The Diversity Champions work closely with the Transcultural Nursing Issues SIG. You will find that the TNI SIG has a great number of initiatives among its members and would love for you to join them!

Here are some simple steps to take and you're on your way to advocating for diversity!

• Are you a member of ONStat? ONS members who enroll in ONStat will be contacted when one of their elected officials is critical to a legislative issue that ONS wants to influence in some way. Background material on the issue will be provided to help in responding. Form letters are not used, but sample letters will be provided along with the legislator's contact information. The only criteria for selection is a willingness to respond when asked. Read more and sign up today at http://www.ons.org/lac/onstat.shtml
• Introduce yourself to your State Health Policy Liaison (SHPL). SHPLs are ONS volunteers who help oncology nurses at the local, state, and national level engage in health policy advocacy efforts. ONS's goal is to have a SHPL in each of the 50 states - to ensure that oncology nurses throughout the nation are engaging in health policy advocacy to support oncology nurses and their patients. Find out who your state's SHPL is to better advocate for cultural competency issues, or to see if it is something you would like to take part in: http://www.ons.org/lac/shpl.shtml

Are you looking for a way to diversify your chapter, keeping in mind the broad definition of "diverse"? An excellent way to learn about the concerns and patient care issues within your community is to recruit and engage ONS members from different backgrounds, practice settings and ethnicities.

• Have a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" theme at your next chapter meeting. Ask members to invite a guest who is either of a minority group themselves, or serves a minority patient population (keeping in mind this could be regional area served, ethnic group, gender, sub-specialty, etc.). Have them introduce themselves and describe a concern or issue that they bring to the table, or just a little bit about the challenges they deal with. It's a great way to recruit ONS members, gain different perspectives among the chapter, and learn from one another! It strengthens and grows the support network for oncology nurses.
• Create a "Diversity BINGO" game for your chapter. Utilize cards with various patient and nursing populations. Great for an ice-breaker at the beginning of a chapter meeting, and could perhaps be generated from the "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" theme.

A group of senior students from Texas Woman's University- Dallas created a Pain Management for Non-English Speaking Patients. The hope is to reduce the number of patients who are not having their pain treated adequately due to cultural and language differences.  The booklet will provide nurses with access to 18 different interpretations of the pain scale in one convenient location in order to successfully assess and manage their patients' pain.
Read more in their intercultural patient abstract

The Metro Detroit ONS chapter won an ONS Foundation grant to arrange a joint dinner presentation with the local chapter of the Arab American Nurses Association.  The immediate goals of the project are:  
1) define educational needs of oncology nurses as related to the Arab-American population, unique to Metropolitan Detroit, and
2) provide a collaborative opportunity for ONS chapter members and local members of the Arab-American Nurses Association.
The dinner will take place on May 12, 2009, and the program is described here:
Arab-American Culture Focus Meeting-- Nurse to Nurse Reception