This week NECA attended the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia’s (COSA) Annual Scientific meeting in Brisbane, directly following the NET Patient Forum the evening prior.
This is always a great opportunity to raise awareness of NETs with healthcare professionals Australia wide and meet again with fellow specialists in the area of NETs.
NECA CEO, Meredith Cummins, submitted an abstract for the “Living with NETs Program”. This was reviewed and chosen to be an oral presentation at the conference. The presentation gave a brief overview of the incidence and prevalence of NETs in Australia and the background for the development of the education program.
In the planning for the program it was noted that the current Cancer Education Programs (CEP) did not meet the needs of NET patients. The working group which consisted of NECA nurses, Cancer Council Victoria CEP education and training coordinators and NET patient consumers. The NET community were invited to be involved in topics which could be included.
From this feedback pilot 1 was developed and implemented. The program would run for 1.5 hours each week for 4 consecutive weeks. Further evaluation of the program from the attendees of pilot 1 was received and recommendations for improvement were made to pilot 2. The main change for this pilot was to make each weekly session 2 hours instead of 1.5 hours. Sessions attendees could not attend were recorded and sent to the attendee. The feedback from both pilots has been so positive and the information presented has so beneficial to the attendees and enhanced their basic knowledge of NETs, their ability to self-advocate, navigate the system and understand treatment options – what could be used when and why.
The official launch of the “Living with NETs program was 24 October 2022 and we will be looking to conduct 2 programs in 2023. To our delight this presentation won “Best of the Oral Presentations – Education” at the COSA Conference.
