{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 339: A Lesson on Labs: How to Monitor and Educate Patients With Cancer","description":"\u201cThe nurse\u2019s role in monitoring the lab values really depends on the clinics you're working at, but really when our patients are receiving treatment, especially in the infusion center, the nurses should be looking at those lab values prior to treatment being started,\u201d Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS\u00ae, ACNS-BC, clinical nurse specialist at Karmanos Cancer Center in Michigan told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS\u00ae, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS during a conversation about how to monitor and educate patients with cancer.  Music Credit: \u201cFireflies and Stardust\u201d by Kevin MacLeod\u202f  Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0\u202f  Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by November 29, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center\u2019s Commission on Accreditation.\u202f  Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to monitoring labs and educating patients with cancer. Episode Notes\u202f  The NCPD activity for this episode has expired, but you can still earn NCPD through many other ONS Podcast\u2122 episodes. Find a full list of opportunities.  Oncology Nursing Podcast\u2122 episodes:  Episode 319: Difficult Conversations About Pregnancy Testing in Cancer Care Episode 311: Standardized Pregnancy Testing Processes in Cancer Care Episode 183: How Oncology Nurses Find and Use Credible Patient Education Resources  Episode 179: Learn How to Educate Patients During Immunotherapy  Episode 87: What Are the Biggest Barriers to Patient Education?  Episode 43: Sharing Patient, Provider, and Caregiver Resources  ONS Voice articles:\u202f  Patient Education Reduces Barriers and Increases Adherence Rates  Nurses Must Understand Health Disparities to Provide Effective Patient Education  Oncology Nurses Can Improve Oral Medication Management With Patient Education Program  ONS Course: ONS Fundamentals of Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Administration\u2122   Oncology Nursing Forum article: Antineoplastic Therapy Administration Safety Standards for Adult and Pediatric Oncology: ASCO-ONS Standards Clinical Calculations\u2014ANC Huddle Card To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.\u202f\u202f  To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.\u202f  To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.\u202f  \u201cYour traditional chemotherapy agents are the ones that we see the most lab abnormalities with, and we can predict those a little bit more with the advent of more of the advanced targeted therapies and immunotherapies, we still see lab values that are altered because of the way that the treatment works, but they may differ a little bit than what we traditionally saw with our normal chemotherapy agents.\u201d TS 2:51  \u201cI talked about the lifespan of all the other cells, and Neutrophils are usually what stop treatment, and part of that is, is that the lifespan of a neutrophil is 48 hours. It is proliferated very frequently in the bone marrow. But that is usually what we see. The cells that we see that stop treatment, and as you mentioned earlier, classic chemotherapy really the types of treatment that historically, we've been given and we have given to patients, and we've seen those blood counts really significantly impacted.\u201d TS 6:21  \u201cKidney function, or renal function tests, are really determined whether the kidneys are functioning the way they should be. We look at an estimated glomerular filtration rate, or GFR, which is really based on the patient\u2019s protein level, their age, gender, and race. And the test really looks at how efficiently the kidneys are clearing the waste from the body. So that\u2019s really one that we need to look at, especially as we\u2019re giving agents that are excreted through the kidneys.\u201d TS 12:23  \u201cI think it\u2019s important for nurses to start looking at lab results with their patient very early on, you know, even before treatment starts, so they understand what the normals look like. So when they do get those lab results, because now pretty much everybody has patient portals, right? So the labs are reported in there, and they\u2019re seeing the labs before they're talking to their providers.  if we can start early on and talk to them about what the normal lab values are, what they mean, and what we're looking at when we're drawing these labs. I think it\u2019s really important for the patient.\u201d TS 27:00  ","author_name":"The ONS Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/onsvoice.libsyn.com\/website","html":"