Read ‘Practice Nurses Guide to Cancer Care Reviews’ to get started. It is aimed at practice nurses, but other clinicians will also find this helpful.
Eleri was diagnosed with breast cancer and talks here about how a cancer care review could have helped her.
Practice Nurse Juliet Norwood shares her tips for carrying out CCRs:
- Discuss with the whole practice team. It's good to have everyone on board
- The support of your admin team and receptionists is important. It is a good idea to have one named person from admin to work alongside you
- There is no one set way to carry out a cancer care review. Find a method that works for you, your practice and your patients. Your patients may wish to have the review face to face, or virtually, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Don’t be afraid to change and adapt your method as you go along
- Remember that cancer can now in many ways be seen as a chronic disease. Utilise all those skills you already have with chronic disease management
- At the start of the conversation, you can explain that you are not an expert in cancer, but you are there to listen, support and signpost
- Start gathering a list of local resources you can signpost people to. Review this regularly
- Make a list of the different read-codes you will use
- You may be nervous carrying out your first CCR. Just start! As with anything, you will soon have your own method. Remember when you carried out your first diabetic review
- You may want to think about an annual cancer care review.