Introducing Best Practice Guidance into Community Cancer Support Centres in Ireland

Introduction/Background: Community Cancer Support Centres provide a comprehensive support service for cancer patients and their families. Best Practice Guidance were developed to set operational standards for these services. It has the potential to enhance the support offered to cancer patients; by ensuring that all those using support services in the community, irrespective of location, will receive an equal standard of care. It also has the potential to further enhance the relationship between cancer centres, hospitals and support centres and promote an integrated service between these sectors. Whom did you involve and engage with? A multi-disciplinary stakeholder group including patient advocates were involved in the development of the Best Practice Guidance. Volunteers from the Cancer Support Centres and a service user representative took part in the pilot as members of the peer review teams and their feedback was incorporated into the re-design of the self-assessment tool and peer review processes. Methods: Centres took part in a pilot self-assessment and peer review process to assess the service they provide against guidance. The aim was to establish the external peer review process and to evaluate if this would work in the Irish context. Ten centres completed the self-assessment tool, in relation to five guidance areas: Delivery of core services, Governance, Adherence to professional conduct and ethics, Psycho-Oncology Model of Care and Assessing outcomes. As the centres completed the self-assessment they were advised to gather together supporting documentation of their compliance. A peer review team was set up to review the completed self-assessment and supporting documentation. A peer review meeting was arranged with centre staff to review the self-assessment and evidence of compliance and to showcase areas of good practice. Areas requiring improvement were discussed and any further actions to address this were agreed. A report summarising the main findings of the review was shared after the meeting. Results: Following the completion of the ten peer review meetings, the full group of peer reviewers and the service user representative met with the NCCP to review the process and to get a better understanding of their experience of implementation. The group were invited to give their feedback, to discuss the findings and to explore if there were any recommendations that could be developed and implemented prior to the planned national rollout. Six recommendations were agreed to be implemented: Sharing areas of good practice, Service user representation on the Board of Directors, Patient pathway, Assessing service user needs, Monitoring & evaluating services, Training for therapists in treating cancer patients. Conclusion: The pilot process was a well-balanced positive experience and a good opportunity for peer-learning validation and reflection. The Best Practice Guidance will enhance the support offered to cancer patients by ensuring they provide an equal and high standard of care. Next Steps: The team will review the findings of the pilot and the optimal structure and design will be agreed. The recommendations from the pilot will be progressed prior to national rollout.