P153 Patients’ experiences of a multidisciplinary melanoma workshop

Abstract Malignant melanoma is a common cancer with increasing incidence in the UK. The Macmillan Transforming Care After Treatment programme included implementing a multidisciplinary melanoma workshop locally in 2016, delivered from Maggie’s Centre. The workshop is delivered by the clinical (dermatology and plastic surgery) team, third sector (Maggie’s staff), social care and local council staff. The location of Maggie’s Centre was chosen to introduce patients with melanoma to a support centre. Qualitative research demonstrates that patients’ melanoma experiences evolve as they progress through their care, requiring multidisciplinary support, patient education, validation of concerns and regular follow-up. Patient workshops are an ongoing method to address these needs. This study aimed to obtain and analyse feedback from the local Maggie’s melanoma support workshops. An existing anonymous feedback form was given to patients attending Maggie’s melanoma support workshops. It contained 12 questions. There were four quantitative questions with a Likert scale response ranging from ‘very useful/well’ to ‘not at all’, or yes/no responses. The questions asked about how useful the workshop was, how well it matched expectations, whether it came at the right time, and whether patients felt they benefited from meeting other patients with melanoma. There were eight blank-space questions for patients to write comments about their experiences generally and about usefulness, and comments relating to the areas highlighted in the quantitative questions. Feedback was collected across three workshops in January, April and November 2024. Twenty-seven patients completed the Maggie’s melanoma workshop feedback form (out of 29, response rate 93%). There were nine patients at each workshop, meaning the data were evenly spread. In total, 74% (n = 20) found the melanoma workshop ‘very useful’, while 70% (n = 19) found that the melanoma workshop matched what they hoped for ‘very well’. Overall, 85% (n = 23) answered ‘yes’ when asked if the workshop had come at the right time for them, and 93% (n = 25) answered ‘yes’ when asked if they had benefited from meeting other patients with melanoma. The qualitative feedback included the following themes: a relaxed atmosphere, supportive, informative, highlighting how to self-examine the skin, meeting others, and seeing the consultants present, which was received positively. Areas to improve included the signposting to the workshop, and one person was unable to see or hear the content at the workshop. Maggie’s melanoma workshops were found to be of great utility to patients for multifaceted reasons. They were a successful method to validate patients’ concerns about having had melanoma and to educate them about their future care. They should continue to be open to patients with melanoma in the future with multimodal delivery methods.