Celebrating research nursing with the ‘Excellence in Cancer Research’ RCNi Nurse Award

Rachel Taylor is the chief investigator and grant holder of the Sarcoma Assessment Measure (SAM) study to develop and validate a sarcoma-specific patient reported outcomes questionnaire that will improve communication between patients and their clinicians.

She established an interdisciplinary research team that reflects the diversity of healthcare professionals who care for patients with sarcoma, including nurses, psychologists, medical oncologists, a paediatrician and an orthopaedic surgeon. Patient representatives also contribute to the team as co-researchers.

SAM was one of the biggest recruiting studies in sarcoma last year, thanks to the involvement of a sarcoma research nurse in protocol development. By mapping care pathways they identified time points and people who could approach patients.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is currently the highest recruiting site in England for STAMPEDE – a high-impact prostate cancer trial – but faced stopping recruitment due to a crisis in research nurse capacity.

The study would not have survived without the three-year contribution of taskforce research nurse Margaret Brunton, who was seconded to the trust from Clinical Research Network North West Coast. She has helped streamline the patient pathway to ensure that deadlines for entry are not missed.

The study complexity has soared in terms of ongoing patient management and requests for historical data, yet she has continued to support greater numbers than ever with her holistic care. Patient feedback has been hugely positive, with Ms Brunton’s telephone follow-up reducing the need for patients to travel what for some is a 160-mile round trip.

Newcastle CRUK (Cancer Research UK) senior nurse Ben Hood developed multimedia patient information resources for early clinical trials to support patients attending the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre who have no proven treatment options left.

He coordinated all patient and public involvement (PPI) discussion groups and drafted and proofread all the documents that emerged from the groups, ensuring the patient voice won when it conflicted with the trust’s policies on publishing information.

He has kept patients as the driving force for the project, supporting PPI members at public events to discuss its focus. He has developed a resources website, produced staff video interviews, and is now leading on development of a phone app.

These senior nurses took a whole-organisation approach to raising awareness of clinical trials, so that all patients coming into contact with trust staff have an equal opportunity to participate in research.

They implemented a comprehensive trust-wide programme to take their message to every member of staff at every level.

Their Introduction to Research programme includes talks, presentations and videos featuring key figures. They developed trained research champions and a staff research engagement group and created research cafes for informal talks in public hospital spaces. The senior nurses also worked with HR to ensure that job adverts, job descriptions, inductions and performance documentation incorporate research.

Paediatric oncology research sister Lisa Price is dedicated to ensuring children and young people participating in clinical research trials receive the best support possible.

Under her leadership, a 12-strong paediatric oncology research nurse and clinical trial team has become a leading international research unit. By pioneering an enhanced research nurse role, she has enabled the team’s nurses to obtain consent. This has increased the number of tumour samples collected for banking, meaning the team is now the UK’s largest contributor.

These successes have been driven by her focus on compassionate care and excellent listening and communication skills. She engages patients of all ages and ensures they have a broad understanding of their disease, treatment and research.