“At the Alan Walk­er Can­cer Care Cen­tre, we make our work envi­ron­ment pos­i­tive for each oth­er and for our clients, and that cre­ates a real­ly pos­i­tive atmos­phere,” Olivia says. 

“Just to be a final­ist gave the nurs­es a boost, know­ing that the team was nom­i­nat­ed by clients and their families.”

The annu­al awards recog­nise and cel­e­brate the out­stand­ing efforts of nurs­es and mid­wives who are exem­plars in their pro­fes­sion, and who make a dif­fer­ence to the health and well­be­ing of Ter­ri­to­ri­ans on a dai­ly basis. 

The Team Award for Excel­lence in Nursing/​Midwifery was spon­sored this year by CRANAplus and the award was pre­sent­ed by the CRANAplus Board chair Fiona Wake.

Fiona was delight­ed to present the award to the team, who have a rep­u­ta­tion for treat­ing their clients with a great deal of care, con­cern and empathy.

The land­scape of oncol­o­gy is chang­ing as can­cer care moves into a sur­vivor­ship mod­el, says Olivia, with diag­no­sis, treat­ment, remis­sion and some patients then return­ing years lat­er for new treat­ments that have come on board.

“Our tri­als area is always test­ing new drugs and com­bi­na­tions of drugs, and peo­ple are liv­ing longer. We get to know our patients. They come reg­u­lar­ly for months, some­times com­ing back after years.

“I think the nurs­es who are drawn to can­cer care come down to two things. First­ly, a pas­sion for learn­ing. The nurs­es are incred­i­bly com­mit­ted to ongo­ing edu­ca­tion and devel­op­ment in the nurs­ing pro­fes­sion and are pas­sion­ate about learn­ing about new treatments.

“Sec­ond­ly, our nurs­es are will­ing to meet peo­ple at a very dif­fi­cult time in their lives, to help improve a sit­u­a­tion, which, let’s face it, is a crap­py one, and mak­ing it a bit better.”

The Alan Walk­er Can­cer Care Cen­tre team is made up of a num­ber of spe­cial­ist areas, all liais­ing close­ly with each oth­er, with 13 can­cer-care coor­di­na­tors respon­si­ble for spe­cif­ic types of can­cer, pro­vid­ing the main con­tact point with clients, ensur­ing they can get to scans and appoint­ments, and under­stand what’s next in their can­cer journeys.

On the treat­ment floor the chemo nurs­es admin­is­ter sys­temic ther­a­pies such as chemother­a­py and immunother­a­py, blood prod­ucts and sup­port­ive med­ica­tions and work with the Clin­i­cal Tri­als Unit to sup­port patients enrolled in trials.

“The coor­di­na­tors are an excel­lent resource for the treat­ment nurs­es, and we all com­mu­ni­cate open­ly and quick­ly with each oth­er at all times, to pro­vide holis­tic care.”

The Alan Walk­er Can­cer Care Cen­tre at Roy­al Dar­win Hos­pi­tal works in asso­ci­a­tion with a few oth­er cen­tres includ­ing Kather­ine and Alice Springs, with clients need­ing more intense treat­ment regimes, spe­cialised radi­a­tion, and oncol­o­gy all going to Darwin.

The Cen­tre has two Abo­rig­i­nal Liai­son Offi­cers on the ground sup­port­ing clients, mak­ing sure they under­stand their whole chemo treat­ment and that they feel a sense of com­mu­ni­ty, as lan­guage can be a barrier.

An Abo­rig­i­nal Can­cer Care Coor­di­na­tor has been appoint­ed, with the role of coor­di­nat­ing from the point of diag­no­sis through to the start of treatment.

A Can­cer Jour­ney, com­pris­ing a DVD and flip­book, has also been devel­oped to assist health pro­fes­sion­als tell the sto­ry of can­cer to Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple from remote areas of the North­ern Territory.

“We have hun­dreds of clients com­ing into the cen­tre each week, maybe 40 – 50 a day,” says Olivia. Orig­i­nal­ly with eight chairs, the cen­tre has built up to 20.

“This has been a pret­ty chal­leng­ing cou­ple of years… The nurs­es have been work­ing real­ly hard to con­tin­ue to deliv­er a high stan­dard of care in a whole new envi­ron­ment, and the clients have seen how hard we’ve been working.”

At the moment, the Cen­tre is train­ing up local nurs­es, but Olivia is hop­ing to attract nurs­es from around Aus­tralia after receiv­ing this award.

“Win­ning the award is amaz­ing, and I hope we can attract more stel­lar nurs­es around the coun­try to con­sid­er join­ing our team.” 

“It’s a great job, a great team and great place to live, work and play.”