Blog & Insights

Oncology Nursing Insights

Evidence-based articles, clinical commentary, and perspectives from Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN — The Oncology Nurse.

Career and Leadership

How to Become an ONS Peer Reviewer or Associate Editor | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 7 min read

When I first started volunteering as a peer reviewer for the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, I did not fully appreciate how much the experience would shape me as a clinician and a writer. I was a bedside oncology nurse at the time, and I had no idea that this kind of involvement was even open to someone at my career stage. It is. If you have ever wondered how oncology nursing research gets evaluated, published, and disseminated, or if you have thought about contributing to that process, this article is for you.

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Patient Education

Outpatient Chemotherapy Infusion Center: What Patients and Families Should Know| Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 8 min read

Getting ready for your first visit to an outpatient chemotherapy infusion center can feel overwhelming. Most patients come in not knowing what the space looks like, how long the day will be, or what the nurses are actually doing when they hang that IV bag. As an oncology nurse practitioner who has worked in an outpatient infusion center, I want to walk you through what to expect before you walk through those doors. Understanding the environment, the process, and your role in it can make a meaningful difference in how you experience that first appointment.

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Career and Leadership

What It Means to Serve on an ONS Chapter Board | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 6 min read

When I became president of the Chicago Western Suburbs chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society, I was not entirely sure what I was saying yes to. I knew the role mattered. I knew the ONS was the professional home of oncology nursing in the United States and that its chapters were the part of the organization closest to frontline nurses in their own communities. What I did not fully appreciate until I was inside it was how much chapter leadership gives back to the nurse who shows up for it.

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Patient Education

What Cancer Patients Should Eat During Chemotherapy Treatment | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 7 min read

Food becomes complicated during chemotherapy. Treatments that suppress appetite, alter taste, cause nausea, or lead to mouth sores can make eating feel like a chore or even an impossibility on certain days. Patients frequently ask me whether there is a specific diet they should be following, whether certain foods will interfere with their chemotherapy, and whether anything they eat can help them feel better. These are good questions, and the answers are more nuanced than most of what circulates online.

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Clinical Education

Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting: Nursing Assessment and Antiemetic Management | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 7 min read

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting remains one of the side effects patients fear most when they learn they will need chemotherapy. It is also one of the most manageable, when the right antiemetic regimen is selected based on the emetogenic potential of the regimen, when patient-specific risk factors are assessed, and when nurses teach patients how to use their antiemetics effectively. This article is a clinical reference for nurses managing CINV in the infusion setting and a resource for patients who want to understand why they are taking what they are taking.

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Clinical Education Patient Education

Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: What Nurses and Patients Need to Know | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 7 min read

Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common and most undertreated side effects of cancer treatment. It affects quality of life in ways that are difficult to quantify and often difficult for patients to describe. In the infusion center, I see the functional impact of neuropathy regularly, patients who can no longer button their shirts, who have stopped walking because their feet feel like they are wearing concrete blocks, or who have modified their diets because they cannot tolerate cold exposure from the refrigerator.

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Clinical Education Patient Education

Aromatherapy in Oncology Nursing: Evidence, Safety, and Clinical Application | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 7 min read

Aromatherapy is one of the most frequently requested complementary interventions by patients in the oncology setting. Patients ask about it in the infusion chair. Families bring diffusers. Nurses get asked whether it is safe, whether it works, and whether they should discourage it or support it. The honest answer is that the evidence base is modest but growing, the safety considerations are real and worth knowing, and dismissing it out of hand does not serve patients well.

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Career and Leadership

How I Became a Doctor of Nursing Practice: The Path from Bedside to DNP | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 12 min read

I did not set out to earn a doctorate. I set out to take better care of my patients. Those two things turned out to be the same path. What I could see from the infusion center, after years at the bedside in oncology, was that the care I wanted to give required a level of authority and preparation I did not yet have. The Doctor of Nursing Practice was the credential that closed that gap. This is what that path looked like, and what I learned along the way.

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Patient Education

Neutropenic Fever During Chemotherapy: When to Call and When to Go to the ER | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 5 min read

If you are receiving chemotherapy, the word “fever” takes on a meaning that it does not have for most people. A temperature that would normally send someone to bed with a cup of tea can signal a medical emergency when your white blood cell count is low. In my years working in the outpatient infusion center, I have had this conversation with hundreds of patients and families. Here is what I tell them.

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Career and Leadership Patient Education

What Is an Oncology Nurse Practitioner? Role, Scope, and Responsibilities | Megha Shah, DNP, FNP, OCN

· 10 min read

When patients meet me in clinic for the first time, the most common question I hear is some version of: “Are you the doctor?” It is not an unreasonable question. In oncology, care teams can include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and nurse practitioners — some of whom also hold a doctorate. Understanding who does what, and what the letters after a clinician’s name actually mean, can help patients feel more in control of a process that often feels overwhelming from the start.When patients meet me in clinic for the first time, the most common question I hear is some version of: “Are you the doctor?” It is not an unreasonable question. In oncology, care teams can include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and nurse practitioners — some of whom also hold a doctorate. Understanding who does what, and what the letters after a clinician’s name actually mean, can help patients feel more in control of a process that often feels overwhelming from the start.

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