Clinical Nurse Specialists

Watch our Clinical Nurse Specialists video here

During your diagnosis and treatment within the Edinburgh Cancer Centre you will meet lots of different health care professionals. One member of the team who will be closely involved in your care throughout your cancer journey will be the Clinical Nurse Specialist(CNS).

The Clinical Nurse Specialist is an experienced registered nurse with advanced specialist knowledge and education in cancer and cancer treatments. They act as a point of contact for you and the people close to you and can provide emotional support, clinical expertise, and specialist advice on cancer treatment and any symptoms that you may have.

You will initially meet the Clinical Nurse Specialist when you come to see the Consultant at the time of your diagnosis. They will then become more involved with managing your symptoms and side effects of treatments once your cancer treatments has started. This is because they are highly skilled and can assess your needs and make treatment recommendations. This will  be carried out in their own clinics or over the phone with you whilst you are at home.

A diagnosis of cancer can be life- changing for you and the people close to you. The Clinical Nurse Specialists role is to be there to listen to you and help support you and your family and to find out what matters to you. They will help you to make sense of a large amount of unfamiliar information and support you with the decisions you make around your care. To ensure your health care needs are met, the Clinical Nurse Specialist will work closely with other health care professionals in the hospital as well as the community such as GPs, district nurses and dieticians.

Our aim is to provide high quality individualised patient centred care during and after your cancer treatments.