Vineetha Thankappan Nair, Macmillan lead nurse for urology and prostate cancer specialist nurse, spoke to us about her role for Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist Day.
Cancer CNS Day - Vineetha video
Link: https://youtu.be/pCGkza_QOV4
In my role I have various responsibilities as a lead nurse. I manage the urology specialist nursing team in my clinical role my responsibility is as a key worker for prostate cancer patients.
In that role I have various responsibilities from the start of the pathway where myself, and my colleagues in the prostate team, provide a nurse-led triage and straight to test clinic.
We support patients in the diagnostic clinic, which is the ‘breaking bad news’ clinic which a consultant provides. The specialist nurse's role in that clinic is to support the patient and family, provide information and help support the through the journey of a cancer diagnosis and support with decision making regarding treatment.
So, my role as a key worker can be challenging but at the same time it is a rewarding job.
So, my role as a key worker can be challenging but at the same time it is a very rewarding job.
I get a good job satisfaction mainly because I can support the patient and I feel that I’m making a difference by supporting them in a crucial time of their life, whether that is at the time of diagnosis, or making treatment decision which can have life-changing side effects.
The project I feel most proud of is providing the decision-making call. We use prognostic tools to support patients to make decisions about which treatment is suitable for them, prostate cancer has multiple treatment options available, and the side effects of these treatments can be different for each patient.
Therefore, it is important that the patient chooses the right treatment for them and make sure that they can cope with the side effects of those treatments.
We use a locally developed prognostic tools called ‘Cambridge prognostic tools’ and ‘predict prostate tools’ which I go through with the patients and help them make those decisions.
We have conducted an audit to evaluate the usefulness of the prognostic tools in practice and their outcomes and it has shown that CUH has a low treatment rate for clinically insignificant cancer and low rate of under treating clinically significant cancer. Which, compared to the national Prostate cancer data are better than average.
Another project I’m proud of is the risk stratifying follow up pathway. All prostate cancer treatment pathways are risk assessed to ensure that patient centred follow ups are embedded into local practice in line with the NHS long term plan.
This has helped us to embed recovery packages which empowers patients to manage their follow up where appropriate. This has helped to develop nurse led services follow up pathways and make sure they are efficient and value for money, without compromising patient care.
I am proud to be known as Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurse compared to lead Clinical nurse specialist. I have a wonderful team who want to make the difference to our patient, and we work as a team. When your passion and job are the same thing challenges do not become obstacles.