Miami Cancer Institute

Miami Cancer Institute
Miami, Florida

Onboarding Experienced Non-Oncology Nurses to Address Staffing Shortages:
Development of a Transitional Oncology Training Academy

This 12-week academy at Miami Cancer Institute gives nurses the knowledge and skills they need to successfully transition to radiology, blood and marrow transplant, outpatient infusion oncology, and Phase I/II research on a Precision Medicine Unit. Expert nurses and Master’s-prepared oncology educators provide hands-on orientation to entity-specific policies and procedures; training on core oncology nursing skills, such as central line care and maintenance, port access, safe drug administration, and hazardous spill clean-up; and preparation for the ONS/ONCC Chemotherapy Immunotherapy Certificate. Individualized preceptors work side-by-side with academy nurses upon transition to their units.

To hear this ACCC Innovator Award session on-demand, please visit the ACCC eLearning portal.

Onboarding Experienced Non-Oncology Nurses to Address Staffing Shortages

Miami Cancer Institute, a 405,000-square-foot comprehensive and academic community cancer center, opened its doors in January 2017, offering a wide range of specialty services, including blood and marrow transplantation (BMT), proton therapy, a robust research program with precision medicine that includes Phase I-III clinical trials, and a Patient Cancer Support Department. In the years leading up to Miami Cancer Institute’s opening, one of the many important challenges we had to contend with was the national shortage of nurses, with recent data suggesting that South Florida has actually been one of the regions hardest hit by the national nursing shortage.
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Meeting the Demand for Oncology Nurses

Shortly after Miami Cancer Institute in Florida opened in 2017, staff observed that their number of nurses was inadequate for their needs. To meet that need, the cancer institute launched a nurse academy to train experienced nurses to sit for their certification exam in oncology. The dynamic 12-week intensive curriculum capitalizes on the education of experienced nurses to speed up their path to specializing in oncology.
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