Whilst the Macmillan Living With And Beyond Cancer Programme formally closed at the end of March 2021, the Cancer Alliance is committed to supporting the continued learning and development of professionals across the regional who are providing support to people affected by cancer.

Due to the ongoing social distancing rules the vast majority of the Learning and development off this year is either e-learning or on line learning, some of which we hope to be able to return to face to face sessions as soon as possible.

Following a great turn out for the courses in previous Learning & development offers, with over 500 places delivered so far, dates for this year are now available.

The opportunities that have been offered are based on feedback and popular demand. The opportunities are not exhaustive and the remainder of the programme other courses may become available based on need.

You can read the latest Personalised Care and Support Learning and Development Offers below along with the relevant attachments below. 

The Personalised Care Planning for People With Cancer

The Personalised Care Planning for People With Cancer free online learning course is a resource developed as part of the InDEPTH (Innovative co-Design and Evaluation of Care and Support Plan Education and Training for Holistic Needs) project, which was funded by Macmillan Cancer Support.

The aim of this online learning is to build on the Macmillan Cancer Support What Matters to Me? to support staff who are involved in conducting consultations with patients following their holistic needs assessment to agree their plan of care. The resource is currently hosted on the Guy’s Cancer Academy website, but will also be accessible on the Macmillan Cancer Support Learning System.

On completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Understand the purpose and benefits of a patient-held, personalised care and support plan following a holistic needs assessment
  • With reference to models of personalised, holistic and multidisciplinary care, demonstrate knowledge and skills to explore needs and concerns with a person with and/or being treated for cancer
  • Effectively communicate with people with and/or being treated for cancer, assessing their individual need for information
  • Apply specialist knowledge of cancer symptoms, symptom clustering, treatment, side effects, late effects and supportive care to identify actions that might apply to more than one need or concern for an individual, to inform discussions to prioritise planned care
  • Have awareness of limitations of own knowledge and skills and be able to signpost and refer patients to other health professionals and specialist services, including the needs and concerns of an individual that are not related to their cancer, e.g. pre-existing needs and concerns
  • Use example case studies to develop knowledge and skills to create personalised care plans

You can start the course here.