Urology Cancer Support Worker

The Urology Cancer Team Support Worker will be based within the Urology Cancer Nursing Team establishment.
This role will provide support to the team of specialist nurses and also to the patients accessing this service.
The post is predominately non-facing patient role, the majority of the role will entail providing direct information and support via email or telephone, and/or signposting to appropriate services for patients and their families/carers. It will also entail organising and assisting the clinical nursing team to provide the Cancer Nursing service effectively and efficiently ensuring patients queries and care can be actioned within a timely manner. Processing queries and referrals, guiding and signposting clinical queries and patient queries.
Main duties of the job
To provide general, specific and specialist information to patients and clinical teams regarding urological cancer and cancer services, to ensure patients are signposted at all times during their treatment and beyond

• Provide information and support for people with non-complex care needs
• To engage with the community services as appropriate
• Recording patient information on the Trusts Systems
• Assisting the PSA Tracker team with administration tasks. Ensuring blood tests are requested as required, documenting on the appropriate IT systems
• Contribute to maintaining and organising the day to day running of the Urological Cancer Nursing service dealing with phone calls, referrals, emails, patient queries etc.

The team you will be working within consists of 4 cancer clinical nurse specialists and a band 4 Urology Cancer Support Worker. There is also a team of Urology Nurse specialists based at Paignton hospital and 3 secretaries that provide secretarial services to the whole of the Urology Nursing team. We predominately work over 2 sites Torquay and Paignton Hospitals and at times you may be expected to travel between sites. The base of the role will be at Belmont Court in Torquay (just off the main hospital site).
Detailed job description and responsibilities
Communication and working relationships

• Communicate effectively with patients and carers and with a wide range of clinical and non-clinical stakeholders in secondary and community settings
• Communicate sensitively and compassionately in (potentially) high emotive situations with patients and carers, demonstrating tact, reassurance, empathy, understanding, diplomacy, honesty and integrity
• Ability to deal with complex and difficult situations and handle difficult questions
• Demonstrate an awareness of limits of practice and seek appropriate support and guidance
• Actively engage with the key voluntary sector and community stakeholders
• Provide sensitive support and guidance to individuals who contact The Urology Cancer Nursing Service Support via multiple mediums i.e. face to face, telephone and MS teams
• Support information delivery to patients and carers on a wide range of matters within your field of expertise and recognise when onward referral is required
• Assist in the triage of incoming phone calls and drop ins. This will include consideration of caller’s information and support needs, provision of verbal and written information, supportive listening, action planning and signposting to available services and support
• Communicate all information and advice using a range of advanced communication skills including use of reassurance, tact, and empathy
• Support the team with day-to-day running of the service and support clinical teams when required i.e. by providing information, responding to queries and attending meetings
• Key relationships will be with:
• Patients and Carers
• Primary Care
• The local community/public
• Lead Cancer Nurse
• Cancer Services Manager
• Consultants and other medical/nursing staff
• Cancer Nurse Specialists
• The Lodge Cancer Support and Information Centre staff
• Wider Cancer Services Team
• Community teams and services
• Trust administrative staff
• Lodge volunteers

Planning and organisational skills

• Support the Cancer Nurses in co-ordinating the day to day running of the information and support services
• To support data collection to facilitate service improvements, quality and audit
• Organise and prioritise the designated workload in relation to identified needs
• Organise appointments as required
• Make pre-planned outbound calls to patients to assess on going needs to enable a proactive prevention approach

Analytical and judgemental skills

• Escalating complex decisions/queries to the Clinical Nurse specialists for assessment and review
• Ensure that situations or enquiries requiring specialist intervention are referred appropriately and in a timely fashion
• Demonstrate the ability to recognise and respond appropriately when faced with an individual in crisis and to act as appropriate, knowing when to signpost or refer onwards
• Identify indicators of need or changes in need through telephone contact and respond appropriately

Responsibility for patient and client care

• To proactively identify patient and carer needs using the appropriate assessment and process to ensure that people get the right support to meet their needs. 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 Cancer Nurses, clinical team, community team where appropriate
• To signpost patients/carers directly to information resources to support people in making decisions about aspects of their own care, enable independence and support self-management as appropriate
• Support the delivery of patient and carer information around topics such as reducing the risk of cancer and living with cancer and beyond treatment
• Encourage and support active and healthy lifestyle choices
• Support patients and carers to understand what signs, symptoms or situations to be aware of that would indicate concern
• Support and inform patients and carers to understand how to make contact when they feel that their condition or needs have changed, including what to do out of hours

Policy and service development

• Support and contribute to annual report and service review of this innovative new model of care and service provision
• Contribute to the continuous improvement and development of the service, identifying areas for change / improvement, suggesting new approaches and implementing changes in practice identified through other routes, such as surveys

Responsibility and accountability

• Demonstrate self-directed learning, actively seeking role development opportunities to enhance practice, knowledge and role progression
• Identify personal education needs and skills development
• Deputise at meetings where appropriate
• Maintain absolute patient confidentiality at all times in accordance with Trust policy and the legal framework such as the Data Protection Act
• Attend corporate induction, participate and complete ongoing mandatory training including attendance at mandatory training sessions as directed. Participate in the Performance Development Review process (appraisal) in line with National and Trust Policies

Information technology and administrative duties

• Maintain accurate records using a wide range of trust systems
• Provide administrative support to PSA tracker service, ensuring blood tests required are actioned and documented on the appropriate IT systems
• Regularly utilise Trust Information Systems such as PAS, Infoflex, and any third-party system used for monitoring cancer patients. Competent in use of Microsoft Word, Excel and Publisher in order to support Lodge data collection