BEAT Blad­der Can­cer Aus­tralia is step­ping up to the chal­lenge that is not only empow­er­ing nurs­es but is also enhanc­ing patient out­comes across the coun­try. Recent­ly, CEO Adam Lynch shared insights into the organisation’s mul­ti­fac­eted approach, high­light­ing their com­mit­ment to edu­ca­tion and sup­port for nurs­es in both urban and remote communities.

Blad­der can­cer is Australia’s 11^th most com­mon can­cer, with more than 3,000 peo­ple diag­nosed each year and around 1,200 fatal­i­ties annu­al­ly. BEAT Blad­der Can­cer Aus­tralia was estab­lished in 2018, direct­ly inspired by the trag­ic pass­ing of Adam’s wife, Anna, who lost her bat­tle with blad­der can­cer the year prior.

BEAT was cre­at­ed to pro­vide infor­ma­tion and sup­port to those affect­ed by this dev­as­tat­ing dis­ease and has since evolved with a four-fold strat­e­gy. Today, the organ­i­sa­tion focus­es on cre­at­ing aware­ness with­in the com­mu­ni­ty, pro­vid­ing sup­port to patients and car­ers, col­lab­o­rat­ing with health pro­fes­sion­als to estab­lish trust­ed refer­ral path­ways, and final­ly, influ­enc­ing ear­ly patient access to treat­ments through pol­i­cy engage­ment and inform­ing patients about new treatments.

Empow­er­ing nurs­es through edu­ca­tion
Ini­tial­ly focused sole­ly on patients, BEAT quick­ly realised that health pro­fes­sion­als, espe­cial­ly nurs­es as the front­line providers of care, had a real need for trust­ed blad­der can­cer infor­ma­tion to sup­port them in their health­care settings. 

“Nurs­es are in con­stant touch with their patients, offer­ing a broad range of vital sup­port out­side of the clin­i­cal set­ting. This can be extreme­ly chal­leng­ing.” Lynch highlighted. 

To address the needs of nurs­es, BEAT col­lab­o­rat­ed with major nurs­ing asso­ci­a­tions to repur­pose the infor­ma­tion they were pro­vid­ing to patients into edu­ca­tion­al resources tai­lored for nurs­es. This led to the cre­ation of two accred­it­ed mod­ules: one for pri­ma­ry health­care nurs­es and anoth­er for urology/​oncology nurses:

• Pri­ma­ry health­care nurs­es: Focus­es on symp­tom iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and the diag­nos­tic process, empow­er­ing nurs­es to recog­nise ear­ly signs of blad­der can­cer.
• Urology/​Oncology nurs­es: Con­cen­trates on treat­ment path­ways, equip­ping nurs­es with the knowl­edge need­ed to sup­port patients through their treat­ment journeys.

These cours­es are designed to be acces­si­ble and flex­i­ble, allow­ing nurs­es to engage with the mate­r­i­al at their con­ve­nience. They are free of charge and eli­gi­ble for Con­tin­u­ing Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment (CPD) hours, mak­ing them an attrac­tive option for nurs­es at all career stages.

In-ser­vice ses­sions: Learn­ing on the go
In addi­tion to the online mod­ules, BEAT Blad­der Can­cer Aus­tralia reg­u­lar­ly con­ducts in-ser­vice train­ing ses­sions for nurs­ing teams nation­wide, includ­ing those in region­al cen­tres. These pop­u­lar 45- to 60-minute bespoke learn­ing ses­sions are designed to be inter­ac­tive, allow­ing nurs­es to tune in remote­ly and engage with the mate­r­i­al directly.

Lynch high­light­ed the enthu­si­asm from nurs­es dur­ing these ses­sions, not­ing the extreme­ly high demand for blad­der can­cer edu­ca­tion. ​“Nurs­es want to learn and be equipped to pro­vide the best pos­si­ble care,” he said.

Com­mu­ni­ty edu­ca­tion in remote set­tings
Under­stand­ing the diverse needs of Australia’s remote com­mu­ni­ties, BEAT recent­ly col­lab­o­rat­ed with team mem­bers at CRANAplus to adapt edu­ca­tion­al resources specif­i­cal­ly for Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander com­mu­ni­ties that nurs­es could utilise in their rur­al and remote set­tings. By pro­vid­ing cul­tur­al­ly sen­si­tive mate­ri­als, the organ­i­sa­tion aims to help edu­cate Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers about blad­der can­cer and the symp­toms to look out for.

A vision for the future
As BEAT Blad­der Can­cer Aus­tralia con­tin­ues to cham­pi­on edu­ca­tion and sup­port for nurs­es, the impact on patient care is sig­nif­i­cant. By empow­er­ing nurs­es with knowl­edge and resources, they are ensur­ing that nurs­es, regard­less of their loca­tion or expe­ri­ence lev­el, have the tools they need to make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of their patients.