Background: As part of the Australian Cancer Nursing and Navigation Program, the McGrath Foundation has begun funding specialist cancer nurse roles to support people with any type of cancer. This presentation will explore the barriers and facilitators to setting up new McGrath Cancer Care Nurse (MCCN) services.
Methods: New MCCNs commence an onboarding pathway which supports the establishment of their service along with training and educational needs. The onboarding covers establishing the MCCN role and building the knowledge, skills and confidence to ensure safe practice. McGrath Foundation Nurse Clinical Leads (NCLs) also provide professional mentoring to support the new nurses’ service planning and development. Barriers and facilitators to service development were documented prospectively.
Impact on practice: 33 MCCNs have commenced in non-breast cancer positions, across all states and territories since November 2024 as at 06/06/2025. Thirteen of these MCCN roles are multi-tumour stream focussed, with the remaining 20 roles specialising in a single tumour stream. The MCCNs have progressed through the onboarding pathway and demonstrated evidence of role implementation in variable timeframes, dependent on identified facilitators and barriers.
Discussion: Significant learnings around establishment of MCCN roles include that services with existing specialist cancer nursing roles integrate the MCCN role more easily, and MCCN service mapping, including establishing connections with other cancer NGOs, is valuable to all stakeholders. MCCNs caring for multi-tumour streams who are part-time or based outside metropolitan areas encountered greater barriers to establishing their service in comparison with full time, metropolitan, single tumour stream focussed MCCNs. The support provided by the NCL is invaluable in guiding MCCNs to establish their service. These lessons learnt are informing iterative amendments to the McGrath Foundation onboarding pathway to support nurses encountering barriers to service establishment.