Abstract

Macmillan Cancer Support and the University of Lincoln entered into a local collaboration, focussing on fundraising and volunteering, research and innovation and shaping the future cancer workforce through education.
Whilst there have been several exciting opportunities for volunteering and research, this presentation focuses on the development, delivery and evaluation of a module around the cancer survivorship agenda and how clinicians were enabled to facilitate this innovation into their practice.
Several meetings were arranged with Macmillan learning and development managers, other members of the Macmillan interprofessional team and service users. The module content was developed to ensure that the clinical needs of the Macmillan workforce were met but also to ensure that it met the criteria for academic studies at the required levels.
Due to the diverse workforce within the charity, the challenge was to develop the module at both degree and masters level to ensure that all staff could expand their knoweldge around the topic and that academic credits gained were useful for future studies and awards. It was clear however, the University needed the module to be financially viable so it became necessary to broaden the scope of the module solely from cancer to include long terms conditions too, thus appealing to a wider range of staff outside the organisation.
It was crucial to Macmillan that the module evaluation considered both the immediate impact of the course to determine how and if the participants have been able to develop the survivorship agenda in their practice following the completion of the module and whether changes were needed for future delivery.
The collaboration has highlighted the challenges of developing a module that meets the needs of third sector charities whilst ensuring that it is viable as a module for the university through its wider appeal to professionals outside of the charity.