Placement Area Details

Ward 4 cares for male and female patients predominantly with disease of the head and neck, central nervous system or genito-urinary tract.

Patients are admitted to ward 4 for radiotherapy, chemotherapy, symptom control and supportive management of treatment side effects.

Learning opportunities on ward 4 are numerous and include:

• Care of the cancer patient receiving radiotherapy
• Care of the cancer patient receiving chemotherapy
• Care of the patient receiving enteral nutrition
• Care of the patient with a stoma/tracheostomy
• Care of the patient with pain and other disease or treatment related symptoms
• Communication skills

Telephone: 0161 446 3770/1

Ward 4

Ward 10 consists of 28 beds for surgical patients and a placement here will give you a good experience of surgical nursing. The specialities you should encounter during your placement include urology, breast, plastics, gynaecological and colorectal.

Contact

• Telephone No. Ward 10 - 0161 446 3860/3862

rd 11 is a medical and clinical oncology unit with 28 beds, comprising of five bays with four with four beds each and eight side rooms. Patients are admitted for variety of treatments, predominantly chemotherapy (radical and palliative), but also for radiotherapy and symptom control.

There will be many learning opportunities caring for patients undergoing various treatments such as:

• Chemotherapy and minimising side effects
• Support of associated side effects of chemotherapy e.g. infection due to low white cell count, blood and platelet transfusions, nausea and vomiting and dehydration
• Symptom control and palliative care
•  Oncological emergencies e.g. spinal cord compression, neutropenic sepsis, renal failure and hypercalcaemia
• Radiotherapy
• Radiology procedures e.g. RIG insertion, SIRT

Shift Patterns

• Early shift - 07:30 - 15:30
• Late shift: - 13:00 - 21:00
• Night shift: - 20:15 - 07:30

Early and late shift include 5 minute refreshment break and 30 minutes meal break, and night shifts include a one hour break.

Contact

•  Ward Telephone No. - 0161 446 3865/7

Ward 12 is a 28 bed, mixed sex ward. The main specialities include lung, lymphoma, renal and haematology malignancies

The work includes: -

• Care of patients undergoing chemotherapy.
• Care of patients with infections due to low white cell count (neutropenia), the patient with anaemia and thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) all as a result of side effects from chemotherapy.
• Care of patients admitted for symptom control e.g. pain, nausea and vomiting.
• Care of patients admitted with other oncological emergencies e.g. hypercalcaemia, bowel obstruction.
• Palliative care.

The chemotherapy that is given is curative in some instances, but much of the work on the ward is for palliation.

The care delivery system is team nursing - red, green and blue teams. Each team is responsible for 8-10 patients per shift. One member of nursing staff co-ordinates the shift and liases with each team.

Ward 12 is a busy environment but the work is interesting and there is much to learn. We hope that you enjoy your placement on ward 12 and we will do our best to support you during your placement.

• Telephone Number Ward 12: 0161 446 3870/1

The complementary therapy service at The Christie is a flagship service having won national, NHS and local best practice awards.

The team comprises;

• 2 Clinical Lead Therapists (Christie Trust funded)
• 20 self employed therapists
• 15 volunteer therapists
• 1 events organiser

The focus of our work is to provide treatments for patients to help improve wellbeing, and assist with alleviating treatment related symptoms, concerns and side-effects, which we do in liaison with the multi-disciplinary teams throughout the hospital. Additionally, the team provide smoking cessation support, educational courses and are conducting research work on acupuncture, aromatherapy, massage, relaxation techniques and hypnotherapy.

Contacts

• Drs Peter Mackereth & Jacqui Stringer - Clinical Leads
• tel. no. 0161 446 8236/3524
• Fax 0161 446 8151
• Email: Peter.Mackereth@christie.nhs.uk or
• Email:  Jacqui.Stringer@christie.nhs.uk

The new purpose built Critical Care Unit was opened in December 2006 to replace the old 4 bed high dependency unit that was based on ward 10. This 10 bed unit cares for patients that are undergoing medical and surgical treatments for cancer and that require close monitoring. The entrance to the unit is via the main, Oak Road entrance. The unit also provides overnight stay rooms for families and training and meeting rooms for staff.

• Telephone number Critical care unit 0161 446 3481

The HTU provides facilities for both in-patients and outpatients. Patients undergo specialised treatments for a wide variety of haematological diseases, with some patients undergoing bone marrow transplants or peripheral stem cell transplants. There is an outpatient area where leucophoresis takes place.

The HTU is an 18 bed unit - all single rooms including 6 isolation rooms.

The patients on the unit are at risk of infection so certain precautions have to be taken :

• Visiting is limited to reduce the risk of infection
• Staff wear into theatre uniform before entering patient areas
• Hand washing and a change of apron before entering a patients room is vital
• Patients have a "clean diet" (see ward hostess for further information)
• If you have a cold/flu or any type of infection, avoid patient contact, otherwise you will put patients at risk
• Hepatitis B high risk area

The multi-disciplinary grand round takes place on the HTU on a Tuesday morning. Named nursing is practised on the HTU. Patients are usually given two named nurses, as this enables the continuity of patient care.

• Telephone number HTU: 0161 446 3925

The Medical Assessment Unit cares for any unplanned or SOS admission with any oncology disease group. It has 21 beds and a triage room. Patients should not stay on the unit for more than 36 hours.

• Tel: 0161 446 7208/3008

Day Services are continually developing. This has been brought about by the large increase in day case treatments for cancer, particularly those undergoing chemotherapy. This can be in the form of investigations prior to the treatment, having chemotherapy itself, treatment for the side effects of the chemotherapy and follow up care.

Day services includes: Outpatients, Derek Crowther Unit, Nurse clinicians, Endocrine department, Ward 5 and the Chemotherapy Suite. Outpatients and Ward 5 will act as hub placements for Branch students and the other areas will be 'spoke' placements. Students will have the opportunity to follow disease orientated placement weeks, working with research nurses, nurse clinicians, nurse specialists and chemotherapy nurses.

The outpatient department is extremely busy. Patients attend for appointments, whether it is for chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. Newly diagnosed patients will attend, but also patients who are being reviewed between their treatments or many years after their treatments have been completed.

There is a phlebotomy room within the department as most patients have blood taken prior to seeing the doctor. Blood count results are very important, especially if the patients are to receive chemotherapy. There is also a dental suite, which enables patients to be treated for any dental problems they may encounter during or after chemotherapy.

Team nursing is practised in the Outpatient department, therefore student's will be assigned to a team of nurses, headed by a senior staff nurse. You will be allocated a mentor on arrival to the department.

Shift Times

• 0800 - 1700
• 0830 - 1700

We undertake minor surgical, endoscopy procedures and pain relief management; often patients require local and general anaesthetics and occasionally sedation. This is an extremely efficient and effective department, staff establishment of 8, inclusive of 5 mentors. We cater for a wide variety of patients who need treatment which can be carried out within the same day.

Number of beds

We are a small Unit with one procedure room and two bays. In bay 1 we have 4 theatre trolleys, 1 bed and 4 reclining relaxation chairs. In bay 2 we have 3 theatre trolleys, 1 bed and 4 reclining relaxation chairs.

Discharge Lounge

We encourage the patients to relax within the discharge lounge where they are offered light refreshments prior to their discharge.

Five Surgical Theatres and one Radiotherapy Theatre. Each Surgical Theatre is a separate functioning unit comprising of: an anaesthetic room, operating room, clean preparation room, scrub up area, sluice and a hatch to the dirty corridor.

The Radiotherapy theatre is situated on a separate site within the hospital and theatre staff work between the two areas

Learning opportunities within the Theatre department are numerous due to the fact that the work is so specialised. Student nurses are allocated a mentor from the scrub side or from the anaesthetic and recovery side, but will have the opportunity of working in all areas within Theatres. Students will work daily with their allocated mentor who will support them through the different phases of care.

Specific Learning Opportunities:

• Care of patients pre-, peri- and post-operatively
• Care of patients receiving anaesthesia
• Working within a multidisciplinary team
• Care of the unconscious patient
• Patient advocacy
•  A closer look at anatomy and physiology related to cancer patients
• Opportunity to practice clinical skills e.g. catheterisation
• Checking drugs and learning injection technique
• Understanding asepsis
• Opportunity to see different types of surgery e.g. plastics, gynaecology, breast, colorectal, and urology
• Opportunity to see specialised surgery such as Robotic and Hipec

Shift Times:

• Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm (maybe later until 9:30pm dependent on lists)
• Saturday 8am - 5:30pm

 Contact:

Theatres Telephone No: 0161 446 4134/387

The YOU cares for young people ages 0-24 and their families. Patients receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy and can be admitted for symptom control and neutropenic support. There are 13 beds on the unit and a special room is dedicated to MIBG and radioactive iodine treatment. The YOU also have a music room. The YOU have Nurse-Led Day Services, for children having radiotherapy as outpatients, and teenagers and young adults who do not need to stay in hospital overnight.

We also have based on the YOU:

• Clic Sargent social workers
• Paediatric and TYA community liaison nurses
• A youth support coordinator
• A play specialist and paediatric support coordinator
• An occupational therapist
• Complimentary therapists
• Art and music therapists