Cancer nurses are working with their multidisciplinary colleagues to lead the way to ensure that all staff who interact with people with cancer have acute oncology (AO) knowledge and skills. Together with the UK Acute Oncology Society and Macmillan Cancer Support, the UK Oncology Nursing Society's (UKONS) role has been pivotal in increasing AO education, training and assessment to further the knowledge and skills of staff working across the UK. The overall aim is to ensure that health services optimise safe outcomes for patients with cancer.
The UKONS Acute Oncology Knowledge and Skills Guidance (2018) was developed through widespread consultation across the UK and provided a framework of standardised, multidisciplinary AO competence for four levels of practice:
- Level 1: staff working in supportive/assistive roles, pre-registration students and registered health professionals who work outside or are new to oncology
- Level 2: registered staff working in oncology settings outside core AO services or within non-oncology acute settings
- Level 3: staff who work in AO services (such as acute oncology units, acute oncology triage hotlines and systemic anti-cancer therapy units, and in emergency departments or same day emergency care services where AO is managed)
- Level 4: staff who lead AO services.
Between 2019 and 2021, UKONS and Macmillan Cancer Support developed an AO online education pathway aligned to the four levels of practice (UKONS, 2018; 2024a). The free acute oncology online learning (Macmillan Cancer Support and UKONS, 2024) was updated this year and now includes knowledge checks, so that completion of this course constitutes achievement of the Level 1 Acute Oncology Competence Passport.
AO competence assessment passports were co-designed with AO specialist clinicians and educators from all four nations of the UK. The level 2 and level 3 passports are ‘question-and-answer’-style workbooks; the level 4 passport includes competencies aligned to the four pillars of advanced practice. The passports were extensively evaluated across the UK and found to be relevant, pitched appropriately for each level of practice and suitable for assessing AO knowledge and skills. The passports have been aligned to the Aspirant Career and Education Development (ACCEND) Capability Framework (NHS England, 2023).
To support AO competence assessors, online training was developed with expert stakeholder consultation and was launched alongside the passports at the UK Oncology Forum in June 2024 (UKONS, 2024b). Passport assessors can also seek support through the UKONS Acute Oncology Members Interest Group Forum (https://www.ukons.org/members-interest-groups). All passport resources can be accessed via the UKONS website (www.ukons.org/resources/aos-passport-resources).
In addition to the UKONS (2024a)Acute Oncology Knowledge and Skills Framework, the AO online education pathway resources and competence assessment passports, UKONS has also developed four telephone triage training modules (UKONS, 2024c) to support staff who undertake telephone triage of oncology and haematology patients using the UKONS 24 Hour Triage Tool. This training is freely accessible on the NHS Learning Hub.
Given the breadth of AO education, training and assessment resources now available, we are calling on our colleagues who treat and care for people with cancer to implement these resources, so that we can achieve our aim of ‘making acute oncology everyone's business’.