Cancer Support Worker

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated individual who can work autonomously, and as part of a team, to support patients living with and beyond cancer within our colorectal nursing team.

The purpose of this role is primarily to ensure that the East Lancashire NHS Trust meets the National Cancer Strategy recommendation to ensure that people living with and beyond cancer are fully supported and their needs are met.

The post-holder will also undertake an important role in the management and co-ordination of care, by supporting patients.

A key element of the role is to provide practical support to multi-disciplinary clinical teams. You will work closely with the clinical nurse specialist team to support the delivery of the service they provide to their patients diagnosed with cancer. This will include the triage of incoming calls, from patients, and other health and social care professionals.

Provide administrative duties as required, for example, developing information packs for patients, inputting annotations onto Somerset Cancer Register etc.

Where Patient Stratified Follow-up (PSFU) has been implemented you will support the pathway implementation and become the key contact for patients on these pathways. This will involve organising and administering meetings. You will help to develop and use IT systems to aid the remote monitoring of these patients including the co-ordination and tracking of patients. Inputting data, generating and presenting reports will form part of this role, along with co-ordinating and generating appropriate documentation. You will be expected to manage the patient database with different tumour groups and pathways within the colorectal service.

You will recognise when patients require immediate or rapid referrals to appropriate members of the multi-disciplinary team, and feel confident to deal with challenging situations, hold difficult and sensitive conversations with patients and families.

Established in 2003 East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) is a large integrated health care organisation providing high quality acute secondary healthcare for the people of East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen.

Our vision is to be widely recognised for providing safe, personal and effective care. We currently provide high quality services and treat over 700,000 patients a year from the most serious of emergencies to planned operations and procedures.

We employ over 8,000 staff, many of whom are internationally renowned and have won awards for their work and achievements.
- Triage incoming calls, from patients, relatives, carers, and other health and social care professionals
- Provide basic telephone advice and refer on or sign-post to other sources of support and information as required
- Coordinate the necessary assessments, appointments or investigations if required
- Demonstrate the ability to recognise and respond appropriately when faced with a sudden deterioration or an emergency situation, alerting the clinical team or enabling rapid response as appropriate
- Contribute to the holistic needs assessment and the development of a personalised care and support plan as appropriate reflecting experience and qualification
- In tumour sites where it is appropriate, support implementation of Personalised Stratified Follow-up Pathways (PSFU), working closely with clinical colleagues and be a key member of the Project Team and Task and Finish Groups. This may involve agenda setting and minute taking
- Act as key contact for patients on PSFU pathways
- Be a key contributor in the virtual clinical held (where appropriate) alongside the clinical nurse specialist to evaluate the next steps for the patients on PSFU and provide appropriate support to patients following the clinic
- Work alongside clinical teams to develop agreed patient initiated pathways and supporting documentation
- Co-ordinate and track patient pathways including the remote monitoring of surveillance tests using various IT systems
- Develop patient information leaflets and workbooks to support PSF
- Planning and organising of health and wellbeing events or similar supported self-management event
- Undertake an important role in the management and co-ordination of care, by supporting patients to navigate the Patient IT Portal (when available) and signposting to other sources of suppor
- Administrative duties as deemed appropriate by the clinical team e.g. inputting information to Somerset Cancer Register, developing patient information packs etc
- Document and monitor all aspects of care coordination and service delivery, supporting data collection for audit.
- Organise and prioritise the designated workload.
- Evaluate outcomes of care delivery with the registered practitioner
- Coordinate and organise appointments and assessments as required
- Coordinate the handover with other teams to facilitate safe and effective transition of care between services in order to provide seamless support for people
- Act a