City of Hope’s Leana Chien Discusses Important Sessions at the ACCC National Oncology Conference

Leana Cabrera Chien, MSN, RN, GCNS-BC, GNP-BC,is a geriatric nurse practitioner at City of Hope, working in its Aging Wellness Clinic, with a special focus on geriatric assessment and implementing a holistic care model among older patients with cancer.

She is receiving this year’s David King Community Clinical Scientist Award at the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ National Oncology Conference for her research and work at the intersection of geriatric care and oncology.

Transcript

Can you discuss big developments or sessions you are excited for at this year’s ACCC National Oncology Conference?

I was looking over the agenda and some of the options that were available. I’m actually really excited for the [session on] social determinants of health through a medical-legal partnership. I feel like we’ve learned so much, especially through the pandemic, and those social determinants, they’re real and they affect outcomes. And now I feel like we’re moving from, “Yes, we know that there are problems and there are things that happen with patients,” and now we can really challenge ourselves and engage and capture a large audience and say, “Okay, now what can we do about it? We know there’s a problem, what can we do about that?”

It’s a great start to look more closely at interventions, barriers, what’s working, what doesn’t work, and I really feel like it’s time to actually move on from, “Yes, we know this is a problem,” to “Yes, we could do something about it now.” And so I think that’s a really big piece that will make a big difference.

I’m also looking forward to the session on expanding cancer treatment through rapid access. It’s an APP [advance practice provider]–led diagnostic clinic. I thought that was pretty cool. Of course, I love the APP-led clinics. We work with a great multidisciplinary team, and we work together. And I feel like our team dynamics are something to definitely be said.

I am also looking forward to a few sessions I saw on self-care. How awesome is it to take care of yourself and take care of others, and really rediscover that joy you started within your field and really try to reinvigorate that? I think that’s another big piece.

And although I do love the hybrid option, I’d like to say that to be in a captive live audience is something that you just can’t take away. I’ve given so many lectures on black screens, and you’re really trying to [capture] what’s going on with the audience—and it can be challenging sometimes. I do like the hybrid option, though, because although it’s great to have a live captive audience, how great is it that you can reach so many people through that hybrid option, as well? So that, that’s a little bit about that.