Highlights of ONS Congress 2023 With Maria Badillo, MSN, RN, OCN®, CCRP

Oncology Data Advisor: Welcome to Oncology Data Advisor. Today we're here at ONS Congress, and I'm joined by Maria Badillo, who is on our Editorial Board. Thanks so much for coming on today, Maria.

Maria Badillo, MSN, RN, OCN^®, CCRP: Good morning, thank you for inviting me here today. I'm Maria Badillo. I'm a Research Nurse Manager at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Oncology Data Advisor: Awesome. How is it being back in person at ONS this year?

Ms. Badillo: Oh, it's great. It's great to see people and to attend in person, and wow, there are a lot of good presentations this year.

Oncology Data Advisor: Definitely, we've seen some really interesting ones.

Ms. Badillo: Very, very, very interesting.

Oncology Data Advisor: What have some of your favorite ones been so far?

Ms. Badillo: I actually have three favorite topics that I attended this year. There might be more today, but one of the top ones yesterday was about the mental health of nurses. The title was The Inescapable Certainty of Uncertainty. As a leader, sometimes I forget that self-care is really self-preservation. As a leader of my team, I need to aspire to inspire. In conclusion, they reminded us we can't help our patients and our families if we as nurses are not healthy.

Then number two was the FDA nurses' panel. It was very, very interesting. I was able to relate to it because I work with clinical trials. We have documents or studies that we have to send to FDA, and I didn't know that nurses are processing them. It's really, really cool. They also shared how they get into the FDA. Some of these nurses had worked in the bedside outpatient setting and then went to research as a research nurse. Then eventually, they ended up in the FDA, which is very interesting to me.

The number one presentation I loved was the presentation about the dimensions of caregiving. Sometimes, as nurses, we focus on patients and forget that the caregivers also needed our support. As nurses, we need to provide them with resources so that they can be good caregivers to our patients. So, those are the top three presentations I attended that I loved.

Oncology Data Advisor: Awesome, those are all some really great ones. Have you learned anything new that you're looking forward to bringing back and sharing with your team?

Ms. Badillo: Going around in the learning halls, there are a lot of new things and resources like continuing education units (CEUs). I've gotten a lot of information that I can share with our nurses. There are also some products that are available for our patients, so I got some information we can definitely share it with our trial patients.

Oncology Data Advisor: That'll be really great to share. Well, this was awesome talking with you. Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Ms. Badillo: Thanks so much.

About Ms. Badillo

Maria Badillo, MSN, RN, OCN^®, CCRP, is the Research Nurse Manager in the Mantle Cell Lymphoma/Myeloma Department at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. As a clinical trial manager, she develops research strategies and programs, manages protocol design and implementation, and coordinates patient participation in phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials. Ms. Badillo has been a speaker at several conferences, including ONS Congress and the Academy of Oncology Nurse and Patient Navigators Conference. Her research focuses on the development of novel therapeutics for patients with hematologic malignancies and the management of adverse events to optimize treatment outcomes.

For More Information

Loscalzo M (2023). Mental health of the nurse: the inescapable certainty of uncertainty: maximizing personal and professional wellness. Presented at: 48th Annual Oncology Nursing Society Congress. Available at: https://ons.confex.com/ons/2023/meetingapp.cgi/Session/5127

Transcript edited for clarity. Any views expressed above are the speaker's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Oncology Data Advisor.