COVID has had an enormous impact across the world. In the UK, it has cost premature deaths and left a devastating impact on many people’s lives. The pandemic has also had a huge impact on healthcare delivery. As a consequence, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Respiratory Health (APPG) decided to look at the impact of COVID on respiratory health services in the UK and on the NHS ambitions for lung cancer care and outcomes. They decided to concentrate the inquiry on the post-COVID recovery and chose to investigate lung cancer in particular as even short delays to referrals or treatment can have a large impact on patients.
In the summer of 2021 UKONS announced a research grant of up to £50,000 to support a preliminary research study to explore the perception of nurses about potential occupational exposure to cytotoxic drugs. This follows on from the UKONS-funded Cochrane Review published in 2018 looking at that use of closed system transfer devices in addition to safe handling.
Rad Chat is the new cancer specific podcast, designed for cancer patients, healthcare professionals and educationalists.
Hosted by Jo McNamara and Naman Julka-Anderson, both therapeutic radiographers who have unique backgrounds, bringing specialist knowledge and skills to the conversation. They have already had some truly amazing guests including Rachael Moses, Charlotte Beardmore, Janice St John Mathews and Will Kinnard to name but a few, with more high-profile guests lined up until March next year. Their guests include cancer patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, and leaders within healthcare and oncology.
The UKAOS is a new multidisciplinary group of health professionals committed to the development and delivery of Acute Oncology services across the UK and for it to become the UK voice of Acute Oncology supporting the development of education and research.
A piece of work has been published in The BMJ which looks at the evidence for the effective use of video consultation and also gives some evidence-based advice on how to carry these out safely and effectively. The article offers a pragmatic approach, based on the best available evidence and the opinion of the authors, on using video consultations and concludes that patients and doctors should carefully consider the appropriateness and safety of video consultation, and have a low threshold for changing the mode of consultation, should the need arise.
Clinical research is vital in enhancing patient care and developing new treatments and is also crucial for identifying, treating, inhibiting and curing diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of clinical research in terms of discovering new treatments. While nurses have always been involved in clinical research, but research nursing was only established as a standalone speciality in 2006.
The UKONS Board are delighted to invite UKONS members working in haemato-oncology or lung cancer to apply for a place on the Takeda Oncology HCP professional development programme. There are fifteen places available on this innovative non-promotional, educational programme that aims to support haemato-oncology and lung cancer HCPs in enhancing their contribution to patient care and the healthcare system. The programme runs over a year. It includes completion of seven soft skills e-learning modules, attendance at two workshops (currently offered via online meetings), use of a 360o appraisal tool and an opportunity to receive individual coaching support.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is a registered charity and a progressive think tank. It has now published ‘Building back cancer services in England’ a report which examines the condition of cancer services in England following the coronavirus pandemic and how services might best recover.
From the 11th to 13th November 2021 UKONS hosted our second virtual annual conference on the theme of ‘Caring Connections’. We felt that his theme reflected the struggles, challenges, and indeed successes, of nurses continuing to support patients and our colleagues into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Macmillan and Guy’s Cancer Academy have launched a new online learning resource designed to build on the Macmillan Cancer Support programme ‘What Matters to Me?’ and to support staff who are involved in conducting consultations with patients, following their holistic needs assessment, to agree their plan of care. This learning package was co-designed and developed with the Innovative co-Design and Evaluation of care Plan Training and education for Holistic needs (‘InDEPTH’) Advisory Group and workshop participants, led by UKONS president and Head of Guy’s Cancer Academy Dr Verna Lavender. It was funded by Macmillan Cancer Support.
