New academic partnership launched

Posted Friday 18 June 2010

Sara Lister (left) from the Royal Marsden and Fiona Ross from Kingston and St George’s said the new range of programmes would contribute to improved services for cancer patients The Royal Marsden School of Cancer Nursing and Rehabilitation has marked its new academic partnership with the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences at Kingston University and St George's, University of London.

The partnership gets underway in August with courses, research and other programmes and opportunities for cancer care professionals. Courses and programmes held at the School will be validated by St George's, University of London through its partnership with Kingston University.

Representatives from both organisations marked the official launch of the partnership with an event at The Royal Marsden's Education and Conference Centre in Chelsea, South West London at the end of last month.

Professor Fiona Ross, Dean of Kingston and St George's Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, described the launch as a significant moment, which was the culmination of a lot of work by many people in both organisations. She said: "The essence of successful partnership is building lasting relationships - this comes from the chemistry between people and needs careful nurturing over time. These positive beginnings suggest some real promise for exploiting the potential of both organisations to develop the cancer workforce."

Shelley Dolan, Chief Nurse of the School, a world-renowned centre for cancer education, praised staff at The Royal Marsden who had contributed to the recent successful validation. She said that the new partnership would allow the School to develop its range of educational programmes, which would continue to contribute to improved services for cancer patients.

Sara Lister, Assistant Chief Nurse and Head of School, described the alliance as an exciting development for both organisations. "We see this as an exceptional opportunity to work in partnership to develop the courses within the School and to continue to offer education which supports cancer care professionals in meeting patients' needs," she said.

Two of the faculty's clinical experts, Vari Drennan, Professor of Health Policy and Service Delivery, and Caroline Doolan, a senior lecturer from the School of Radiography, and Dr Lisa Dougherty, Nurse Consultant Intravenous Therapy and Andrew Dimech, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Cancer Critical Care, both from The Royal Marsden, gave an overview of their recent research. The four subject areas were diverse but a common theme was the importance of not just generating and transferring knowledge but the importance of translation in practice to make a difference to patient care.

Kingston and St George's has long-standing links with The Royal Marsden; nursing students undertake placements at the hospital and the two institutions work together on research.

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