‘The CNS role is vital to improving services, treatment and care’

Detailed work is underway around the country with the aim of building frameworks to strengthen definitions and competencies for specialist nurse roles.

Last year saw the UK’s first professional development framework for lung cancer nurse specialists created, while the first such framework for adult respiratory nursing was launched the year before.

Such work by existing specialist nurses is extremely valuable. However, ongoing concerns remain about career opportunities and the pipeline of new specialist nurses, and also how the value of such roles is assessed and viewed by trusts when it comes to costs and investment.

We need only look back to the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent Omicron wave for evidence of specialist nurses being redeployed to fill staffing gaps; a move described at the time as a “false economy” by charities.

"Health and care providers must cherish and back those currently in these roles"

Therefore, it is great to see the profession taking things to the next level by creating their own awareness day, in this case specifically about the role of the cancer CNS. The first-ever National Cancer CNS Day was held on Wednesday to celebrate and explain the role.

The event was created by Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance with support from Health Education England, Macmillan Cancer Support, the UK Oncology Nursing Society and the Royal College of Nursing.

The spark for it is, of course, more serious than simply trying to raise awareness. Those behind the initiative warn that the role is facing a “crisis of retention and recruitment”, with 30% of the current specialist cancer nursing workforce due to retire in the next 10 years.

As a result, the awareness day aims to inspire more people to consider a career as a cancer CNS and to call for greater investment in this workforce, as well as debunk myths about the role.

To mark the event, which organisers hope will become an annual occasion, Carol Popplestone, RCN chair of council and a cancer CNS, has written exclusively for Nursing Times, stating that “without cancer nurse specialists, effective cancer treatment would not be possible”.

The Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance has also created videos, featuring both cancer nurses and patients, to showcase the role of the cancer CNS and there is a wider social media campaign using the hashtag #NationalCancerCNSDay.

By timely coincidence, Nursing Times has begun publishing a new series of blogs by Ingrid Fuchs, lead CNS with Avon Breast Screening at North Bristol NHS Trust.

It is a blog with a powerful difference, because Ingrid is a cancer CNS herself describing her own cancer journey. In it she will share her experiences of being diagnosed and treated for triple-negative breast cancer, a less common form of breast cancer that is harder to treat.

Ingrid hopes that talking about her own experience will offer new insights, both for herself as a patient and practitioner, and for other CNSs. I encourage you to have a look.

By continued efforts to boost knowledge and understanding about the value of CNS roles, through competency frameworks, awareness days and other initiatives, like Ingrid’s blog, I hope that the message will get through loud and clear.

Health and care providers must cherish and back those currently in these roles, as they are often the ones championing and pioneering local improvements in care, sometimes largely by themselves. Likewise, the next generation of specialist nurses must be supported and nurtured.

The CNS role is vital to improving services, treatment and care, and its continued existence across a broad range of specialisms must not be left to chance or put at risk by a failure of succession planning or appropriate budget setting.

Failure to protect and invest in CNSs would be a tragic backward step for patient care.

• I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Eileen Shepherd, who retired last week after nearly 30 years’ involvement with Nursing Times. As senior clinical editor, she has been hugely influential in shaping the clinical articles and related core content that Nursing Times has published over the last few decades. I know many readers and contributors have met or worked with her during that time. Thank you Eileen.