In line with National Nurses Week, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) announced the development of a new series of Certification for Nursing Education (CNE) training modules which will be created by experts from Boston College’s William F. Connell School of Nursing. Oncology nurses are essential to the administration of new cancer therapies. They are at the front line when it comes to patient needs, which means they need to be prepared for unique patient challenges and raise the standard of care when they bring new and effective treatments from the research laboratory to the patient.

Stand Up To Cancer is at the forefront of immunoncology research and an essential part of their bringing cutting-edge therapies to patients is effective dissemination of information about the treatments. This is where oncology nurses play an essential role, and the new modules being developed by Boston College will provide a toolkit for patient care to the nurses who help implement new treatments.

The new series will include three web-based SU2C-Boston College Immunotherapy CNE modules, the first of which will be available to nurses in July 2016, with the other two following later in the summer and fall 2016. The three modules will address specific challenges of providing care for cancer patients receiving immunotherapy. These challenges include education on immunology and related pathophysiology, symptom management, and nursing interventions to reduce symptom distress and promote wellness. The first CNE round in July will train 25 oncology nurses working in immunotherapy and each module will provide 3.5-5 contact hours from the Boston College School of Nursing.

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Once the web-based CNE modules are available, nurses everywhere will have the opportunity to learn cutting edge information about specialized cancer treatment modalities. Immunotherapy is a new and rapidly growing area in cancer treatment research. It is a treatment that harnesses the body’s own immune system to attack cancers using either a checkpoint inhibitor or adoptive cell transfer which involves taking the patient’s own immune cells to the lab to make them into efficient cancer killing “armies” before returning them to the patient.

New immunotherapy drugs are continuing to emerge and they are showing great promise for treating a broad range of hard-to-treat cancers. The role of oncology nurses is expanding as immunotherapy treatments become a critical component of care for many cancer patients, which is why SU2C-Boston College is devoted to providing CNE curriculum to oncology nurses, giving them practical, evidence-based tools to better support and care for their patients undergoing immunotherapy.

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