Plenary 3: Professor Ray Chan | Nurse-led Survivorship Care

CNSA welcomes the launch of the National Nursing Workforce Strategy - a vision to grow, support and retain Australia's nursing workforce and a framework for collective action to tackle workforce challenges and create opportunities for nurses to continue delivering high-quality care.

Person-centred communication, care planning and working effectively across the multidisciplinary team are central to both palliative care and cancer nursing. Two new PCC4U case studies provide an opportunity to explore how these principles play out across a person’s care journey.

Fear of cancer recurrence can emerge in almost any survivorship conversation, and cancer nurses are often well placed to recognise when concerns are beginning to affect a person’s wellbeing. A new free eLearning module provides practical guidance to help clinicians identify, assess and respond to fear of recurrence as part of routine cancer care.

Conversations about palliative care can be some of the hardest to start — particularly when someone is still receiving active cancer treatment. Timely Palliative Care: A Practical Framework is a new free course designed to build confidence in introducing palliative care and discussing referral with patients and families.

On Thursday 13 August, cancer nurses and their teams came together across Australia to celebrate, connect and recognise the incredible contribution of our profession. From morning teas and team lunches to decorations, photo walls, awards and moments of recognition, we loved seeing Cancer Nurses Day come to life in so many different ways - and in workplaces and communities right across the country.

On Cancer Nurses Day, the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia is calling for greater recognition of cancer nurses as strong, skilled and specialised professionals who are central to the delivery of high-quality cancer care.