Meet the Hope Nurses

When you enter the Hope Cancer Trials Centre it is a peaceful, almost serene site. Staff are not generally running from one place to another, alarms are tended to calmly and competently and the whole environment radiates quiet and highly professional care. 

Hope Against Cancer is proud to support nurses at the Centre and we have been doing so since 2013. The title ‘Hope Nurse’ rotates each year among the staff and is chosen internally at the Centre.

In 2022 we began to support two nurses, and this year we are supporting three incredible Hope nurses: Lydianne, Pam and Azmina.

Two of the three nurses chosen this year have been at the Hope Centre since it opened in 2012. They even helped to carry in boxes during the initial set-up! 

Over the years they have seen a lot of change, from young staff becoming today’s registrars and consultants to drugs going all the way from ‘lab to license’ and becoming standard care. In a slight understatement they added, which is ‘really nice to see’! 

They have also seen the unit grow from six chairs and a single (emergency) bed to 13 chairs and four beds for overnight treatment. 

When asked about a typical day they said ‘unpredictable’ almost in unison! While there is a plan for the day with patients scheduled and treatment prepared, they always need to be ready for the unexpected. Some days they can be caring for one patient who may take the whole day due to the intensity of the treatment and, whilst other staff may have shorter visits with more patients, these can involve unforeseen complications. 

The patients are what drew them to clinical trials nursing, and it is the patients that keep them there. The best patient care is at the heart of everything they do. 

The nurses get to know their patients and their families extremely well during their trials which can last years. 

When asked about how they deal with patient anxiety over the possible risks of a clinical trial they said that they simply sit patiently and take the time to discuss everything in a clear and understandable way. They emphasised just how important it is that the patient is in a position to make their own decisions, whatever is right for them. 

The care that the clinical nurses at the Hope Cancer Trials Centre provide goes far beyond bedside care, they are involved in every stage of planning trial treatment, organising investigations, processing samples, liaising with the trial sponsors, and always attentive to the masses of paperwork that a trial entails. 

Without such tireless attention to detail no trial would come to fruition. Nurses at the Hope Cancer Trials Centre need to keep extremely accurate records not just for the best interests of their patients but also for the integrity, accuracy and accountability of the trial as a whole. 

Such detail reflects further. The Hope Cancer Trials Centre is internationally recognised for its excellence and this would not be the case but for the meticulous skills of everyone involved. 

While the nurses are doing all this, they are also required to keep up-to-date with their competency training – in chemotherapy, in research, in good clinical practice and ethics. 

They are required to not only help to administer treatments, but also to support patient’s emotional needs if treatment is no longer working.

What came across to us was not only the incredible skills of the nurses but their constant reference to how much they loved the job, how much they loved working with patients and their families, and the pride they take in not only helping the individual but the critical role they play in bringing new drugs to the frontline in the national and international efforts to overcome cancer. 

If you are able to help us continue to fund the Hope Nurses, any donation is hugely appreciated. Please click here to donate.