The Alliance has an established relationship with NHS England's Genomics Education Programme (GEP), formerly known as Health Education England.
Last year, we worked together on three key genomic projects:
- Accelerating genomics integration within North West Nursing
- The TNA project
- Genomic Cardiovascular Risk Factor Nurses
For more information, please click on the links below.
Moving forward we will continue to collaborate with GEP in relation to the development of genomic education and training for healthcare professionals across the North West and England as a whole.
Accelerating genomics integration within North West Nursing: Three Clinical Nurse Specialists are being recruited to manage a ‘train the trainers’ programme of learning: including counselling and consenting techniques and championing genomics within cancer care pathways for the benefit of patients and their families.
The role of our Alliance is to support NHS colleagues to deliver the benefits of genomic medicine as part of routine healthcare across our region. Key enablers are the education, training, and upskilling of professionals across the North West.
We are working in conjunction with Cancer Alliances across our region, to embed genomic testing within solid tumour cancer pathways. The intention is to improve molecular testing pathways and associated turnaround times, ensuring equity of access to genomic services across the region. The Training Needs Analysis (TNA) project supports this by engaging with the workforce to understand current levels of genomic awareness, knowledge, and skills as well as challenges and learning preferences that will enable the effective embedding of genomics in cancer pathways.
Our team of TNA Educators are now in post, and responsible for supporting the workforce in relation to education and development across the North West. A survey has been developed entitled ‘Genomics in Cancer Care’ and is being distributed amongst workforce groups. A link to this can be found here https://bit.ly/3Dh9Bfk
Findings from the survey will be built upon and explored through one-on-one interviews with workforce representatives in instances where respondents opt-in for further engagement.
Outcomes from the TNA will assist in identifying any gaps in current genomics education and training amongst the workforce, and inform recommendations about the development of new educational materials, which in turn would equip the workforce with the appropriate knowledge and skills to mainstream genomics within cancer care.
Genomic Cardiovascular Risk Factor Nurses: This project involves significant information gathering, to inform the project including a population health approach, and active community engagement via the new landscape of integrated care systems (ICSs). Including an understanding of health inequalities across our region, for improved diagnosis and management of inherited cardiovascular conditions.