Consequences of Treatment Toolkit
Introduction
With improvements in earlier diagnosis and treatments for cancer, more people than ever are surviving long after a cancer diagnosis. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that everyone is living well with many people reporting multiple issues relating to their cancer or it’s treatment, both medical and non-medical, impacting on their quality of life.
After acute treatment is over, most patients won’t remain under regular follow up with their specialist teams but be discharged to Primary Care. Many of the issues faced by people after treatment for cancer may persist, or not present themselves until after treatment has finished so, as Primary Care Clinicians we need to have an understanding about the various consequences that patients may be experiencing and some knowledge on how best to support them.
We hope the following resources will help Primary Health Care Professionals in managing the patients they look after who may be facing poor health or quality of life relating to their cancer and the treatment they received.
Education and training
For education and training on supporting patients before, during and after cancer treatment please visit the Learning Hub for E-learning, virtual classrooms, blended learning, webinars and communities of practice that are designed to support you to develop your knowledge, skills and competencies in a variety of topic areas. Specifically for Primary care, join our community to access current and upcoming content as well as signing up to events or classrooms.
The topics available include:
- Prehabilitation
- Rehabilitation
- Personalised care and support planning
- Holistic Needs Assessments
For those who are new to this topic area there are essential level courses on Introduction to Cancer and its Treatments and a programme called Explore for Primary Care, which may be a good starting point.
Please view the Professional Development and Knowledge prospectus for more information on further education and training at essential, enhanced and expert level*.
*Note - essential level learning – which is suitable for all the workforce and doesn’t require any pre-existing knowledge or skills, through to expert level – this learning applies to certain roles or functions that require more clinical expertise and a greater depth of skills and knowledge.