Macmillan Cancer Support Worker

The post holder will support the coordination of care for cancer patients through their cancer pathway. The role is focussed on providing general information/support about cancer and cancer services, to enable people to navigate the health and social care system and make choices that are best for their cancer and their life before, during and after treatment.

A key aspect of the role involves daily and direct (e.g. face to face and telephone) communication with patients, relatives, carers, and health and social care professionals. The nature of the communication required is sensitive due to the nature of cancer. Communication in this context requires a high degree of empathy, understanding, diplomacy, honesty and integrity.

You will proactively identify patient and carer needs using knowledge, approved tools/procedures to ensure that people get the right support to meet their needs. Coordinate access to the right information/education resources to support people in making decisions about aspects of their care, enabling independence, and develop a partnership approach to empower the patient and carers.

The role requires use of judgment in responding to the needs of individuals. The level of judgment required relates to identifying the complexity of the situation, providing appropriate advice and escalating to the registered practitioner where appropriate. S/he will undertake both routine and specially identified tasks for which they have been trained/assessed as competent.

To have a full understanding of Personalised Care and what was knows as the 'Recovery Package' including Holistic Needs Assessments and personalised care and support plans, Treatment Summaries, Health and Wellbeing information and support and Personalised Stratified Follow up

Contribute to the holistic needs assessment. To make sure that identified patients will complete the questionnaire and document these accordingly.

Organise and prioritise the designated workload in relation to identified needs

Evaluate outcomes of care delivery with the registered practitioner

Identify indicators of need or changes in need through telephone contact and respond appropriately

Act as advocate and facilitator to resolve issues that may be perceived as barriers to care

Support people to access appropriate information and support, by sign-posting to a range of support services and take an approach which helps people to self-manage where appropriate.

Provide administrative support to enable CNSs to have specialist time to be focused on patients. Support may include making referrals to other agencies or audits.

Carry out administrative duties required by the role.

Attend and actively participate in team / group meetings as required.

GSTT, as a leading NHS Foundation Trust, and Macmillan, as the country’s leading cancer charity, have formed a ground-breaking partnership which aims to transform cancer care in the UK by researching, developing and promoting new models of care. This partnership commits to ensure that every cancer patient treated at the Trust and their loved ones have access to the best possible care, support and information.

Although directly employed by GSTT, this post is also one of a network of over 8000 Macmillan health and social care roles that Macmillan supports across the UK (known as Macmillan Professionals). Macmillan sees these staff as much a part of Macmillan as any directly employed member of staff. We value and support our professionals, so they can build upon their skills and deliver the best care possible to people affected by cancer.

Key Relationships

Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs)

Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT),

Administrative Teams

Cancer Performance

Radiotherapy

Chemotherapy

Oncology

Surgical and Palliative Care

Primary Care teams

Patients and their carers

Macmillan Cancer Support, including Macmillan Information and Support Services

National Cancer Information Service

Voluntary sector groups

**Responsibilities**:
Provide a point of contact for patients throughout their treatment

Responsible for contacting and organising appointments and information and results

Coordinate face to face appointments as per MDT instructions

Support and contribute to audit processes, governance, research, clinical research trials and service development

Report any protocol variance to MDT and CNS

Responsible for validation and updating of database(s)

Support the planning/inviting/organising of informative events for patients

Document and monitor all aspects of care coordination and service delivery, supporting data collection for audit

Demonstrate the ability to recognise and respond appropriately when faced with a sudden deterioration or an emergency situation, alerting the team or enabling rapid response as appropriate

Under the guidance and supervision of a registered practitioner:
Coordinate the follow up investigations required post cancer diagnosis or treatment

Support the delivery of Cancer Wait