ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the issue of paediatric and adolescent oncology nurse education. It highlights the diversity of paediatric and adolescent oncology nursing, and discusses the extent to which education enables these nurses to be fit for purpose now and in the future. In parallel with medical developments, increasing numbers of nurses have been specialising in the field of paediatric oncology. In 1984, the Paediatric Oncology Nurse Forum was formed, the first subgroup of the Royal College of Nursing. The growth of the sub-specialty of adolescent oncology has been marked by a proliferation of Teenage Cancer Units in the UK and the appointment of medical and nursing staff specialising in this field. The ongoing and vital role of the paediatric oncology ward-based nurse will continue. The clinical skills and communication expertise of these nurses are key at all stages of the patient's treatment, in particular at diagnosis, initial treatment and relapse, and will remain so in the future.
