Psychosocial aspects of patient management and caregiver support are increasingly top of mind for medical professionals, and this focus will be mirrored in the Nursing Track at the 2026 Tandem Meetings | Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT^® and CIBMTR^®.

This choice of themes is in response to 2025 attendee feedback, which also affirmed an interest in robust roundtable sessions — all to provide actionable strategies that can be applied immediately. 

“We’re going to give you knowledge and tools to be able to go home and take care of your patients more efficiently and support them in ways you haven’t before,” said Nursing Track Chair Britany Leiker, BSN, RN, NE-BC. “We are bringing back the nursing roundtable topics, which were a big hit last year, and we are going to be focusing more on the psychosocial aspect than we have in past years.”

Among the sessions highlighting psychosocial considerations are Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT): Transfusion Medicine Support Considerations and Psycho-Oncology Considerations for Optimizing Patient Well-Being and Managing Behavioral Complexity in Transplant Care on Feb. 6, and The Second Patient: Caregiver Wellness in HSCT Treatment Pathways on Feb. 7. (The full Nursing Track Agenda appears at the end of this article.)

“If we don’t have strong caregivers in place, then patient outcomes are impacted,” said Leiker, nurse manager for inpatient acute leukemia and bone marrow transplant at the University of Kansas Health System. 

The Feb. 7 session Addressing Social Determinants of Health to Improve Access to Cell Therapy will be presented in collaboration with the Social Work Special Interest Group (SIG). It provides an overview of social determinants of health, what they mean to nursing specifically and how nurses can support their patients in navigating these influences on their well-being. 

“I think everyone knows what social determinants of health are. It’s a buzzword right now. But what do you do with it?” Leiker said. “We’ll address what resources we can pull and just build more awareness.” 

The evolution of cellular therapeutics in the community, particularly outside of traditional CAR T therapy for hematologic diseases, is another high-interest topic within transplant nursing. A community hematologist and nurse practitioner will share how they work together to support patients in the Feb. 7 session Breakout: Training T Cells and Teams: CAR-T for Solid Tumors in Local Oncology Settings.

Also on Feb. 7, Hot Topics in Nursing Facilitated Roundtables will enable participants to connect with other attendees who share similar interests to discuss a variety of topics. Past roundtables have focused on pre- and post-transplant coordinators, pediatric nursing, new nurse onboarding and more.

“Our goal is to make sure we are covering the whole spectrum of nursing within transplant,” Leiker said. “One of the things we look at closely when we are planning our agenda and looking for speakers is what we can do to make sure we’re keeping everyone engaged.”

Nursing Track Agenda

The most up-to-date Nursing Track agenda and the full 2026 Tandem Meetings program are available on the online program. All Nursing Track sessions take place in Room 255 A-G of the Salt Palace Convention Center, unless noted otherwise. All times are Mountain Standard Time.

Thursday, Feb. 5

• 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. – Track Reception, Hall 1

Friday, Feb. 6

• 8:00 – 8:15 a.m. – Welcome Session
• 8:15 – 9:15 a.m. – Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT): Transfusion Medicine Support Considerations
• 9:15 – 10:00 a.m. – Immunization Strategies in HSCT and CAR-T: A Nursing Perspective on Protecting Immunocompromised Patients
• 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. – Morning Break – Day 1, Exhibit Hall
• 11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Balancing the Flow: IV Fluid Strategies and VOD Insights
• 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. – Lunch – Day 1, Exhibit Hall
• 12:15 – 1:15 p.m. – Networking Roundtables
• 1:15 – 2:15 p.m. – CAR T-cell Therapy, the Infectious Diseases Perspective
• 2:15 – 3:00 p.m. – Oral Abstracts: Patient Care
• 3:00 – 3:15 p.m. – Afternoon Break, Hall 1
• 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. – Psycho-Oncology Considerations for Optimizing Patient Well-Being and Managing Behavioral Complexity in Transplant Care

Saturday, Feb. 7

• 8:00 – 8:15 a.m. – Nursing SIG Updates, Nursing Awards
• 8:15 – 9:15 a.m. – The Second Patient: Caregiver Wellness in HSCT Treatment Pathways
• 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. – Morning Break – Day 2, Exhibit Hall
• 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  – Hot Topics in Nursing Facilitated Roundtables
• 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. – Lunch – Day 2, Hall 1
• 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. – Breakout: Training T Cells and Teams: CAR-T for Solid Tumors in Local Oncology Settings, Room 254 A-C
• 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. – Breakout: Hope in Hematopoiesis: Pediatric Approaches to Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes
• 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Addressing Social Determinants of Health to Improve Access to Cell Therapy
• 3:00 – 3:15 p.m. – Afternoon Break – Day 2, Hall 1
• 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. – Tandem Nursing Debrief/2027 Planning (Invitation Only)