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PURPOSE: To establish a comprehensive set of recommendations for the service structure and skill set of nurses and allied healthcare professionals in prostate cancer care. METHODS: Using components of formal consensus methodology, a 30-member multidisciplinary panel produced 53 items for discussion relating to the provision of care for prostate cancer patients by specialist nurses and allied healthcare professionals. Items were developed by two rounds of email correspondence in which, first, items were generated and, second, items refined to form the basis of a consensus meeting which constituted the third round of review. The fourth and final round was an email review of the consensus output. RESULTS: The panel agreed on 33 items that were appropriate for recommendations to be made. These items were grouped under categories of "Environment" and "Patient Pathway" and included comments on training, leadership, communication and quality assessment as well as specific items related to prostate diagnosis clinics, radical treatment clinics and follow-up survivor groups. CONCLUSIONS: Specialist nurses and allied healthcare professionals play a vital role alongside urologists and oncologists to provide care to men with prostate cancer and their families. We present a set of standards and consensus recommendations for the roles and skill-set required for these practitioners to provide gold-standard prostate cancer care. These recommendations could form the basis for development of comprehensive integrated prostate cancer pathways in prostate cancer centres as well as providing guidance for any units treating men with prostate cancer.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.ejon.2017.04.004

Type

Journal article

Journal

Eur J Oncol Nurs

Publication Date

08/2017

Volume

29

Pages

31 - 38

Keywords

Allied Health Personnel, Holistic health, Patient care pathway, Prostate cancer, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Clinical Competence, Health Personnel, Holistic Health, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Oncology Nursing, Practice Guidelines as Topic, Prostatic Neoplasms