristine Joligon 1:29
So that's a great question. I'd like to start off by pointing out to a recent statement that was released by the Oncology Nursing Society national on LinkedIn where there was a study from the clinical Journal of Nursing that was released and brought attention to the immediate past president Donnie Garner, that oncology nurses, particularly new grad nurses are amongst the highest turnover in the cancer community. And that's alarming given that there's about 2 million newly diagnosed cancer patients in the US every year. And, and when we lose those new grad nurses, that's about 12 weeks of training, even about a year for a new grad nurse to really feel comfortable and competent in their role in some of these residency programs, and on top of that, when our experienced nurses leaves, that leaves, opportunities for mentorship amongst the new grad nurses that continue to encourage and foster their career in oncology, and particularly, some people that can feel the most impact are our patients. So they really value experience oncology nurses that have been around the block for a while that can really speak to a lot of their experiences, understand their perspectives. Know, for example, Hey, you know, what, if, if you put an ice pack before this kind of treatment, or, or this kind of chemotherapy, that's going to lessen some of those side effects, you know, those are the kinds of knowledges that that's important to retain in the field. And most importantly, Nurse executives would be would be concerned about this problem as well, because they do monitor for example, Nurse turnover rate. And, for example, my institution, our nurse turnover rate is very low, it's about 8%. And nationally, it's about over 20%. And, and that kind of retention, oncology nurses in particular in in organizations is important because that contributes to quality care metrics, and, and even national designations that are important for patients to look at, like for example, magnet designation related to patient satisfaction and nursing satisfaction.
Jared Fesler 3:51
So with an aging population, you're then saying, and with poor retention numbers, or at least retention numbers, not where they should be. You're saying the oncology nursing community will not be able to provide the experience needed to take care of this aging population. Is that correct?
Cristine Joligon 4:11
I think it would be a challenge unless we continue to foster strategies that encourage oncology nurses to stay within the field and find different kinds of meaningful purpose or, or roles that allow them to continue to care for their patients in a compassionate way.
Jared Fesler 4:31
Let's discuss some of those solutions. What are you proposing for oncology nurses, either new grad or early career nurses to stay within the profession? What do you recommend?
Cristine Joligon 4:44
So for new grad nurses, I reckon recommend, for example, a solution where it encourages new grads and even early career nurses to mid career nurses to know symbolizes any kinds of feelings of burnout, having a shared forum, getting involved in, for example, healing circles that provide them with non judgmental space to verbalize some of the feelings that they experience, particularly related to oncology when you can be exposed to death and dying situations often in your role. And then part of those strategies is even making it fun for for the nursing units like, Could we have a bulletin board to share things that you do to rest and rejuvenate? Can we have some kind of campaign to encourage nurses to reintroduce joy in a daily setting that allows them to keep their their work light, while meaningful as well,
Jared Fesler 5:49
From an operational perspective, under the purview of nursing leadership and executives, what are you recommending the organization's do?
Cristine Joligon 5:59
I think it's important that nurse executive support these kinds of campaigns to promote healthy nurses in her healthy work environments. So encouraging kind of marketing campaigns that allows nurses to disconnect and even participate in these kinds of forums. And also, if there's time where you know that that early or mid career nurse needs to transition to other roles, supporting programs that allow nurses to transition to explore other roles in the organization that really allowed them to excel in utilizing that knowledge and foundation that they built from other roles in the foundation or excuse me in the organization.
Jared Fesler 6:40
Well, Cristine, thank you so much for being on the show today. It is interesting and helpful to understand unique perspectives of the nursing shortage and burnout within this profession. There are many different impacts that are happening across the different specialties. And so to shed light on some solutions that hopefully oncology nurses can engage in nurse leadership can share as really helpful. So thank you, Cristine, for joining the show. And for those tuning into the Amplified RN News Show. We'll see you in the next episode.
Cristine Joligon 7:08
Thank you, Jared.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai