Cancer Support Worker

at  Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

An opportunity has arisen to appoint 3 full time cancer support workers at Dorset County Hospital, working with patients affected by cancer. These posts are for a fixed term of 12 months and offer a great opportunity for interested and suitably qualified people to experience working in the field of cancer care.
The support worker will work with the CNS’s and other members of the MDT to support patients affected by cancer. The role will include direct communication with patients, their families and other healthcare professionals .
A fundamental part of the role will be to help deliver core elements of the personalised care agenda, including undertaking holistic needs assessments, care planning, collating treatment summaries and facilitating health and wellbeing events. The role will involve supporting patients on a remote monitoring pathway.
Recent clinical experience in a health or social care setting is necessary along with knowledge and experience of caring for adults with acute or chronic illness. Ideally the post holder will have experience working with cancer although this is not essential.
The post holder will be based at DCH but will be expected to work from home up to 2 days a week to fit with the needs of the service.
In collaboration with Clinical Nurse Specialists, support and coordinate the needs of patients diagnosed with cancer, during and after completion of treatment.
Coordinate the necessary assessments, investigations and appointments required prior to patients starting treatment.
Co-ordinate the transfer of care between service teams, or facilitation of service provision across interfaces of care – for example primary and secondary care.
Refer and sign post to the clinical team as appropriate for higher level decisions.
Triage incoming calls from patients and initiate appropriate responses based on clear protocols and frameworks.
Monitor, audit and report response times to inbound telephone calls.
Contribute to the holistic needs assessment, care plan and review of patients in line with practitioner guidance, protocols and procedures.
Evaluate outcomes of care & support with a registered nurse.
Make pre planned outbound telephone calls to patients under the guidance of the registered healthcare professional.
Contribute to the clinical / quality management team reviews of any issues in relation to the patient pathway.
Support the clinical teams to produce timely treatment summaries for patients and GP’s.
Take a pivotal role in delivering health and wellbeing clinics and activities for people affected by cancer.
DCH prides itself on ensuring a safe, friendly, inclusive and comfortable environment where new employees are welcomed.
The organisation prioritises staff welfare and patient care, and supports employees to work to the trusts core values of excellence, respect, integrity and teamwork.
Responsibility for Patients
Provide support to patients diagnosed with cancer.
Identify and maintain databases of all patients stratified as low risk
Once deemed competent in terms of knowledge, provide advice and information for patients and their relatives/carers.
Working collaboratively with colleagues to ensure relevant cancer targets are met, including holistic needs assessments, treatment summaries and necessary surveillance plans for low risk patients.
Communication with patients to ensure they are kept up to date and informed as appropriate of their diagnosis, treatment and follow-up plan.
Responsibility for Policy and Service Development
With the support of the clinical nurse specialist, plan and organise workload and activities – ability to adapt and re-prioritise at short notice.
Once deemed competent in terms of specialist knowledge and skills, take an active role in the delivery of health and wellbeing events for patients affected by cancer.
Keep comprehensive and accurate documentation in line with trust policy.
Responsibility for Financial and Physical Resources
The post-holder is responsible to ensure that all areas of work give consideration to the financial impact and to keep this at a minimum.
Personal duty of care to ensure any equipment used is used appropriately.
Responsibility for Staff
The post-holder is responsible to ensure any staff allocated to work with them, are given comprehensive and high quality information regarding all aspects of the service being provided by the post holder.
To work closely with all members of the multidisciplinary team, but especially the cancer nurse specialists to promote seamless, supportive care pathways for people affected by cancer.
Responsibility for Information Resources
Conversant with Trust wide systems to enable data input and retrieval (ie SCR, PAS, PACS, ICE)
Conversant with systems outside the trust such as EPR (Poole).
Complies at all times with the Trust and National data protection and Confidentiality policies.
Responsibility for Research and Development
To collect necessary data for audit purposes as agreed by the clinical nurse specialist.
As soon as it is known by the post holder, to inform the research department if patients on clinical trials are admitted to hospital

Please refer the Job description for details