Honoring Quincy Jones

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
HONORING QUINCY JONES

·    Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Ann Reiner from Portland, OR, a former member of the Oncology Nursing Society's Board of Directors. Ann has been helping individuals with cancer and their families for 20 years. Currently, Ann is the Program Director for Cancer Services and the Director of Outreach and Education for the Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University, OHSU. Ann is also an Instructor at the School of Nursing at OHSU.

    Since 1983, Ann has been a member of the Oncology Nursing Society and most recently stepped down from serving on its Board of Directors. The Oncology Nursing Society, the largest professional oncology group in the United States composed of more than 30,000 nurses and other health professionals, exists to promote excellence in oncology nursing and the provision of quality care to those individuals affected by cancer. As part of its mission, the Society honors and maintains nursing's historical and essential commitment to advocacy for the public good.

    Ann Reiner has received numerous awards for her work on behalf of individuals with cancer, including a Doctoral Degree in Cancer Nursing Scholarship from the American Cancer Society and a Fellow at the Oncology Nursing Society's Inaugural Leadership Development Institute. In addition, Ann is a member of the Institutional Review Board at OSHU, a member of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program Medical Advisory Committee with the Oregon Department of Health, and a member and coordinator for the Portland area Citywide Annual Skin Cancer Screening.

    A number of studies and articles that Ann has written on quality cancer care and the nursing shortage have been published in distinguished publications such as the Cancer Prevention, Detection and Control: A Nursing Perspective, Puget Sound Chapter Oncology Nursing Society Quarterly, Manual of Patient Care Standards, Blood, The Cancer Experience: Nursing Diagnosis and Management, Journal of Nursing Quality Assurance, and the Regional Oncology Nurses' Quarterly. Since the 1980s, Ann has given over seventy presentations and has presented thirty papers to national audiences on a host of cancer care, health, and nursing shortage issues.

    Over the last 10 years, the setting where treatment for cancer is provided has changed dramatically. An estimated 80 percent of all Americans receive cancer care in community settings, including cancer centers, physicians' offices, and hospital outpatient departments. Treatment regimens are as complex, if not more so, than regimens given in the inpatient setting a few short years ago. Oncology nurses, like Ann, are on the front lines of the provision of quality cancer care for individuals with cancer each and everyday. Nurses are involved in the care of a cancer patient from the beginning through the end of treatment. Oncology nurses are the front-line providers of care by administering chemotherapy, managing patient therapies and side effects, working with insurance companies to ensure that patients receive the appropriate treatment, and provide counseling to patients and family members, in addition to many other daily acts on behalf of cancer patients.

    With an increasing number of people with cancer needing high quality health care coupled with an inadequate nursing workforce, our Nation could quickly face a cancer care crises of serious proportion, limiting access to quality cancer care, particularly in traditionally underserved areas. Without an adequate supply of nurses there will not be enough qualified oncology nurses to provide quality cancer care to a growing population of people in need. I was proud to support the passage of the Nurse Reinvestment Act in the 107th Congress. This important legislation expanded and implemented programs to address the multiple problems contributing to the nationwide nursing shortage, including the decline in nursing student enrollments, shortage of faculty, and dissatisfaction with nurse workplace environments.

    I commend Ann Reiner and the Oncology Nursing Society for all of their hard work to prevent and reduce suffering from cancer and to improve the lives of those 1.3 million Americans who will be diagnosed with cancer in 2003. I wish Ann and the Oncology Nursing Society the best of luck in all of their endeavors.·