Managing change: developing a specialist nursing service for patients with secondary breast cancer
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Managing change: developing a specialist nursing service for patients with secondary breast cancer

Sharon Foy Lead Macmillan secondary breast clinical nurse specialist, Christie NHS Foundation Trust, and honorary teaching fellow, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, England
Clare Gaskell Macmillan secondary breast clinical nurse specialist, Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, England
Rosalyn Fox Macmillan secondary breast clinical nurse specialist, Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, England
Bethan Daniel Macmillan secondary breast clinical nurse specialist, Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, England

Since July 2015 Macmillan breast care nurses (BCNs) at Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester have specialised in the care of patients with secondary breast cancer. The service had previously managed patients with primary and secondary breast cancer, but had become unsustainable due to staffing levels and increasing numbers of patients. This article describes how the Christie Macmillan BCNs changed the focus and delivery of their service. It examines the literature on the urgent needs of patients with secondary breast cancer, outlines the background to, and rationale for the new service, describes how patients who are receiving primary chemotherapy are signposted to other services for support, and describes the redesign and development process of the new service.

Cancer Nursing Practice. 16, 4, 27-32. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2017.e1411

Correspondence

sharon.foy@manchester.ac.uk

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 22 February 2017

Accepted: 07 March 2017

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