Macmillan Cancer Support Worker

Job overview

The award-winning Head, Neck, and Thyroid Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist team have a vacancy for a Band 4 Cancer Support Worker. This is a 13-month fixed-term / secondment position, supporting patients across Worthing and St Richard’s Hospital, including those diagnosed with skin cancer at St Richard’s.

We are seeking a highly motivated individual with a passion for improving cancer care in Sussex.

About the Role

The Cancer Support Worker (CSW) will work alongside and under the guidance of Macmillan Nurse Specialists, providing support, advice, and assessment for patients diagnosed with head, neck, thyroid, and skin cancers. Often serving as the first point of contact, the CSW will: ✔ Triage calls and offer initial advice and support ✔ Signpost and refer patients to appropriate services ✔ Help coordinate patient care for a streamlined and efficient service ✔ Support early intervention and health and wellbeing initiatives ✔ Ensure timely and accurate referrals between nurse specialists and allied health professionals

About You

The ideal candidate will have: ✅ Experience in patient care coordination ✅ Excellent communication skills with confidence in providing emotional support ✅ Strong IT and computer skills ✅ Previous experience in a clinical environment (desirable)

If you are passionate about making a difference in cancer care and want to be part of an innovative and supportive team, we would love to hear from you!

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will provide support to patients receiving  their diagnoses, throughout their investigations and their treatment journey. The CSW will be the primary point of contact for our patients and will offer holistic needs assessments and on-going support; they will triage urgent calls and attend  clinics.  A large part of the role involves assisting the Clinical Nurse Specialist team in delivering complex care and support and developing pathways to improve the patient experience.

We are developing our pathways to ensure a smooth transition between partner departments and organisations - the post holder will be integral to taking this forward; experience of service development / improvement would be advantageous.

All posts include an amount of patient tracking / data collection and therefore requires competent use of Microsoft packages, including excel.

The post requires the post holder to collect and analyse data, as well as the creation of graphs and presentations.

There is more information on the role of a cancer support worker at Careers in Cancer | Macmillan Cancer Support or Support-Workers_tcm9-283189.pdf (macmillan.org.uk)

Please read the information above and job description carefully. Use this information to clearly reflect your knowledge  experience in your application.

The role will be based at Worthing Hospital, with travel expected to St Richards Hospital & The Royal Sussex in Brighton.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Cancer Support Worker (CSW) plays a vital role as the first point of contact for patients and carers, frequently triaging their information needs and providing essential support. Our cancer teams work collaboratively to ensure a safe, high-quality, and effective service. This role may also involve working across different disease site teams to deliver holistic care and foster a supportive, multidisciplinary environment.

We are looking for a compassionate and proactive individual with excellent communication skills to work alongside Clinical Nurse Specialists and the wider MDT. The ideal candidate will be dedicated to delivering outstanding patient care, identifying care needs, and contributing to the continuous improvement of patient pathways.

This role requires flexibility to work across Trust sites.

For full details, please refer to the job description and person specification in the advert.