BCI, Royal Marsden Cancer Charity Holds Cancer Care Training For Nurses

As parts of its efforts in the fighting cancer in Ghana, Peace and Love Hospitals (PLH) in collaboration with Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, UK, has organized one-week cancer care training for nurses at the Peace and Love Hospital (PLH) at Oduom, Kumasi.

The programme dubbed “Foundation in Care Course”, according to the organizers, is aimed at professionally equipping the nurses who are referred to as the “page of the hospital”, with the needed skills in cancer control, both in theory and practice.

The programme was held on Monday, September 9, 2019, at the premises of Peace and Love Hospital (PLH) in Kumasi, with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PLH, Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, and Prof. Theresah Wiseman, a researcher at the Royal Marsden NHS, Foundation Trust, UK and Ms. Sheilla Small, a Cancer Nurse lecturer, in UK, representing.

In her welcome address, Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, who is also the President of Breast Care International (BCI), said the selected nurses after the training, with their acquired knowledge in the cancer care which involves prevention, diagnose, treatment and rehabilitation, will give a systematic training to the nurses at the rural communities to help them attend to cancer cases.

“Nurses play an important role in the treatment of cancer, they are the first point of call to patients so they need the skills and knowledge in the handling of patients who are diagnosed with cancer. There should be a professional way of psyching the patients, including their family members, to understand their situation and the treatments ahead of them,” she explained.

“Cancer treatment centers are not found in rural communities which is making it very difficult in the treatment of the disease which is high among women. Nurses at the health facilities in these areas do not have the professional knowledge in handling cancer case so those undergoing cancer care training will be equipped enough to train the rural nurses in the treatment of cancer cases,” she added.

Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, who is the President-elect for the Africa Organization for Research and training in Cancer (AORTIC) believed that the collaboration with the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, UK, in the training will go a long way in the fight against cancer in Ghana as more nurses, both urban and rural areas, will be equipped professionally in cancer care treatment.

Prof. Theresah Wiseman, who was a facilitator at the training, said the primary focus of the programme was to teach the nurses to care for the patients with cancer in Ghana; to understand the needs of the patients so there will be more of such trainings.

“Caring for cancer patients is critical in the treatment of the disease so such trainings must be done to make the patients change their attitudes towards the disease. More of such trainings will be held, not only at the Peace and Love Hospitals, but at other health facilities to expand the programme,” she stated.

Recommending Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, who is also the Board Chair to the Ghana Cancer Board, in her selfless effort in cancer treatment, she said “we have been expressed with the work done in PLH, in terms of patients’ involvement in coping with control attitude in cancer. In UK we do not have as connected as assistance with patients as done PLH, so that’s somewhere we are learning a lot from PLH.”