WELCOMING MESSAGE FROM THE IONA’S PRESIDENT
Assalamu’alaikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh,
Dear oncology nurses from all over Indonesia,
Welcome to the website of Indonesia Oncology Nurses Association (IONA).
IONA is an organization which unites the nurses caring for patients with cancer in all Indonesian region. Up to now, there are 10 branches of IONA from 10 provinces in Indonesia. Indonesia is a big country consists of 34 provinces; with 17,000 islands. Until January 2021, there are 3,039 hospitals in Indonesia, of which 50% has cancer care services. This pictures the vast need of oncology nurses that Indonesia has.
Caring for patients with cancer is different from other patients. Cancer as an illness has a long trajectory starting from the screening, early detection, diagnosis, therapy with many kinds of modalities until the stage of survivorship or palliative/end of life care. Patient with cancers need to bear with a long period of cancer therapy, some are curable and some others are not. This is especially true for Indonesian patients, as 70% of cancer patients in Indonesia present at the hospital in the late stage.
Therefore, nurses caring for cancer patients need particular competencies for every stage of cancer trajectory. IONA is the association which aims to improve the oncology nurses’ competencies through non-formal education such as trainings on cancer nursing.
We hope that our colleagues, the Indonesian oncology nurses, can join IONA through IONA branches in the respective provinces. We welcome the registration through this website.
Take care and stay healthy.
Wassalamualaikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
IONA’s President
(Dr Kemala Rita Wahidi SKp., Sp.Kep Onk., ETN., MARS., FISQua)
