Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction/Background: Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) patients can have specialist and complex needs and this can be exacerbated when they have PRRT. A new role was envisaged that would utilise a NET Clinical Nurse Specialist to work with both Nuclear Medicine and the NET team for delivering PRRT.

Aims: As part of the wider NET team the aim for the new CNS was to embed outpatient PRRT delivery, increase capacity and delivery of the treatment and maintain or improve the patient experience with the service.

Material and Methods: The new CNS role commenced November 2020. The post is four days per week, two days spent with the NET CNS team and two with the Nuclear Medicine Therapies team encompassing a number of activities. In the days with the NET team clinics and the NET MDT are attended and work up and peri-treatment patient management attended to. In Nuclear Medicine Department, training has been given to allow the CNS to administer PRRT, attend to admin, monitoring and discharge.

Results: A patient experience survey suggests that the patients feel this to be a valuable role with one main contact point for them over the months that they have their treatment. For the NET team it has freed up other members of the team from routinely dealing with matters concerning PRRT. In Nuclear Medicine the CNS has been able to take a lead in the service provision and development, increasing capacity and therapies delivered by identifying suitable patients and refining treatment pathways.

Conclusions: The hybrid NET/Nuclear Medicine CNS was a new role for the Trust and has been instrumental in driving the service forward and providing a link for both patients and staff between the two services. It could be used as an example for other cross service workings. The role has developed so that the CNS has supervised follow up clinic attendances, non-Medical referrer for imaging and plans to obtain Non Medical Prescribing authority.