Donations at Work

The ONS Foundation advances cancer nursing careers through a wide variety of opportunities.
  • $124,800 approved in 2010 for conference scholarships
  • $69,000 approved in 2010 for academic scholarships
  • $79,836 approved in 2010 for research grants
  • $60,000 approved in 2010 for research fellowships
  • $13,500 approved in 2010 for career development awards

Since 1981, the ONS Foundation has partnered with oncology nursing supporters, like you, to achieve the ONS mission of promoting excellence in cancer nursing and quality cancer care. Through generous donor support, the ONS Foundation has provided more than $22 million in funding support oncology nursing awards, grants, scholarships, and educational initiatives. These funds have played a critical role in improving patient care and advancing the oncology nursing profession.

The ONS Foundation is here to help you! Thousands of oncology nurses have been recipients of grant awards through the ONS Foundation. Hear what a past funding recipient has to say about how your support has made a difference:

Sharon K. Byrne, MSN, RN, APN, C, advanced practice nurse at Cooper University Hosptial in Camden, NJ, received a $1,000 ONS Foundation Advanced Practice Nursing Conference Scholarship.

“It has been my pleasure to receive an award from the ONS Foundation,” Byrne said. “The award has had a positive impact on my professional development as a nurse practitioner in the specialty of oncology nursing.”

The scholarship, supported by Genetech BioOncology, allowed Byrne to attend the ONS Advanced Practice Nursing Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, in November 2006.

“The conference provided a variety of presentations of interest to me as an advanced practice nurse,” Byrne said. “It sparked my interest in becoming politically active related to the oncology nursing practice environment and forged peer relationships with fellow nurse practitioners.”

Grant awards through the ONS Foundation have many positive benefits. In Byrne’s case, the financial support served as a springboard for her current practice focus on cancer disparities, fostered a change in her employment setting to an urban university-based hospital setting, and supported her pursuit of doctoral education with a dissertation focus on healthcare avoidance behaviors in ethnic and racial minority women.

“I would like to use this testimony to thank the ONS Foundation for supporting such worthwhile programs,” Byrne said. “I encourage my peers to apply to the Foundation and become an award recipient. The professional benefits are wonderful, and the personal gratification is indescribable.”