Reflections on a uro-oncology clinical nurse specialist training post

Being new to the role of clinical nurse specialist over the last 6 months, I have discovered that the scope of this role is huge. The role of uro-oncology clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) is to support any patients who have a diagnosis of a urological cancer: testicular, prostate, penile, ureteric, kidney or bladder cancer, basically any part of the urological system. In this article I will try to give a snapshot of our role at my hospital and the work we do caring for patients with metastatic disease.

On referral to St Bartholomew's Hospital, the patient will be reviewed by their consultant: Dr Shamash, Dr Alifrangis or Professor Powles depending on the tumour type. Dr Shamash and Dr Alifrangis cover the super-regional Germ Cell Network as we are the tertiary referral service for East Anglia, seeing 200 new patients each year and reviewing just under 300 cases over a year at the multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings. Both consultants review all the metastatic prostate cancer patients from the five hospitals within Barts Health NHS Trust. Professor Powles receives all the bladder and renal cancer patients from North East London and runs the tertiary referral service for these tumour sites. He runs an extensive number of trials, which enhances their treatment lines.