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Volunteers’ Week – professional reviewers

4 minute read time.
FormerMember
FormerMember

In this blog, we celebrate our professional reviewers who make a huge contribution to the work we do in our team. We also share the experience of two of our professional reviewers.

This week, you’ve heard from a few of our cancer information development reviewers. Now it’s time to celebrate our professional reviewers. They are health professionals and a range of other experts, from surgeons to oncologists, clinical nurse specialists to haematologists.

We have over 150 booklets about different topics such as cancer types and treatments, as well as a range of fact sheets about things like cancer drugs and rarer cancers. It’s really important that all our information is of the highest quality it can possibly be, and meets the Information Standard (a quality scheme managed by NHS England). And our professional reviewers help us do that.

When we send them information to check, they will look at:

  • its accuracy
  • if it is up to date and in line with current recommendations and guidelines
  • the tone of the information (for example its sensitivity)
  • the weight given to each topic
  • if we have left anything out that they think should be included.

All these things together help to ensure all our information is accurate and up to date and reliable.

We asked one of our professional reviewers Morven Angus, Lead Breast Nurse, why she volunteers as a professional reviewer:

Image shows a quote from Morven which reads: ‘Assisting Macmillan Cancer Support by reviewing their publications is enormously satisfying, as it fosters collaboration between the charity and health professionals to ensure that information is current, up to date, relates directly to what is happening in practice around the country and is evidence based. This means that as those of us working on the front line have confidence in the information and support Macmillan provides. It also ensures that as nurses we are kept us up to date with what is available for our patients and families to support them with and beyond cancer.’

We also spoke to our professional reviewer Jenny Allen. She told us a bit more about her job as Senior Clinical Pharmacist – Oncology/Haematology:

Image shows a quote from Jenny which reads: ‘I qualified as a Pharmacist seven years ago, and have worked in the field of oncology and haematology for around five years in total. I currently work at a District General Hospital in the North East of England. My role is really varied and I find it very rewarding. The majority of my time is spent in the haematology clinic, working across three of our hospital sites. I review patients who are taking oral chemotherapy, prescribe their next cycle of medication, adjust doses when necessary and also provide any supportive medicines they may require. This ensures patients are able to take their treatment and manage any symptoms they may experience, either from their condition or their medication. I also support the five oncology day units we have across the trust, responding to queries about medicines and providing advice to the multidisciplinary team, including the consultants, other pharmacists and nurses.’

She also explained why she decided to get involved as a professional reviewer: 

Image shows a quote from Jenny which reads: ‘I was given the opportunity to review cancer information for Macmillan a few years ago, and decided to get involved. The main reason for this was that I was very aware, from discussions with patients and their relatives, of the value of good-quality, patient-friendly information. Patients often have to absorb a lot of information in a short space of time once a diagnosis of a cancer is made, and the Macmillan leaflets provide a reliable resource to refer back to. I think this is particularly important when an increasing amount of unchecked information is available from sources such as the internet. The information Macmillan supplies aims to cover all the necessary points, and the fact that each leaflet has been reviewed by a number of healthcare professionals provides reassurance that the content of the leaflets is correct, accurate and up to date. Reviewing cancer information for Macmillan enables me to use my knowledge to benefit patients and their relatives, alongside my usual day to day role. I am always really keen to support improving patient’s experience of their cancer and their treatment and by reviewing this information I hope I am contributing towards that in a small way.’

We really appreciate all the hard work our professional reviewers put in to making our information as good as it can be. They are truly amazing individuals, giving up their time when they already have extremely busy and demanding jobs. From all of us here in CID, thank you! 

If you are a professional and would be interested in reviewing for us, please click here and complete the short survey! 

To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.

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