The Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC) supports professional development and learning opportunities for all healthcare professionals who care for cancer survivors.
Our professional development program promotes care that is evidenced-based, multidisciplinary and delivered in the appropriate setting.
ACSC coordinates professional development opportunities through a range of education and research forums, in-services and tailored programs (including clinical placements and site visits). Programs are open to Victorian, national and international professionals, unless otherwise specified.
4th Clinical Placement Program in Cancer Survivorship 2022 - 2024
The 4th iteration of the Clinical Placement Program in Cancer Survivorship (CPPiCS), funded by the Victorian Government, aims to improve cancer survivorship care through enhancing capacity of allied health professionals (AHPs) and practice nurses (PNs) to deliver cancer survivorship services and information. This will be achieved by the completion of clinical placements with our partner host sites throughout Victoria that provide cancer survivorship care.
Since November 2022, the program has been granted additional funding to facilitate an expansion that will allow us to accommodate up to 12 partner host sites (from 8 previously), and 200 participants (from 150 previously).
The CPPiCS offers a feasible, transferable model to build health professionals’ knowledge and confidence to deliver quality cancer survivorship care. Placement host sites include acute, subacute and community-based health services. The program purposefully targets AHPs (75%) and PNs (25%) as participants, with a target of 40% participants from regional / rural settings.
Program components:
- 3-5 hours of cancer survivorship education (online)
- 3-8 hours clinical placement at an acute, rehabilitation or community health service (placements available from November 2022 – April 2024).
- Access to cancer survivorship education events post-placement
Host sites
We are excited to be partnering with 8 Victorian health services as part of this program, with the capacity to support more.
If you are a Victorian health service offering oncology specific care, with a focus on follow-up or survivorship care, and are interested in hosting participants as part of this program, apply now to be a host site for this program!
Please read the
prior to applying.Successful host sites will be required to sign a Collaboration Agreement, details of which can be viewed here for your reference. Please note that the agreement has been updated as of 10 August 2022.
We encourage you to contact ACSC at [email protected] for more information about becoming a host site.
May I please change this link to the most updated version - (sent attachment in email).
Participants
There will be three rounds of participant recruitment for this program:
Round 1: 16 September 2022 - closed
Round 2: Apply now via this link – application deadline extended!
Round 3: opening mid-late 2023
Participant eligibility criteria includes:
- Currently working as a practice nurse or an allied health professional from one of the following disciplines in Victoria, Australia:
- Fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (3 doses minimum) and Influenza in accordance with Victorian Government guidelines. Unfortunately, this program is unable to accept participants who are not vaccinated, despite a medical exemption.
Promotional flyers for participants are available here for more information and for distribution at health services.
Some participants may be eligible for travel reimbursement (conditions apply).
Background of the CPPiCS program
This is the fourth iteration of the CPPiCS with the Victorian Government previously funding three successful iterations, all led by the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC). In the pilot in 2015, 16 GPs (General Practitioners) and 12 PNs completed placements. The evaluation of the pilot project identified that a clinical placement program was feasible and was reported to be clinically and professionally valuable. The second iteration was funded in 2016, with 33 GPs, 16 PNs, 16 oncologists and 13 nurses participating in placements that focused on a broader approach to cancer survivorship and bidirectional learning. In the third iteration in 2017 - 2019, the program grew to include 90 primary care professionals, including AHPs for the first time. It was identified that AHPs were highly interested in the program, with a waitlist of AHPs wishing to participate in placements.
Program outcomes
The program was highly successful, with 99% (88/89) of participants reporting they partially or entirely met their learning goals and 92% (81/89) of participants reporting increased knowledge and confidence regarding survivorship care. Furthermore, host sites also rated the program favourably. They reported the program as an important teaching opportunity and provided important linkages to primary care, enabling better transition of patients from acute to primary care services. All sites reported that the program structure, including administration and management provided by ACSC, facilitated implementation and was not a burden on clinical services.
Context of program
The program sits under Action area 4.3 of the Victorian Cancer Plan 2020-24 - build workforce knowledge and skills in survivorship care across cancer care systems, specifically:
- Implement models of shared care and community-based self-management, with a focus on coordination of care across regional clusters
- Build skills in the allied health workforce to understand cancer specific needs, with a focus on regional Victoria and rehabilitation care.
Further information
If you would like more information about the Clinical Placement Program in Cancer Survivorship, please contact the ACSC Project Team at [email protected].
ONLINE LEARNING
ACSC's Cancer Survivorship Course on eviQ is an introductory online learning package for health professionals. The package offers up-to-date, evidence-based practical tools, tips and resources designed to help you improve care for people affected by cancer. The e-learning package was developed by ACSC in collaboration with Peter Mac, the University of Sydney, the Queensland University of Technology and national survivorship experts.
The VCCC MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) online survivorship course is for primary practitioners including general practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals. This course will explore the importance of cancer survivorship and show you how to provide effective survivorship care.
Health After Cancer is an online course by Standford Medicine (US) for primary care physicians. It presents basic principles of cancer survivorship and aims to raise awareness of the complex physical and psychosocial needs of cancer survivors.
WEBINARS
ACSC collaborates with many leading organisations to deliver survivorship-related webinars. Collaborations have included the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA), Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA), Cancer Council Victoria (CCV), the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA).
Previous webinars are available for viewing on our webinars page.
Follow these links for upcoming health professional and survivor and carer events.
WORKSHOPS
The Delivering Innovative Cancer Survivorship Care workshop is open to all nursing and allied health professionals. It provides participants with key knowledge, skills and resources for implementing cancer survivorship care into practice. The program covers the key elements of survivorship, the common experiences of cancer survivors, motivational interviewing techniques, chronic disease management in primary care, tools/resources and group work to reinforce new skills. Introductory and intermediate sessions are available.
For more information, please go to our Health Professionals events page or contact ACSC at [email protected].
IN-SERVICES AND SITE VISITS
ACSC offers in-service education to Peter Mac departments to help up-skill teams and support development of enhanced survivorship care in their unit. For more information contact ACSC at [email protected]
The ACSC regularly hosts interstate and international visitors seeking tailored advice regarding developing or expanding their survivorship initiatives. For more information contact the ACSC Acting Manager, Tracey Mander.
SUPPORTING COLLABORATION
The Cancer Survivorship Community of Practice provides a forum for people who share a passion for cancer survivorship. Through regular events and an online collaborative workspace, the community of practice shares evidence-based resources and findings and promotes partnerships to develop sustainable service design.
4th Victorian Cancer Survivorship Conference
The Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC) and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Alliance host a Victorian Cancer Survivorship conference every two years.
The two-day conference included a strong line-up of keynote speakers including international and national cancer survivorship experts. To read more about our latest conference please continue to our Health Professionals events page.
Contact Details
For any survivorship education enquiries, email: [email protected]
