Peter Mac Clinical Nurse Educator Trevor Saunders shares his nursing story and explains the new Nursing Professional Practice Model he was instrumental in developing.

Peter Mac Clinical Nurse Educator Trevor Saunders shares his nursing story and explains the new Nursing Professional Practice Model he was instrumental in developing.

Trevor is a long-time cancer nurse who has worked at Peter Mac for many years, but has extensive experience across other hospital settings.

Initially working mainly with patients receiving radiotherapy before working in our Lung, Urology, and Head and Neck units, Trevor was seven years into his career when he decided that cancer nursing was his passion.

Although he wasn’t initially sure what cancer nursing was until he was doing it, Trevor explains, “There was something about the complexity of the disease and the complexity of the interventions. Although I think I fell into it, I stayed.”

Trevor now works in Peter Mac’s Academic Nursing Unit, which offers many education options - from undergraduate to postgraduate - to guide nurses in developing their cancer nursing knowledge and practical skills.

As lead of the Advancing Nurse Practise Committee, Trevor was instrumental in developing Peter Mac’s new Nursing Professional Practice Model.

The model has been designed to help nurses like Trevor plan a career path and advance their knowledge, skills, and attributes – it is an approachable tool that nurses can use to look ahead, no matter where they are in their career.

“We wanted to provide nurses with a road map to help them understand where they are, where they could be and how to get there.” Trevor explains, “And build the cancer nursing workforce to meet the demands of the patients and carers that we see every day.”

“The aim was to revise the previous model to make it more flexible,” says Trevor, emphasising that it can be useful for nurses both at and outside of Peter Mac.

The model sets out the values that underpin nursing care at Peter Mac and the four fields of patient care, leadership, education, and research. Alongside these are the levels of performance that nurses can move through in each field, from novice to expert.

The model was presented at the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia’s 24th Annual Congress in Brisbane in June, where it was met with great interest by the Australian cancer nursing community.

Reflecting on his career so far, Trevor says that his commitment and enthusiasm for cancer nursing springs from his belief, “that it’s about bringing everything together and being true to the aim of being holistic. It’s not just about the technical aspects - it’s learning how to work with people who are facing a really terrible time.”

Asked what has kept him inspired, he explains, “Cancer care and cancer nursing hasn’t stood still, I like that. That and the reality of what you’re doing; looking after patients and carers who are at a really important time in their lives.”