Celebrating our Clinical Nurse Specialists | News

Today (15 March) is the first Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist Day, a celebration of the expert role and its contribution to cancer care. It’s also an opportunity to find out more about some of the nurses working in this crucial role.

Every cancer patient is assigned a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), who provides vital care throughout the whole patient pathway, from diagnosis to post-treatment care. They are the patient’s main point of contact and are experts in their particular type of cancer. They provide advice and support – both practical and emotional – to patients, their friends and their families.

Meet Clinical Nurse Specialist Rachel

Rachel MacArthur is Lead Neuro Oncology CNS at St Luke’s, and has worked at the Trust for 13 years. In 2012, she received an NHS Hero Award after being nominated for her inspirational dedication to her work.

“I started working at St Luke’s in 1995 when it was located on the other side of Guildford. I worked in ENT for a number of years and left the Royal Surrey to progress my career in various London hospitals before returning in 2009 as the Macmillan Lead Neuro-Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist, caring for patients diagnosed with brain and spinal tumours.

“I feel honoured to work within St Luke’s in collaboration with the dedicated neuro-oncology multi-professional team. We are caring for patients with a terminal disease from the day of diagnosis, and they have very complex and changing care needs, so the support, both medical and personal for patients and families, is massive. It requires intervention from a number of different disciplines.

“Our enthusiastic and committed team was delighted to receive important recognition for our work from the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission last year. The Mission named St Luke’s as a centre of excellence for brain tumour treatment and research, making us just one of nine neuro centres in the UK with this status.

“The judges’ comments were fantastic and praised the excellent integrated care and research, the culture of kindness and compassion, our collaborative working and patients’ access to allied health professionals to support quality of life. This is a huge achievement but well deserved – we’re absolutely passionate about what we do and making a difference to our patients’ lives."

“I feel very privileged to be the UK CNS representative on the Tessa Jowell Academy Founding Committee.

“I’m so proud of working at St Luke’s because of the support and dedication our staff give to patients and their families dealing with a cancer diagnosis.”

You can also read about our CNS Nana Akowuah-Addo, who has been caring for patients on our teenagers and young people’s ward for 16 years.