Liz Watt, Lead Nurse
“Teenage Cancer Trust makes a big difference to how young people cope and allows us to make a difficult situation a bit better.”
Liz is a Registered General Nurse and a Registered Sick Children’s Nurse and has a BSc, Masters and PGC in teenage and young adult cancer. She is also a Registered Lecturer Practice Educator.
My role
My role is a new one, funded by Teenage Cancer Trust and the Managed Service Network for Children & Young People with Cancer in Scotland.
The role of a Lead Nurse is to facilitate, plan and support strategic national service change and redesign. As the post is a national one it means that I travel across Scotland to meet the different teams working in both the paediatric and adult settings who are involved in delivering care to young people with cancer. I also have desk time where I work on the strategies which the MSN Teenage and Young Adult work stream and Teenage Cancer Trust plan to deliver.
My favourite part of the role, so far, has to be meeting with the teams and young people in the different parts of Scotland and listening to their thoughts and experiences about teenage and young adult cancer care. The most inspiring aspect of my role is the potential to make real improvement to services for young people and their families, regardless of where they live in Scotland.
Why Teenage Cancer Trust matters
Teenage Cancer Trust enables us to provide services to young people which enhance their experiences. Teenage Cancer Trust creates age appropriate environments, and provides specialist staff and peer support. It has really made a big difference to how young people cope and also supported the staff too, as it allowed us to make a difficult situation a bit better.