By Kerry Irish, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSW 

It seems fitting to have held our first in-person conference since 2019 in the state that claims to be “First in Flight.” With vaccination cards in hand and masks on faces, many of our 300+ attendees, presenters and exhibitors boarded flights for the first time since the pandemic started, destined for the Raleigh Convention Center in the bustling downtown area of Raleigh, North Carolina. As attendees arrived at the Marriott hotel, the excitement was palpable as joyful reunions and warm welcomes unfolded.  

Activities began the day before conference kicked off, with two phenomenal pre-conference workshops taking place while our hard-working Board of Directors held their annual spring Board meeting. Pre-conference workshops offer an opportunity to take a deep dive into material, and each four-hour workshop (one on suicide assessment and the other on sexual health) left attendees armed with new information and skills to better meet the needs of cancer patients.  

During our opening session on Wednesday, we had the opportunity to honor and celebrate our award winners from both 2021 and 2022 and were inspired to hear the remarks of the winners of AOSW’s 2022 Oncology Social Worker of the Year, Oncology Social Work Leader of the Year, and Volunteer of the Year award winners: Amy Corveleyn, Sandra Johnson and Chelsea Kroll, respectively. These deserving award recipients were honored alongside Sara Goldberger and Louisa Daratsos, who were both inducted as AOSW Fellows, and Stacey Papacostas, the Go2Foundation’s Lung Cancer Social Worker of the Year. We were also thrilled to learn that we had 119 first-time attendees, including five students. The phrase “Arrive as strangers, leave as friends,” could not apply more, as these many first-timers were highly engaged throughout the conference, and our long-time members were quick to warmly welcome them.  

Our opening keynote session, COVID-19, Racial Inequity and Cancer Care: Addressing the Gaps through a Cultural Competence Lens, was delivered by Karen Bullock, PhD, LCSW, APHSW-C. Dr. Bullock is the Department Head of the School of Social Work, North Carolina State University, and the university partnered with AOSW’s Diversity, Ethics and Inclusion Committee to host a DEI Reception with Dr. Bullock later in the day. Dr. Bullock’s informative and inspirational talk exhorted us to move beyond “cultural humility” and “cultural curiosity” to attain “cultural competence” as she wove in statistics about the long-standing systemic health and social inequities between the Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, Asian and Pacific Island populations and their White counterparts with the personal story of her own family’s experience with cancer. Dr. Bullock noted that at the end of her mother’s life, they did not need a humble or curious social worker at her bedside, they needed a competent one.  

Our ACS Quality of Life Award Winner, Elizabeth Franklin, PhD, MSW, Head, U.S. Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy, Oncology, Sanofi, delivered the ACS Quality of Life lecture, The North Star of Oncology Social Work Advocacy. Dr. Franklin reminded us that as social workers, we have an ethical obligation to advocate with and on behalf of our patients and our profession, and she armed us with information about the history of oncology social work advocacy, as well as tools to become stronger advocates.  

Throughout the conference, we were provided myriad opportunities to learn and develop new skills in the areas of program development, leadership, cultural competence, advocacy, clinical practice and research. We were also provided with opportunities for self-care, with guided morning meditation sessions and a “Mindful Moments” document provided by our Integrative Oncology SIG. We also enjoyed a variety of refreshment breaks and two evening receptions, which offered opportunities to mingle and network with colleagues and with our generous exhibitors. Our poster session, as with our presentations, highlighted the innovation and skill of oncology social workers in meeting the needs of people impacted by cancer. We also enjoyed the opportunity to shop at our annual silent auction and were pleased that this opportunity was available to AOSW members who were unable to attend this year’s conference in person, as we used a new online platform to view and bid on items. (I’m pleased to report that this year’s auction raised more than $6,000 for our scholarship fund!) 

Our closing keynote session, Making the Case: Advocating for Oncology Social Work Services, featured a panel of national leaders in our field, including Krista R. Nelson, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSW, Jennifer Bires, MSW, LICSW, OSW-C, Courtney Bitz, LCSW, Shirley Otis-Green, LCSW, ACSW, OSW-C, and Barbara Jones PhD, MSW (Co-authors Brad Zebrack, PhD, MSW, MPH, FAOSW and Vicki Kennedy, MSW, were unable to attend). This all-star panel provided information about the Institute for Healthcare ‎Improvement’s Triple Aim, and pointed out how few cancer programs report ‎sufficient oncology social work staffing to meet these critical needs. They shared their important white paper, Making the Business Case for Hiring Oncology Social Workers, which was developed with the Association of ‎Community Cancer Centers (a copy of which was provided to all AOSW members earlier this year). If you cannot locate your copy, I’d strongly encourage you to view and download it here: oncology-social-worker-business-case-study.pdf (accc-cancer.org), and to utilize it with the administration in your institution when advocating for optimal staffing.  

Please know that the three sessions that I highlighted above, along with several others, were recorded and are available to purchase for CE on the AOSW website.  

In closing, I’d like to share one attendee’s response to the question, “[What was the] best thing about 2022 AOSW conference?” that was sent out on the Whova app. Catherine Credeur wrote, “There are so many strengths to this year’s conference that it is hard to pick a ‘best’. The 2020 and 2021 conference committees worked so hard to make engaging, networking-friendly events. However, it’s hard to fully replicate the spontaneous professional connections and new friendships that are birthed when we are together in person. All the planning that went into how to make being together safe for us and responsible for our vulnerable patients was worth the joy of being in one place. The enthusiasm of a high percentage of first-time in-person attendees three years after our last physical gathering in energizing… I see our membership base diversifying to more closely mirror the diversity of patient groups. That’s core to our values as social workers, and thrilling to see when you look around a room. I also think we saw that attention to racial inequities reflected in presentation topics…” I am sharing Catherine’s reflection not only because she is eloquent, but because I heard these sentiments echoed throughout the conference. I hope the trends that we saw this year continue to develop in 2023 and beyond and look forward to our continuing to learn and grow together, both virtually and in person, through our Association of Oncology Social Work.