Cancer care: how group consultations can better inform patients

Group consultations can be a way of nurses helping people living with cancer better understand their treatment options, side effects and potential outcomes

The UK Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS) board is dedicated to promoting all areas of cancer nursing that encourage holistic, safe and effective cancer care. The Cancer Nursing Practice article Exploring the acceptability and benefits of group pretreatment consultations for people receiving systemic anticancer therapy showcases how group consultations could allow patients to understand their treatment options, potential side effects, and expected outcomes, fostering informed decision-making and adherence to the treatment plan.

• RELATED: Exploring the acceptability and benefits of group pretreatment consultations for people receiving systemic anticancer therapy

UKONS provides education and guidance through the provision of the SACT Competency Passport, a tool that enables the cancer nursing workforce to be trained and deemed competent in SACT administration. It provides evidence of SACT competency for all other UK healthcare organisations. UKONS has moved this work to a digital application platform called Compassly.

• RELATED: The digital systemic anticancer therapy competency passport: a guide to completion, marking and assessment

This technology assesses and reports the clinical competencies of nurses faster than the paper-based passport launched in 2017. Since launching the updated passport, co-designed content and digital application in January, more than 200 users are joining the app monthly.

Cancer nurses’ understanding of genetic profiling is vital in selecting targeted therapies

Building on the article Awareness and understanding of Lynch syndrome among patients with endometrial cancer, it is clear that our workforce's understanding of genetic profiling is not just important, but crucial in selecting targeted therapies, understanding a patient's genetic predisposition or hereditary cancer syndromes, providing support for the individual and affected family members and applying early detection strategies.

• RELATED: Awareness and understanding of Lynch syndrome among patients with endometrial cancer

UKONS is dedicated to raising awareness of genomics and enabling educational opportunities for cancer nurses, such as our collaboration with Macmillan Cancer Support on the two specific episodes of The Cancer Professionals Podcast on genomics.

Further to this, at the UKONS annual conference in November, we have invited the keynote speaker Tootie Bueser, director for nursing and midwifery at the NHS South East Genomic Medicine Service Alliance and chief nurse at the North Thames Genomic Medicine Service, to talk about demystifying cancer genomics through education.

This conference is a unique opportunity to share and gain knowledge, and we are excited to provide educational resources that will further advance our understanding of cancer nursing.

We hope to see you there.

Karen Campbell is UKONS president and Macmillan associate professor in cancer nursing at Edinburgh Napier University