Macmillan Colorectal Enhanced Recovery Nurse Specialist
Year Qualified
January 2011
Experience
As a newly qualified nurse I started my nursing career working on the colorectal surgical ward where stayed for 18 months.
My next step was a Macmillan chemotherapy nurse, it was at this time I was able to use my experience as a colorectal surgical nurse and had a particular interest in the oncology colorectal patients.
After 5 years I moved on for a role with the Bowel Cancer screening team. This was invaluable experience as the role of the screening team is to identify colorectal cancer at an early stage with the aim that these will then be more treatable.
Given my experience it then seemed a natural progression when a job came up with the colorectal nursing team. As a nurse I always wanted to work with colorectal cancer patient as a support during there most difficult times.
As well as working as a Colorectal CNS I have been working as part of a Macmillan funded project to support our Enhanced Recovery Patients with developing a prehab and rehab programme. This project has enabled me to support and educate the staff on the wards and community to deliver evidence based care to our patient who have had surgery. This has led to better long term outcomes for the patient, reduced length of stay and patient experience.
To support my role as a Colorectal Enhanced Recovery Nurse I meet regular with the Enhanced Recovery nurse in the North West. We meet every 3 months to support and update each other.
